everything else from home

Leaving one home for another home is always weird. One the one hand it's like, ugh, back to real life, whatever that means. But it's also nice returning to my actual life because when I'm at home, I sometimes feel like I'm still in high school...which can be kind of fun when you're having all your meals paid for or cooked for you. Or when you're going to the mall 3 times a week. Yup. So in no particular order, some things I ate at home:

Duck confit salad from Cafe Campagne in Post Alley

My mom got this but I ate most of her duck liver toast. Because I'm an only child and I can do selfish things like that.

Tuna Nicoise also from Cafe Campagne
One of my favorite salads. I like the combination of really simple almost bland flavors and then getting blasted with a little bit of saltiness to make it all come together. Olive tapenade on toast was a good idea.


Pho from Phoenix Restaurant (maybe? maybe off highway 99 or that road that goes by Food Emporium on the east side, what street is that? I don't know where anything is anymore)
I can't find good pho in New York. Am I not looking in the right places? I swear every bowl I've had is just "ok" and lukewarm. I need to find a good bowl here because it's the perfect winter meal. The broth always feels so full even though it's very thin, maybe because of all the meat getting cooked under the pile of noodles. I always like to add tons of basil to it too.

Oh I made roast beef. It was so easy.

Hmm, these are Korean short ribs that my mom made for me before I left. They were SO good, I have no idea how she made them. There are dates and chestnuts and radishes involved. That much I know. It's sticky and sweet and nutty and so soft, it kinda falls right off the bone. My aunt also made a ton of kimchi and sent it over from Korea (I knooooww). I could eat those two things together forever.

Also, I'm never going back to Taco Bell. I felt like death later that evening and then developed some sort of awful stomach bug for a few days and lost like 6 lbs. Of course, I gained that all back as soon as I stepped foot on New York soil. Like I just inhaled and it all came back. I missed it. It's cold.