hamilton

it was a night of stars for us ...

first, a quick bite at kung fu little steam buns ramen, around the corner from my office, was surprisingly authentic and tasty! and in the middle of times square!

then the main highlight of the evening: hamilton, originally an off-off-broadway show whose performances were accelerated from the public theatre to the richard rodgers theatre on broadway! book, music, and lyrics all by lin-manuel miranda. the theatre's interiors were absolutely gorgeous, as it was recently renovated last year as explained to us by the usher. the theatre's seating left much to be desired however haha! there was about 3-4 inches of space for legroom between the edge of our seats to the back of the seats in front of us.

the amazing performances by the cast of hamilton made it all worth it however. i had read many reviews by this point about hamilton, but none of the articles prepared me for what was to come! great music, lyrics, and vignettes of revolutionary war history to a hiphop beat :)

rach 3 concerto w/daniil trifinov

per jess's request, i'm doing a little catch-up in here :)

it was chilly last night when we met up (in the 30s!) at totto ramen east side for some taiwan paitan ramen! perfect for this time of year.

then we scurried over to the upper west side for daniil trifonov's performance of rachmaninov's concerto no 3 the with nyphilharmonic performance. i'd never heard of daniil prior to the nyphil email which reached my inbox a couple months ago. but after some research, learned about the young virtuoso's first place at the 2011 international tchaikovsky competition and obsessed over some of his youtube performances. we were seated in the orchestra section, though far back left corner where the acoustics weren't great. his performance felt a little muted in the beginning - not nearly as expressive as his previous performances that i'd grown accustom to listening to, but it's possible it was due to our seats and the acoustics in the room.

things i noticed ... how calm he appeared, shoulders loose with a relaxed composure (at least initially before things got rowdy). his perfect form and technique as his fingers struck the keys. his relatively small hands, which one would not expect in such a technically difficult rach concerto. how inspired i felt ... though with slight regret. back in hs, i had practiced a beethoven concerto for quite some time and practiced with an orchestral soundtrack (on CD), though i never took it seriously enough to actually win a competition, which could afford me the opportunity to perform with a live orchestra. how i regret not trying a little harder ...

in any case, it's amazing to see a single pianist take on an entire orchestra!

fuchsia dunlop's mapo tofu

tonight we made mapo tofu, a spicy sichuan dish, based on fuchsia dunlop's recipe. she is our go-to for sichuan recipes :) here it is:

 

serves 4

vegetable oil
1 pound firm tofu cut into cubes
6 ounces ground pork
2 garlic cloves minced
2 leeks thinly sliced
2.5 tablespoons chili bean paste
1 tablespoon black beans
2 teaspoons szechuan peppercorns, pounded into a powder
1 cup chicken stock (or water)
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch dissolved in some water
1 scallion diced
salt to taste

1. soak the cubes of tofu in some salted hot water.
2. while the tofu soaks, pour the oil into a deep skillet or wok over high heat. stir fry the pork. turn the heat down a bit and throw in the garlic and leeks. when it starts to smell delicious, add in the chili bean paste, black beans, and sichuan pepper. stir the mixture some, and let the flavors meld.
3. pour in the stock.
4. drain the tofu and pour it in ... carefully as not to break up the cubes. use the back of your ladle to move the pieces around gently.
5. add the sugar, soy sauce, and salt (if needed). let the mixture simmer some more (~5 mins).
6. now put in the cornstarch mixture, but bit by bit. you may not need all of it. the sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of your ladle.
7. serve while its still hot, fresh off the burners, with some white rice, garnished with scallions and a bit more szechuan pepper powder...if you dare.

baby orangutan & foster mother

i saw the cutest photo in the wsj today and had to share it!

