another lethargic muggy afternoon (though much much cooler) spent in the cool, a/c'ed cafe 232, we were lost as to what to eat for dinner. so we stumbled downstairs to their korean restaurant, and ordered something slightly different... kimbap, tangsoo (sweet & sour sauce) fried dumplings, and jolmyun.

this combination was surprisingly yummy and filling for 2! also summery and refreshing.

mmm~ jolmyun~!

sweet cara had us over for a light brunch meal of lemon zest pancakes!

we brought some fruit salad to go along with it (albeit accidentally, but perfect), and all these yummy condiments to go with the roasted fingerling potatoes. the pancakes were so delicious!!

 then after biking down all the way along the east river greenway from midtown to chinatown, we soon got hungry again. we went to shanghai café deluxe for our good ol' xlb's (soup dumplings), squid with pickled veggies over rice, and something new to us, baby bok choy with garlic. something must've been in the air in their kitchen, because they were all amazing and we weren't too full or sick of the flavors at all until the end.

after searching for some shaved ice, we only ended up with these red bean & ice cream drink and tiramisu at cutting board, a new-ish restaurant i'd been keeping my eye out on for their yoshoku-like japanese influenced menu (uni pasta, ton-katsu, hamburg steak, etc). we were too full by now, and weren't able to actually finish these things. yikes, what's become of me!!

seems like we haven't had much appetite or inspiration for food lately... but since the weather was a bit nicer, and we felt like something slightly lighter after yesterday's foodfest, we sat out in the backyard for some sammiches at pillow. i always get the garden bagel (top), but today i wanted egg salad somehow so badly. m & i shared halves and they were both delicious. their egg salad was excellent, since they didn't mash all the ingredients, and left them kind of layered unlike traditional egg salad.

very satisfying!

 after a long afternoon of standing in line at the moma for the rain room installation in hot, muggy weather, i biked down to k-town to meet up with m for some good lunch. we went to cho dang gol, our favorite korean place in the city, although we wanted to try something different than our usual choices (tofu soup & kong biji usually). this time, we ordered a meal for two - seafood tofu jeongol (huge stew). 

the "seafood" part was mostly blue crab, some clam, shrimp and squid, along with their house made tofu. it was so delicious and amazing, the crab making the maeuntang-like broth even tastier with extra depth of flavors - all cooked right in front of our eyes. 

their banchan is also so reminiscent of homemade, korean mom's cooking - we had 2 rounds!

then after walking around with our overly stuffed bellies, we ended up at tous les jours for some much needed patbingsoo fix for me. i got the fruit bingsoo, and it was huuuuge. i wish i could remember how the one from paris baguette was, but it's been too long to remember and compare... but tous les jours will always win for korean pastries/desserts since it's much less depressing to sit inside.

thank god for our bike ride home, otherwise we'd have felt like whales all day!

all out of ideas for food on another muggy, hot day, we decided to go somewhere new.

we tried nice pizza (i'm sure it's this nice, seeing all their provençal style food), but for sandwiches and salad, since we didn't feel much like pizza today. we got a pan bagnat, croque monsieur, and a prosciutto/mozzarella salad. it turned out to be a lot of food, even for our hungry tummies, but we still managed to finish everything! seemed like we didn't need the salad, since the sandwiches came with some. i was especially into the croque monsieur - light on béchamel, great bread, just all yummy.

it was a depressingly hot & humid day today, and after spending the whole afternoon at cafe 232's upstairs cafe to cool off, we just crawled downstairs for dinner, uninspired.

luckily i thought it was a good time to try something new, so i got jajang myun and m got the good ol' bibimbap so we could eat some veggies. 

the jajangmyun wasn't anything special and didn't taste authentically korean-chinese, but it was yummy in its own special way - pretty good, although now i want some real version.

it was a pretty warm/hot day, but we still rode our bikes around the tarnation. so much fun after sitting around for a week in atl. after running a cat-errand at trader joe's, we stopped by and got some vermicelli salad with grilled pork along with 2 of our favorite banh mi's at hancos - classic and grilled chicken. somehow the banh mi's felt more stuffed than at the park slope location we've been going to, but less delicious there at the original location. 

we had some yummy van leeuwen mint chip ice cream after but i was too busy stuffing my face to photograph it.

first meal back home to nyc from atl was at café 232 - it was very mediocre this time.

m got tofu maeuntang, but it came out more like a mixture of maeuntang and denjang jigae.

the bibimbap was good, as always.

