last day of summer

summer has, as usual, flown by, and i find myself wondering (again) where has the time gone?

with a two-weeker coming up in the end of september when we will be flying to the other side of the world, we had a low key summer and took a couple local getaways to hudson, the hudson valley, north fork (girls trip!), seattle & vancouver, and boston.

we wound down the final day of summer with our good friend, daisy. after a few weeks hiatus, i "cooked" for the first time. a nice way to close out summer ...  

a weekend in boston!

exactly one year from our last visit together, kevin and i are visiting boston again this weekend and staying with jess & ben in their new pad in south end. i've never spent much time in boston outside of client meetings, and have never been able to keep the different neighborhoods straight (south end, south boston, south side?), but looking forward to checking out their new home and neighborhood, and meeting our newest family member, princess.

we started the night off with thin-crust pizza pies and homemade ice cream at picco in south end, a nice 5-10 minute stroll from their place. jess and ben swear by their pizza and ice cream, so we had the alsatian, which has sauteed onions, shallots, garlic, creme fraiche, bacon, and gruyere (also the most popular item on the menu), and the corn and bacon pie with pickled chilies, ricotta salata, and cilantro. the first had a french flair and the latter had latin-inspired flavors. both delicious! we rounded out the meal with a roasted cauliflower gordita and summer salad, and two scoops of ice cream: dark chocolate and mint chip. 

both the ice creams were nicely churned and the flavors were very intense! i was asked to choose a favorite, but couldn't ... i like to double dip :p

after dinner, we took a nice stroll through some more parts of south end and back bay. it was a gorgeous night for a stroll ... except i stuffed myself with a little too much pizza and threw up slightly into a plant on tremont ave. LOL.

 

outdoor yoga together

following a short 4.6 mile run this morning on the west side highway before work, kevin joined me for bryant park's outdoor vinyasa yoga class this evening. the instructor this evening was stefane eris, the U.S. head trainer at exhale spa, and she was awesome.

the weather was cool out somehow and there was a nice breeze, and the sun was already starting to set in the west. stefanie's pace and spirituality was easy enough for us beginners to follow.

after the class, we found ourselves calm and relaxed, and even walking at a slower pace. it's amazing that in the middle of this hectic city, just a block from the madness in times square and across the street from my maniacal office, we can actually find peace and forget our surroundings. just a few more classes left - sad!

 

is everyone hanging out without me?

prompted by my friend, elyse, who loves mindy, i breezed through my first book written by a comedian and enjoyed every moment of it! is everyone hanging out without me (and other concerns) is a knee-slapping memoir which provides a bit of insight on mindy kaling as herself, not the emotionally-crazed-self-narcissist kelly kapoor from the office. it was the perfect read after a couple of serious narratives set during world war ii and in the 1800's midwest. 

the crazy part is while reading mindy's memoir, there were many time when i would nod my head and agree, that's exactly how i think about the situation too. in the end, i think i've determined that we have the same emotional IQ (if such a thing exists).

i think i'm going to try tina fey's bossypants next :)

holidays booked

we just booked our winter holiday travel!!! we are heading west to the moab desert and spending a few days in la on our way back. if anyone's traveled to or got tips on these places, please let me know!

who needs a trainer

when you're married to one?

today my groin muscles were KILLING me (thanks to three sets of box steps on sunday), but kevin wanted to get a little workout in so we headed over to the gym after work for what i thought was supposed to be light stretching.

what actually happened:

• a mile on the indoor track (8-8:30 mile pace)
• 300m of leg fitness exercises and a lot of smack talking from me
• plank, superman, crunches (36), bridge, left side plank, right side plank, a good dose of nonsense from me (60 seconds each, two sets)
• a whole lot of foam rolling and moaning

it actually got a lot of the soreness out of my legs, but i wasn't sure if i would be able to make it home afterwards. i complain, but in the end i'm grateful for a PT as dedicated and willing to put up with my antics as kev :) THANK YOU!

happy birthday, dais!