"keju, a seven-month-old bornean orangutan, hangs on the shoulders of her new foster mother, madu, a 32-year-old sumatran orangutan at zoo atlanta." -erik s. lesser/european pressphoto agency

pretty amazing to see the closeness shared between a baby orangutan and her foster mother!

spaghetti a la bottarga

i walked in the door absolutely worn and weary today and i smelled the delicious aroma of beef broth. kevin had returned a little early from his trip upstate and spent the afternoon making beef stock, lentil and kale soup, and was putting the finishing touches on his spaghetti alla bottarga. we love bottarga !!!

i went straight to the couch to decompress for a little bit, and eventually found myself poking around at the stovetop, stirring the soup and watching a chef at work! the pasta was awesome ... and the bottarga was plentiful :D it was a pretty spectacular way to end a long tiring day - thank you, hubbs!

woolworth building

the woolworth building, the world's tallest building designed by cass gilbert for 17 years, has been an object of interest and mystery for me for a long time, so when i learned about the 60-minute guided woolworth tour, we jumped at the opportunity.

the building's design incorporates design elements from many different periods - classical, neoclassical, gothic, and more . the ornately decorated vaulted ceilings are stunning here.

its friday friday friday !!!!!

what a long tiring week -_-;; 

i've been experimenting with different routes (okay, there are really only two routes, but i've been checking out all the establishments along the way!) from the apt to the 23rd street e station during my morning commute, and treated myself to the seasonal apple cinnamon cake donut this morning! it was ... sooooo much better than i expected! next time, the pumpkin ...

and a simple soboro-don at ootoya for dinner :) sooo simple and tasty !!!

hudson river foliage

the highlight of our day was house hunting in hudson! house hunting may be an aggressive description, more like dream house hunting? kevin woke up feeling ill (i think i gave him what i had...), so we meandered around warren street, checking out the saturday morning farmer's market where we picked up the illustrious, yet elusive chocolate croissant from the bonfiglio & bread stand, and a coffee down the road at a new spot, or gallery & tavern. armed with my croissant, coffee, and pb bagel, we caught a ride to our favorite area, mount merino, in search of a little country home.

we did not find anything little about the first house, but we were greeted by the most gorgeous and protected views of the hudson foliage. the price tag and the five bedrooms seemed, however, excessive. a half mile walk down the mountain brought us to the next place, which was on the river, but had been lived in by the original owner who passed in her old age not too long ago. it was a complete mess and too much work to fix up. i think i'm done with remodels for a little while at least :)

we grabbed a quick dinner by the lodge at food studio, where kevin ordered a soothing chicken broth ramen, which i ate most of, and i ordered a salad from the appetizer section of the menu. it turned out to be 1 lb of sauteed pea shoots (LOL). needless to say, we ate what we could, and retreated back to our room early to watch ... the METS METS METS! they lost 3-5 ...

we're back in hudson!

this afternoon, we left work a little early and hopped on the 3:15pm amtrak from penn station and enjoyed a lovely two hour ride along the hudson river. we arrived in hudson by half past five, before i would have normally gotten off work.

we walked from the train station to our lovely lodging for the weekend, the rivertown lodge, a recently renovated former lodge and prior to that, former movie theatre. the lodge was impeccably decorated, with a mid-century and industrial feel.

dinner at swoon kitchenbar, of course, was our first stop ~ followed by a vanilla malt milkshake to-go from grazin. afterwards, we watched the mets win their first and the third game of the world series 9-3!

totto ramen

tonight was my first time trying totto ramen (east side) location!

i have to admit, i was a bit surprised initially because they were chicken broth ramens, but it was soo tasty (and just light enough for me). we shared the taiwan rice (not pictured -- soooooo good), eggplant appetizer, grilled saba, taiwan paitan ramen with a side of corn, and spicy paitan ramen.

butternut squash

it's the time of year again for root vegetables, citrus fruits, and more! we made a simple, healthy butternut squash soup tonight. the ingredients are simple: a butternut squash, a medium onion, 4 cups of chicken broth, nutmeg, and black pepper and salt to taste.

2 sisters isabella gouda

i was craving some NUTTY cheese and kevin surprised me with an assortment from murray's! 2 sisters isabella is my all-time FAVORITE gouda and im giving the other two a try as well :) the gouda is the nuttiest though!

boston mtgs

... mean that i get to hang out with my sis, jess !!! :) here we are sharing a slice of paul's delicious rhubarb custard tart, a hot chocolate, and a cafe creme!

larb for two

first homemade meal in a few weeks tonight :) yep, we like our larb chock full of herbs, but there is some meat in there!

tgif

TGIF ... our first week back was a little startling each morning as the alarm sounded. pretty busy at work this week, given it's my new analyst's second to last week before moving to the west coast, so we didn't skip a beat at work and i worked till past 6pm today. yuck.

cats and dogs were raining sideways when i was walking out of the office, but luckily i was walking just 50 meters to the nearest ootoya where kevin had saved us two seats at the bar. it's been a while since we've been here - thinking back, not since august for yuan's birthday! for dinner, we shared a beautiful grilled sanma mackerel and the buta kimchi nabe. it was perfect on the cold, windy, wet night!