{ Atlanta Trip }

we were in atlanta for a few days to spend time with my dad-in-law (while my mom-in-law was out of town doing this amazing 500-mile walk across spain for 1.5 months).

i forgot to take lots of photos but a couple memorable meals - above is from heirloom market bbq, a super obscure, tucked-away joint next to a liquor store by the freeway, but with a loooong line out the door during rush hours. we got there a bit late, and were able to sit down and share korean style spicy pork bbq sandwich with kimchi coleslaw, chicken wings (with korean sauce), shredded pork sandwich, and a brisket sandwich. all of these came with a side, including baked beans, collard greens, coleslaw, and brunswick stew. i have to say their regular bbq sandwiches were so so but the sauced ones seemed really good. good bottled hot sauces on the table as well.

then m's brother cooked this last brunch for us - french toast, 2 ways - one with challah bread and another with baguette. with fruits and spicy sausage, i couldn't stop eating. the ex-chef sure knows how to cook! :)

i feel like we've been back to ash box one more time after this last post on it over a year ago, but it really had been a long time. although it's really clean simple good food, we were wondering if it was actually worth all the trouble of getting up there on our bikes through the williamsburg waterfront condo madness, etc (and sudden storm shower today) - but that said, our food was good. we got our usuals, salami sandwich and tofu salad with salmon onigiri. not as filling (we got pizza after haha) but still really delicious.

dinner at café 232 - somehow everything was very spicy and salty today, though still yummy.

we normally don't order denjang jigae, since i tend to make it at home, and i've never seen one so red before. the squid stir fry (ojinguh bokum) was good but also very spicy.

one of the most incredible meals we've ever had - we met up with our old (long time, not granny) friend kana at ootoya for their lunch teishoku (set meal). we've been on cheap/janky food rotation for so long that it felt extremely luxurious and almost opulent to be in there upon arriving. 

but when the food came, each little dish blew our minds. k got a hokke teishoku, me a saba (mackerel) teishoku, and m tried a set menu of rice bowl. teishoku's came with rice, miso soup, chawanmushi, a few veggie side dishes. m's rice bowl was chicken soboro-don, which is ground chicken in seasoning with poached egg on rice - and this set also came with zaru soba (apparently house-made!!!) and all the other side dishes including the chawanmushi.

now, we've had teishokus that look similar to this in the past. but we all agreed they took it to another level here - our rice we ordered was hijiki (seaweed) with brown rice. it was seasoned with something aamzing that i could've been just happy eating a huge bowl of this as a meal. it was so good.

the chawanmushi here was super custardy and topped with a bit of umeboshi, it was just simply amazing. the fish were grilled to perfection, not having dripped out a single drop of its own natural juiciness. we were full after this huge meal but not unpleasantly so. just perfect!

then after saying goodbye to k, we walked down to our bikes in east village, and stopped for some dessert at just sweet, a very strange and stark looking bubble tea house of sorts. we have been there once last year for patbingsoo, and although i'd much rather have been eating this on 32nd street, well, this was right in front of our eyes. we ordered the large patbingsoo and a boba milk tea - neither wasn't anything to write home about but it hit the spot for us, especially worth it at 50% off price (happy hour?).

caught in the torrential shower on our bike ride home from a doctor's appointment, we stopped over (though it was still on our plan) midway and ducked into tom's restaurant for breakfast.

we've been meaning to try this place for the longest time, just kept missing our window since they close early and we tend to eat later than most people. it was nice and cozy, old school inside - m got 2x2x2 (2 over-easy eggs, sausages, and pancake), and i got the danish pancake (lemon ricotta with blueberries) with a side of bacon. although the best pancake i've ever tried (and the first stack i've ever been able to finish) was back in portland, this was still pretty dang good. sausages were delicious as well - a delicious little break before heading out and getting drenched to the bones on our way home.

i don't think it's pride week in nyc yet but since it's a month of celebration they had signs up everywhere! i love me some rainbow, so i got this huge slice of buttercream rainbow cake at naidre's.

unfortunately it wasn't as pretty in taste as it looked. :/

gratuitous shot of the view from the navy yard, before the red hook crit bike race.

what a beautiful night.

m's super specialty as of late - my favorite!

kale, spinach, beans, ginger & tomatoes with some veggie grain sausage.

so delicious on a piece of toast! the beans were so creamy, even as a leftover.