tonight we celebrated the birthday of my close friend, daisy, at cosme, one of the top 50 new restaurants in the US per bon apetit! it was such a fun festive night as all the girls arrived in quite snazzy attire, and the restaurant ambiance was cool and collected. the furnishings were chic and stylish, the restaurant space was cavernous with spotlights, and the tables were grand and spacious. the birthday girl was in a really cute jumper, han in a sleek red sheath dress, rose in an edgy black sleeveless top and army green pants, and me in my latest sandro acquisition. the boys didn't look so bad themselves either!

the cocktails were quite nice, and this is coming from a person who doesn't typically enjoy cocktails. i loved my telenovela, which was made of kappa pisco, suze, st germaine, lime, and achiote bitters. it was light and sweet, a nice complement to the richness in the dishes. for our meal, we shared everything: sliced raw hamachi with green almond kosho, fish sauce, and black limes; cobia al pastor with pineapple puree and cilantro; enfrijolada with ricotta, hoja santa, creme fraiche, and onion; soft-shell crab with pea-pian, squash, and pea shoots; and i think everyone's hands down favorite, the duck carnitas with onions, radishes, and salsa verde (pic below). i have to say the soft-shell crab was a close second :)

seaglass carousel

a seaglass carousel of fiberglass fish rides opened in battery park city this week! we decided to take the little ones to visit the romance of the ride. 

there are fish of all type - angelfish, butterflyfish, lionfish, fighting fish, and triggerfish, all created in luminescent colors and shades accompanied by operatic classical remixes. one of the unique features of this carousel is that there is no center pole seen in most traditional carousels, so that the under the sea experience is truly a seamless one. the fish rotate in multiple ways - up and down as well as in rotations based on three smaller turntables under the carousel, evoking similarities to the swim patterns of the actual fish.

it was a fun ride overall, for kids and adults! and below is a photo of my friends, elyse and susan, with their daughter, estella and kaira, respectively. we were having a mini-celebration for estella's three year old birthday, and she has demonstrated below how she applies her sunblock by herself :)

fuku

after a run in the morning and running errands around the city all afternoon on citibikes, a dinner at cafe mogador in the east village was highly-anticipated. we arrived around 7:30pm and were told there was a 20-25 minute wait. my hunger pangs were acting up and so i suggested one of david chang's new creations, the fried chicken sandwich at fuku.

too greedy.

the thing was ginormous! there were two pieces of perfectly fried chicken and a few pickle slices tucked into (though completely sticking out of from both sides) a small bun. minutes later when we finished, we realized there was no more room for our originally planned dinner. picked up the cereal milk soft serve and called it a night!

and here is the easy run we went out for in the morning. we totally beat the sunrise so my stress levels were low :)

pastai

i think we've found our latest go-to spot in the neighborhood on ninth ave: pastai! all their pasta is homemade, the variety of pasta dishes are extensive and delicious, and the service/ambience is quiet and low key. we walked in without a reservation at 6pm and were seated at a table for three immediately.

kevin had dined there the night before (yes, and he suggested it again for the next night) and eyed one of the specials: spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, pancetta, onions, and burrata. saied arrived a quarter after six, and we shared the pasta with braised short ribs and shrimp risotto, and three antipasti with a few glasses of wine. after doing some math, we realized that it had been more than four months since the last time we hung out! and we live just 10-15 blocks away ... which is ridiculous.

we heard from a friend that their brunch is quite good too, so will have to try that sometime!

outdoor yoga: p2

there are so many amazing things to do in nyc, and some of them are good for you and free! you just have to watch out for them :)

tonight the weather cooled down a bit and by 6pm, it was quite nice out with a slight breeze. i changed at the office and walked across the street for my second outdoor yoga class at bryant park (my office is the green building in the background). our instructor this evening, dan nevins, was a former seargeant in the us army and deployed to balad, iraq in 2004. nine months into his deployment, an explosive detonated beneath the vehicle he was riding in and he suffered traumatic brain injuries, as well as the ultimate amputation of both legs following +30 surgeries. he now serves as the director at the wounded warrior project, a yoga instructor, and a living inspiration for all of us.

and btw, it was one of the most vigorous yoga classes i have ever taken! looking forward to the next class and another fun instructor.