 

the search for general tso

i don't know about other asians, but general tso's chicken was never prepared in our household (or any other asian households i went to), but always served in the chinese restaurants we would go to.

through the years, i noticed different configurations of the name of this dish, named "general tso's chicken", "general chao's chicken", "general tsao's chicken". one began to wonder, is this a real chinese dish? and is general tso a fabled character created for marketing purposes?

tonight we learned the truth behind general tso's chicken, including a lot of interesting history on the proliferation of chinese restaurants through even the most remote parts of the US in the 1920s. and we learned that general tso is in fact a real general from hunan province in china, though the dish was created originally in taiwan and then brought to nyc.

a short fun documentary - totally worth the watch!

gastropod

kevin drove around 1500 miles during our two weeks in new zealand and often times, we did not have access to radio or internet. how to pass the time, other than me reading descriptions of our cities of interest from our various guidebooks and literature? we listened to hours of gastropod!

gastropod, introduced to me by my cousin, kristy, is an awesome bimonthly podcast in which co-hosts, cynthia graber and nicola twilley, discuss the history and science behind a food or farming related topic. one lives in brooklyn and the other in boston, and together they put together very interesting and witty 20-40 minute podcasts with the help of scientists and restauranteurs, and more. 

they are all really comprehensive and interesting, but to give you an idea of some of the topics, some of our favorites have been:

• the bitter truth, september 22
• the united states of chinese food, august 25
• the scoop on ice cream, july 22
• crunch, crackle, & pop, july 14
• savor flavor, april 21
• no scrubs: breeding a better bull, february 17
• breakfast of champions, january 20
• the microbe revolution, november 11
• dan barber's quest for flavor, october 14

i just saw that the latest episode has been posted! what an incredible topic - the good, the bad, the cilantro - can't wait to listen to this one!

happy 2 years

happy 2 years to my amazing husband and partner in crime! looking forward to another fun-filled year :)

back in nyc

after a two week hiatus (i will be back with updates once we've had a chance to sort through our collections of +2000 photos :p), we're back! we landed in JFK late last night and managed to keep ourselves quite busy today to fight the jetlag.


in the am, a quick 13.1 mile race at central park (just over two loops) and then a short jog home.

in the afternoon, coffee and snacks at dominique ansel bakery with yvonne and her sister, natasha, in town from taipei. best croque monsieur i've ever had and cute step seating inside!

in the evening, we had dinner with relatives in town from australia at pastai. fei liu, sitting next to kevin, is my grandfather's oldest brother's grandson. our grandparents fought on different sides during the chinese civil war; while the party my grandpa was part of retreated to taiwan after the war, his grandpa remained in hunan, china. it was insightful and quite amazing to be able to meet these relatives and learn a little bit about my grandpa's life in hunan.

ALMOST THERE :D

with the lazy summer days coming to an end, the last few weeks have been long and tiring at the office. most of my day is spent training my new analyst, cooper, which is exhausting, but hopefully will pay off in the coming months as he gets more proficient with the day-to-day responsibilities. yay.

just gotta stay focused -- in just over 24 hours, we will be on our flight air NZ on our way to auckland via san fran! i wish our plane were the one below tho :p

 i hope we will see all these sheep ... bahhh ...

yoga + spicy dinner

one day of work left and then we're off to NZ! :) starting to feel excited ...

tonight we met on the bryant park lawn for our final evening of outdoor vinyasa yoga, but this time, our party size was five! actually it was supposed to be nine, but a few were not able to join and one friend could not find us on the lawn. kevin doesn't look too happy in this photo, but he is smiling inside :D

it was a difficult class for me because we did some strength training (box workout) at the gym and my groin muscles were seriously burning. the weather was truly amazing though ~ cool with a slight breeze. can't believe it's our final outdoor yoga class! it symbolizes the end of summer and warm weather in a way ...

we rewarded ourselves with a spicy sichuan dinner at wu liang ye a few blocks north. everyone has been traveling and doing so much this summer, it was really nice to catch up. the meal was so so delicious thanks to our knowledgeable friends, claire, yvonne, christine, and christen, for ordering!

rip lehman brothers

today marks the 7th anniversary of the lehman brother holdings chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. i can't believe it's already been seven years! it was a pretty tumultuous time for me and many people i knew, and a day that would change my life forever (and empty out my 401k as well).

thinking back ...

