a cool, early autumn-like day today (or this whole week, i guess), and we happened to be in manhattan. so we decided to head over to menkuitei for their elusive (only because we never make it) lunch special, and alas, we had just missed it by 15 minutes.

we still ordered our favorite cold noodle dishes - cold jar jar men & hiyashi chuka. 

the middle & bottom photos are those of the dishes all tossed and mixed up.

then for dinner, m cooked up this amazing bean stew/chili - full of so many delicious veggies!

celery, carrots, onions (mirepoix), garlic, pink beans, turkey sausages, potatoes, kale, tomatoes and corn. it felt sooooo good to eat home cooked real food after too many days of eating out (it'd been too hot to cook). i can't wait to dig into this tomorrow again!