hot humid hell run

trying to build off some of the momentum from running in vancouver in seattle, we went out for a short run on the west side highway today. it was hot, humid, and hellish though, so we cut it short at 3.7 miles.

really need to take it up a notch this weekend and start getting some real mileage in if we're going to be in shape for the ny marathon on november 1st!

soba totto lunch setto

japanese food is known to be relatively expensive compared to other cuisines, however, in japan, lunchtime is a totally different story. special lunch sets, which usually include an appetizer, entree, and side dish, are often offered for just Y800-1300 (the equivalent to $6.50-10.50 based on current rate). in ny, there are a few places with these lunch set specials too. soba totto has an amazing bara chirashi setto, only for the first 20 customers beginning at 11:30am. for $10, you get a large size bowl of diced sashimi (tuna, salmon, mackerel, shrimp, eel, sea urchin, and flying fish roe) over sushi rice, soba, and salad.
 
after a red-eye flight back from the west coast and a morning of vinyasa yoga at bryant park, yvonne, claire, and i hurried over to soba totto for chirashi. it seemed like there were just over twenty people in line ahead of us, but i think we got lucky as not all of them ordered the bara chirashi set. we were able to get in three orders and were pleasantly surprised by the generous portions of sashimi! it was all super delicious and light feeling.

three very happy (though one sick and two jetlagged) girls ~ a nice way to start off the week :)

boeing tour

this morning, although we aimed to arrive 45 minutes early to our reserved boeing: future of flight tour (per the website's instructions), jen and i ended up arriving just in time. it can be a little confusing when you enter the boeing campus and my SIL and i were so caught up in conversation that we missed two exits on the way over :p kevin and his parents, in a separate car, arrived right on time.

after arrival, you need to put all your personal belongings into a locker since there are no purses, bags, backpacks, phones, or cameras allowed on the tour. then the fun begins! after a short video introduction on the history of boeing (had no idea boeing was dismantled by FDR's anti-trust regulators), we were led onto a AC'd coach bus to begin our tour of the boeing campus, and visited two hangars to see where the boeing 737, 777, and 787 jets were built. 

it was quite extraordinary, to learn about the process and see the planes being built in parts. it would have been even cooler if we could have walked down into the plant and check out the planes close-up as they were being built, however, i can see why they have to keep tourists away from the jets which cost upwards of $200 million each.

one of the most interesting things we learned was how the planes are "picked up". pilots from customer airlines arrive to the boeing campus, test out their new planes in the airspace above the campus, and fly off with the product just like we walk out of the supermarket with groceries! haha makes sense i guess.

below is a little seahawks pride!

  

we checked out a new route near weowna park heading west on the lake-to-lake trail! it was largely shaded, which was nice, and the surface was mostly trail, which is easier on the knees. passed by a nice blueberry farm!

damn the weather

back in seattle, we managed to sneak away for a little one-on-one time in pioneer square. psq has really started to take shape, with cute little restaurants and bars, coffee shops, and boutiques popping up in the historic neighborhood. it feels like there are new places to explore and discover with each visit.

we were deciding between three new spots we'd yet to try: the london plane, bar sajor, and damn the weather. we decided to try DTW for drinks and small eats as it recently made bon apetit's list of top 50 new restaurants in america. 

we shared everything - a pear cider from france, puget sound oysters, fries with curry aoli, peach salad with pistachios and vinaigarette, cornichons, and roast beef with english dip. the last was kevin's favorite (not pictured) hahah ... very tasty, but a little on the heavy side for me. we will definitely be returning to try the rest of the items on the menu!

lululemon seawheeze

the 2015 lululemon seawheeze half marathon finally arrived today!

our pre-race nutrition consisted of a half of a banana and a cup of coffee, and we were off to the race start! arriving later than we should have to the 7am start, we were stuck in a slower corral, and spent the first 4-5 miles of the race getting around runners. we were going at a slower pace, but expending unnecessary energy to get to a comfortable place within the other 7,639 runners. 

the weather was great - cool and cloudy (SERIOUSLY somebody up there loves me), with an unfortunate dose of humidity. the clouds proved to be somewhat of a nuisance in the beginning, however, making it difficult for my garmin 10 to get gps until the start of kilometer 7.

