most american-thai places are never mind-blowing, but thai cafe was decidedly mediocre with their food.
fishcake with sweet chili sauce, green papaya salad, and tilapia with vegetables.
all just so-so.

the sunset tonight was amazing though!

chocolate croissant at champion is damn good for $1!

ran out of chances to eat our csa veggies so they got turned into amazing salsa.
tomatoes, sweet corn, turnips, onions, bell peppers, cucumber, jalapeño, etc all from csa,
then store bought lime & cilantro.
maybe i'll make pasta salad out of this later. :)

rainy day is a good day for noodles!
pho & shrimp bún at pho bang, and matthew had another meal right after,
an eel bowl at tearrific bubble tea house.
shared black sesame bubble tea & japanese cheesecake.
(japanese because it seems light & fluffy and maybe steamed not baked??)

dinner at hiroko's place, after not having been there in a while.
don't know if our taste buds changed but i remember it to be way better.
hamburger steak was said to be so so and my veggie curry was a little too soupy.
so sad!

fried egg toast mid-painting with smoked provologne and grilled onion,
with italian parsley on top.
a little bit of butter to toast the bread (after cooking other ingredients) makes
all the difference!

craving korean food, went for a late, late dinner at dokebi.
didn't veer away too much from our favorites there - mushroom bibimbap & kimchi stew.

wilted bokchoy & soba salad - all the veggies from this week's csa share!

surprisingly good dinner at bliss (surprising because i didn't have much expectation).
veggie burger with a great salad, and "bliss bowl" veggies & brown rice with grilled tempeh.
so green and yummy.

dinner at mrs kim's (formerly river barrel).
we opted out of korean-ish dishes and went for cheese burger & tuna steak special.
my tuna was huge and excellently cooked but maybe my taste has gotten blander,
it was too saucy for me.
it was really well made and well cooked, even to the salad.

csa zucchini/onion/pepper pasta with tomatoes.
yummy~ ♥

a late rainy sunday brunch at le gamin.
so nice and relaxing after an exhausting steamy 60-mile bike ride the day before.
croque madame was delicious, despite being a bit heavy on the béchamel,
and my omelette (mushroom, tomato, swiss) was good too.
the best were the extras - potatoes & their magic mustard.

not sure if it's actually as good as it was last night,
but the mushroom taco plate (and the enchiladas not pictured)
at pequeña in prospect heights was so amazing.

maybe it had something to do with riding our bikes for 5-6 hours in 99ºF heat to far rockaway
and being completely drained of energy, but it was really, really incredibly delicious.

lunch at ashbox - teriyaki pork sandwich & my salmon onigiri with tofu salad.

CSA salad with soba noodles.
the dressing (soy sauce, lemon, rice vinegar, karashi mustard, sriracha) was ace!

the rule of thumb of having really bad food the previous day is that we have to eat something that we know for sure is clean and yummy.
so boneshakers it was today, without fail, it was so good.
"rebel cruiser" (vegan southern bbq sandwich) & "kevin bacon" (tempeh bacon/roasted pepper/tofu cream cheese).
so good!!

late night run to m noodles hoping for something... delicious.
instead we were met with very subpar food. i should've known better,
i know i don't like ho fun, but this one in particular was really gross & greasy.
matthew got his beef & bok choy over rice dish (just so so, he says),
and my ho fun with tomato (which is what got me) and tofu (which was fried too).

cold noodles at dokebi on another hot, steamy (and rainy) evening.
zaru soba & kimchi cold noodle soup.
soba was cooked perfectly and tasted different (but amazing) than those at regular japanese joints,
and the kimchi noodles were good & cooling, but a little too sweet for our taste.
overall they were so good but not really sure if i'd pay the price again when i make similar dishes at home...

we don't eat thai food all that often and it seems that when we do,
we almost always end up with the same things...
green papaya salad, tom yum kung, and red tofu curry.
i'll try something different next time!

then dessert crêpe and a bowlful of café au lait at le gamin.
we don't normally go for crêpes but i'm glad we did.
the nutella/strawberry/banana crêpe was crispy, light, not too sweet or soggy.
crispy!! that almost never happens with any crêpes.

baoguette for early dinner.
nice shrimp & green papaya salad, fish bún, and matthew's "sloppy bao" bahn mi (with mango).
everything was good except i realized why they never use fish in búns.
they fall apart and disintegrate into soupy mush. yuck!
next time i'll definitely go for the grilled crack shrimp version at pho bang.
or the veguette (vegan bahn mi) if i'm at baoguette again.

simple summery (on a rainy day!) dinner tonight clearing our last week's CSA veggies :
soba noodles with sauteed squash, smoked tofu, scallions, onion, carrots, tomatoes.
seasoned with some chili flakes, s&p, shoyu, balsamic vinegar. simple!

super core $5.75 lunch special : mabo tofu set & the meatball set.

wasabi avocado salad over brown rice lunch at ash box - much more delicious than i thought!

cold noodles at rai rai ken on a hot, muggy day.
kimchi, kirin, hiyashi chukamen, and zha jiang men.

noodles were cooked a little softer than i'd like, but it was a nice change from our usual menkuitei trip.

dinner at paulie gee's when the heat was starting to wilt a bit (kind of) after the heat wave.
now 85ºF feels breezy!

arugula & parmesan pizza, and fiore di latte/tomato/basil pizza.
soooooo good!

+ remembering you, paul. ♥