sweet julia silently stopped by without our knowledge and left this peanut stew with quinoa on our stoop for us. soooo amazingly sweet, we were so touched. and i didn't know there could be anything like stew made with peanuts, but dang it was so good!! thank you again, julia!!

m's yummy fry-up, courtesy of trader joe's ingredients (tj's and we have become fast friends since the baby). just perfect, one of our all time favorites.

delicious smoked clam pasta m made for us tonight - it was really amazing!
garlicky, slightly spicy with chili flakes, briny smoky flavor of clams, capers, just the perfect balance.
mmmmm~

m made this simple kimchi and tofu dish, with rice and seaweed, after several days of eating bready stuff. so simple but hits the spot every time!

so i had a baby a couple days ago, a mere couple hours before the official due date - it was a very nice homebirth, but i didn't feel like eating at all during the whole process. so we ended up with a lot of frozen food we'd stocked up - but today our friend julia came by and dropped off this homemade coconut chickpea curry with papadoms, which was nice to have. such sweet friends we have!

delicious ramen on an unusually warm/humid fall evening with audrey at menkuitei.

all of us could've gone for their cold noodles but they stopped serving them after the summer - first time this has happened in the 10 years we've been going there!

m got a mabo-don, audrey the roasted pork ramen and i got my usual shoyu ramen.

we got to hang out eating some choco-pie at m2m after when another friend came to meet us - gotta stock up on this before the baby comes! (due in 2 days!)

it's been a LOOOONG time (over 5 years) since we've last eaten at moïm (and that was the only time, i believe). brooklyn has come a long way since those days when we had to either trek into the city or find small places hidden away like this but since we were in the vicinity, we decided to finally give it a try. (plus café 232 has been upping their prices without much upping their game, so we thought this would be a worthy splurge.) we got our old favorite, the dak gui chicken dish (dish of the same idea/name here from café 232) as well as a seafood dolsot bibimbap. the chicken was saucier than we remember it, but dang it was soooo well cooked. perfectly tender with super crispy skin. all the jujube's and herbs flavored the sauce with layers and it was just so tasty to eat. the bibimbap was a bit too soupy (instead of crisped on the stone bowl) so it was more like a paella than bibimbap but still had great flavors. besides the weird, odd-mannered staff, it was all in all a really good meal!

sometimes you need diner breakfast food for dinner. pancakes & sausages, corned beef hash w/ over easy eggs & grits, copious amount of coffee at mike's.

these two dishes at cammareri café never disappoints - bbq sandwich and mac & cheese.

the first couple times had the sandwich, it had greens in it as well, and we didn't even notice that today's didn't have any until afterwards since it was still really tasty. i do miss having greens with it though.

the mac & cheese was still delicious, never too heavy or too cheesy. sometimes their roux tends to be a bit too grainy but i can get past it. very satisfying and cheap dinner.

after a loooong walk back home from south slope, we ended up randomly at joy indian restaurant, which we haven't been to in years. somehow i was in the mood for indian food since a couple days ago, and it was a lucky stumble that i hadn't thought of at the time. we ordered chicken tikka masala (theirs is so good) and a bindi bajhee (okra dish), with a side of cheese naan. somehow the two main dishes we got were such a good match - well-balanced flavors, texture, and even the color! so delicious, i was beyond full.

maybe because we also stopped at cousin john's bakery on the way up there while we took a little break with this huge eclair. we got two but one was enough for both of us as a pre-dinner dessert. good pâte à choux, good chocolate, and great custard cream. mmmm~~

last night, m made this huge pot of delicious lentil & vegetable stew - chock full of yummy delicious things, like kale, okra, corn, peas, baby broccoli, chicken sausage, with the mirepoix trio (celery, carrots, onions) in beef stock as well. i had a bowl as a midnight snack last night and again for dinner tonight. it was so so hearty and yummy, topped with fresh tomatoes and parsley. i had a side of grilled chicken breast strips m got me from trader joe's as i must've been craving lots of protein today. soooo good!

went back to il porto for their delicious pizza we'd tried last time. this time, we weren't nearly hungry,

so we got their rugola e parmigiano (arugula, parmesan and portobello mushrooms) salad, and got a large (18") seafood pizza. holy crap was it large - i barely ate 3 slices and i was over-the-top full. clams, mussels, octopus, calamari, with tomato, basil over simple marinara sauce, with drizzles of bouillabaisse, it's just so so good!!! although getting a large (good call, m -_-;; ) was definitely not necessary. we were both way too full for way too long!

it's been a while since we've eaten burgers at clinton park café, mostly because they have been closing so early (6pm) and we rarely feel like eating burgers for lunch (or breakfast, for that matter). somehow we caught them open past 6 or even 7pm, so we decided to go in for a bite. i got my usual veggie burger with sweet potato fries, and m got his usual as well - medium-rare mushroom swiss burger with fries. i'm never sure if they make their own patties for veggie burgers (i'd be surprised either way), but it's always so green and vegetable-y with peas and corn. makes me so happy! and the sweet potato fries were just crispy and well cooked, i ate them all up and didn't even feel that bad. :D

post-midwifery appointment meal at hanco's (=late lunch). we hadn't been here in a while, and luckily it wasn't too bad today. classic banh mi and pork vermicelli salad, as usual.