the race course was really nice, and we were able to explore different parts of downtown vancouver and cross over a couple bridges, before entering my favorite part of vancouver: stanley park. kevin and i have run along the seawall several times during our first trip out here together in 2012, but always in the counterclockwise direction. it was pretty darn amazing to run with thousands of other happy, motivated runners in the clockwise direction this time, and a great way to finish the race.

most notably for us during this race was the positive energy and enthusiasm of the runners and the enormous crowds! lululemon organized costumed cheering squads basically every mile or so, so our mental energies were boosted by the sight of heavily made-up and scantily dressed transvestites on one of the early hills, the entire cast of the wizard of oz and someone in a full-shark costume at the end of a bridge turnaround, goofy scientists in lab coats, cartoon raccoons jumping around, poseidon-like mermen on stand-up paddle boards, a live-jazz band on a barge in the pacific ocean, mermaids perched on rocks, and more!

here is the seawheeze 2015 recap video! i don't think we made it into their video, but it gives you an idea of the fun events they planned for the weekend. i really hope we can do it again!

post-race, we rewarded ourselves with fresh oysters, manhattan clam chowder, and dungeness crab at rodney's oyster house in yaletown. sadly the weather has been unusually warm in bc so the government of CA has banned the sale of west coast oysters (raw), so we feasted on their cousins from nova scotia, pei, and other parts of eastern canada.

in the afternoon, we got a VIP insiders tour of the capilano suspension bridge park with the family. the capilano suspension bridge is a 460 ft long suspension bridge 230 ft high in north vancouver which was originally built in the late 1800s and rebuilt several times in the 1900s. in the park, you can walk across the main suspension bridge, and also across many more suspension bridges connected by treetops. in addition, there are forests of cedars and evergreens, guided nature tours, and an aviary where you can get up close and personal with a few of the birds native to bc. basically it's a toddler-child's heaven.

in the photo below, i have a smile on my face, but if you panned in on my body, you'd see that i was holding tightly onto the suspension bridge and cringing in fear of slipping off the bridge!

one of the must-do's on our trip was revisit the richmond night market! it's located in the suburbs of richmond, which is where you can get the best asian, especially chinese/hk food, basically the flushing of vancouver. there are hundreds of stands with all types of asian snacks - savory and sweet. my favorite snacks sold at the market are the 鹽酥雞 (taiwanese popcorn chicken), a mango-coconut milk-almond tofu dessert, and of course, ROTATO.

large taiwanese deep-fried breaded chicken = happy husband!

vancouver

the weekend is finally here and we are back in the pacific northwest for a long weekend with family and a little run. 

because i had to work late on thursday, we had to catch the latest flight out of nyc which was the 9:00pm jetblue flight arriving into seatac around 12:30am. it was one of THE MOST MISERABLE FLIGHTS of our lives i think. seated a couple rows in front of a set of babies and a quite indifferent mother who clearly had already lost her mind and hearing, we were an audience for the two wailing babies for almost the entire six hours of the flight. not a great start to the trip at this point.

thankfully it was a quick 20 min drive to the in-law's place and we were in bed around 1am pacific time (or 4am ny time). honestly, i think we were both starting to feel like it was time to get up on the east coast. in the morning, we woke up and surprised liam, who had just celebrated his fourth birthday earlier in the week, with his massive museum break-in lego set and spy gear walkie-talkies!

by the time everyone was up and we loaded up the van (five adults + 1 child), it was about 10-11am, and we were off! the drive up from bellevue to canada was quite nice! jen drove the entire way, making just a couple stops for coffee and breaks, and it took us 15-20 minutes to get through the US border. 

liam was in high spirits as he was learning how to use his walk-talkies with uncle kevin. there was a whole lot of "10-4", "over", and "roger that". and an exponential amount of  "uncle kevin uncle kevin uncle kevin" - we all had a lot of good laughs.