• 7 years ago (2008), i was living and working for lehman brothers in tokyo. my friend, carrie, was staying with me for the week and i felt extremely lucky to have a close friend with me during those tumultuous times. it was also right around the time i met billy and emily, two of my closest friends in japan!
• 6 years ago (2009), i was back in new york city working for nomura securities and getting ready to launch the us index product. our offices were down in the world financial center, which is nowhere as nice as brookfield place is now, but i had a corner seat on the 22nd floor and views of the water. it was a bit distracting to say the least :)
• 5 years ago (2010), rose and i were planning our trip to colombia (october 2010)! as recent friends who did yoga together 2-3 times a week (i miss it ...), we decided to take a weeklong trip together to bogota and cartagena.
• 4 years ago (2011), jordan, forest, and i biked the new york century bike tour. that's +100 miles on the bike through almost all the boroughs (less staten island). it was brutal .. for jordan and forest especially because i was out-of-shape and riding a hybrid. somehow we are still pretty good friends :)
• 3 years ago (2012), kevin and i completed the new jersey gran fondo! well, we biked the first half together, and separated when i opted to do the piccolo fondo (42.6 miles) and kev opted for the medio fondo (62.7 miles). the following weekend, liz and tom, close friends from tokyo, came to visit and stayed with me for a weekend. the following weekend, kevin's younger brother, eric, came to visit and i met him for the first time. i remember it was like +100F all weekend (aka nasty). it was a busy month!
• 2 years ago (2013), we were in chicago celebrating the marriage of our friends, doshi and bijal. it was both of our first times attending an indian wedding (farm animal included, of course) and my first time wearing a sari! it was just a few weeks before our own wedding at the central park boathouse.
• 1 year ago (2014), we were preparing to move out of our union square apartment around this time. i was busy checking up on the renovation at the loft and attending weekly meetings with the architect and contractor. on top of back to back meetings that day, we had dinner at bobby flay's then recently-opened gato with friends. over the weekend, kevin did his second 70.3 half ironman down in princeton, nj. it was a pretty hot and humid day, and the bike and run course was really nothing to brag about, and he did really well :)

war movies

ever since we caught enemy at the gates on tv last month, we [i've] been on a war movie marathon. i'm realizing how little i know about america's history (or world history for that matter, and i'm out to learn as much as i can about our history, our mistakes, our success stories, chinooks, black hawks, little birds, rpgs, and more.

for the last few weekends:

• enemy at the gates
  
• hurt locker
• saving private ryan
• black hawk down

also recently watched:

• lone survivor
• zero dark thirty
• american sniper
• unbroken

and here's our must watch list ... got any others to add to this list?

• full metal jacket
• the thin red line
• behind enemy lines
• schindler's list
• inglorious bastards
• fury
• platoon

runner's diet

it's been some time since we've cooked (weeks?), but tonight we whipped up a simple and tasty nutritious meal for dinner.

dinner menu

black and golden quinoa

wild-caught salmon with lemon herb

sautéed organic kale

roasted russet potatoes with garlic

here's our long-ish run that we got in this morning. we were aiming for 13, but came in at 10 (oops). got a bit of a late start and both of us were feeling pretty winded. we'll have to make it up next week!

we met meb & trackjenny!

after our long run in the morning, we picked up a water bottle for me at the new balance store and a takeaway lunch at maison kayser, and headed over to central park where the nyrr fifth ave mile was taking place. it's a fun annual race which begins at the met and ends at grand army plaza. the course is entirely straight, though with a small incline in the first half and small downhill in the latter half.

we caught the end of the achilles runs, the amateur champs, and then, the elites! in the men's elite, nick willis from nz took first in 3:53 (for the third time) and in the women's elite, jenny simpson, from the us took first in 4:29 (for the fourth time)! the women's race was very tight up until the last 150m when jenny's kick and stride outpaced the second-place finisher.

after the race, we met briefly with meb, winner of the 2014 boston marathon, and i got a chance to meet my running inspiration, trackjenny! i think kev and i were both a little starstruck!

childhood friends

my childhood friend of 20 years, janice, is moving out west!

with her little bundle of joy and thriving career at mgh, janice has been really busy the last couple years, but i am always amazed at how she makes time to catch up with me one-on-one each time before she moves. today i also had a chance to see her mom, brother, and little one, jordan at their hotel! 

it felt so natural and comfortable, probably because that's how we used to hang out in holmdel too. and jordan was really sweet to me, giving me chips, peaches, and grabbing my hand to play cars with him. *melting*

yanks - bluejays

according to kevin, the toronto blue jays and ny yankees are neck and neck on the road to the mlb playoffs! apparently the blue jays are leading by a 1/2 game. this meant very little to me.

so when my friend and client, creighton, reached out to me this morning about going to the bluejays-yankees game tonight, it was a no brainer. we managed 

to get seats in section 116, which is behind the yankees dugout, and found ourselves sitting two rows behind alain vigneault, head coach of the new york rangers! between hits, fans lined up to take photos and congratulate vigneault on the rangers' 2015 stanley cup.

the game was pretty exciting, with the bluejays kicking off the first inning with three runs right off the bat. sadly, the yankees didn't have much of a chance ... they lagged by 3-5 runs for the majority of the game and when we left after the seventh inning stretch, they were down 6 runs (11-5), and that was also the final score. i guess the yanks have even more weight on their shoulders now to win their upcoming games!

the first photo below is lucas hoarding our waters :)

girl crush

i have a girl crush and i'm not afraid to admit it!

her name is jenny simpson and she is an 8-time track & field champion recordholder in the 1500m, as well as olympic gold medalist in the 2012 london olympics 1500m, and silver medalist in the 2013 world championships 1500m.

most recently, jenny competed in the iaaf world championships in beijing china where she was expected to take the gold or silver in the 1500m. in second place with 700 meters to go when another runner clipped the back of her sneaker and eventually she had to kick it off. she finished in 11th place with just one sneaker on and one bloody foot, and if you check out her interview, man, how modest and graceful she is about the whole thing. in addition to being an amazing runner, she has a warm, kind spirit as well.

today jenny ran the 1500m in the diamond league championships in brussels, and i managed to watch it in real-time at work! she did not podium this time, but it was a great race nevertheless. and i'm looking forward to seeing her run and possibly meeting her on sunday at the nyrr fifth ave mile! WOOHOO!

busy as a bee

so i haven't mentioned it yet, but i finally hired an analyst to join my team so i've been pretty busy training him up the past few weeks (hence the delayed posts). not to mention, i've also been spending my free time planning our upcoming trip to NZ.

it's going to be a little quiet ... but will be back soon :)

oddball comedy fest

happy labor day weekend!

we kicked off the long weekend with a longish run and a ride down to holmdel with daisy to have some good ole shanghai bun and watch the oddball comedy fest. the headline acts were amy schumer and aziz ansari! i hadn't seen any of aziz's stuff before, but loved some of amy's recent stuff:

we placed a large order at the local taco bell (finally! someone else who loves taco bell as much as me!) and made our way over to the show. initially before we entered the venue, we got worried that we wouldn't be able to bring food in, so here daisy and kevin are transferring the goods into a clear plastic bag in the middle of the parking lot jersey-style. when we got inside, we popped a squat on the lawn and enjoyed three hours of comedy.

the comedians included: jeff ross, todd barry, jay pharaoah, michael che, jim norton, anthony jeselnik, nick kroll, amy schumer, and aziz ansari! a couple of them were not my "style" so much, but for the most part, they were excellent haha! my favorites were aziz ansari, michael che, anthony jeselnik, and todd barry.

happy friday!

it's been a long week, possibly the first full five day week that I've worked in a while. in addition, it's been tiring training my new analyst, but it should pay off ... i hope!

i saw these guys on my way home. it's closing time for everyone! happy friday and labor day weekend!

happy hour

last thursday after our outdoor yoga class, kevin and i stopped by the starbright floral design for their 6-8pm happy hour! this shop is bright, spacious, and well-maintained. their assortment of plants are always in great condition when we pass by, and i'd been into their shop a few times, but always when on my way out. 

i had been eyeing one of their rubber plants for our garden. tonight we brought the little guy home, and picked up a cactus as well, and both for half off (woot woot)! in the pic below, they are recently reported and basking in the eastern and southern light. please don't grow up too fast!