for lunch, we had a really delicious dimsum meal at hereon chinese restaurant in surrey with kevin's auntie, where we had the MOST DELICIOUS & FRESH 流沙包 (liu sha bao), which directly translates to "quick sand buns". it's actually a bun filled with a molten hot custard and it's a bit sweet and savory - i'm not sure if i want to learn to make this because i would like to continue eating it :)

after lunch, kevin and i took the bus to the rapid transit rail finally to arrive at our hotel in vancouver. the transit time from white rock was about 65 minutes total, not bad, and way quicker than driving through the friday summer traffic. and we were upgraded to a deluxe executive suite - woohoo! we bundled up, as it was quite cool that day, and went to the convention center to check out the lululemon seawheeze events and pick up our race numbers. 

there was all sorts of goodness going on at the convention center, including lululemon tattoo-ing, haircuts and a nail salon, a juice bar, a giant orange rubber duckie, and more! i oggled at all the discounted lululemon clothing, further discounted by the strong usd, but held back from making any impromptu purchases. that would come later.

for dinner, we walked along the shops on robson street and feasted on ramen at kintaro ramen. my friend, christine, had been raving about their cheese ramen, which is apparently "loved by the ladies" haha. there was a slab of butter on it which you can no longer see in the photo below because i pushed it into the broth, and there is a pile of shredded cheese on top. LOL. it was quite tasty! i wasn't able to eat very much of it though since we had lunch just 3 hours earlier.

a little tokyo in nyc

one of my earliest and closest friends from tokyo, liz, arrived to the city last night and despite my usual 10pm bedtime, we stayed up until 1am catching up. living in japan was a bit like going to sleepaway camp - you build really strong relationships in a relatively short period of time, and spend all your time with new friends. while staying in touch is not that easy with a 12-13 hour time difference and 6000 miles, i really do cherish the opportunities we have to meet up around the world.

the weather was super nice out today so we grabbed dinner with another former tokyo-ite at bar primi.

the really big one

on july 20, 2015, the new yorker published an article, "the really big one", which explains the 1-in-10 chance that a shift of the cascadian subduction zone, which sits in the middle of the most volcanically and seismically volatile "ring of fire", will occur in the next fifty years, resulting in an estimated 13,000 deaths (more than six times than the number of casualties from hurricane katrina).

reading it sends chills down my spine ...

since then, the seattle times has been giving the topic a decent amount of coverage, leading to articles such as this one: seattle's old brick buildings could see huge damage in big earthquake it's sad to think of all the beautiful, historic buildings which have been and could potentially collapse. it makes me think about reconsidering a future move to the pnw.

on a related note, while our building has been retrofitted with parapets, somehow it still made its way into the article. 

potstickers

growing up, it was a tradition in my family to make dumplings together on sunday afternoon, sometimes with the latest nba or nfl playoffs in the background. it was a full family affair, starting with the four of us when my sister was a baby, and with all five of us once she was old enough to recruit into child labor. 

we made hundreds of dumplings every sunday! and we had a process in place so that we could make them as quickly as possible and get them inside our bellies.

the entire dining room table was covered in a layer of flour, and my father was in charge of preparing and kneading the dough. he would set aside under a wet paper towel for an hour before use, while my mom prepared the filling, which usually consisted of ground pork, chives, dried shrimp, soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, and salt. when the dough had set and was ready to be worked with, my dad would shape it into a long 1.5" thick rope which he could cut into 1" pieces for my mom to roll out. my mom would use a wooden rolling pin to roll out each piece into dumpling wrappers.

my brother and i were the wrappers: with each wrapper that my mom rolled out, we would fill it with a spoonful of the filling, shape the wrapper with filling in it into a dumpling, and place it on one of the many cookie sheets my parents had prepared beforehand. these pans would then be put into the freezer so we could have some dumplings for a mid-week quick and easy dinner.

the wrapping was never the difficult part, but the dough preparation, kneading, and rolling out was. now that we've found a couple of great dumpling wrapper options at h-mart (thanks you, rose!) and from twin marquis, we can make them pretty easily in under an hour.

and the best thing of cooking EXTRA dumplings the first night? frying them into potstickers the next night!! :D

adventures with meko: p2

mumeko is in town this weekend (YAY!) and we had the chance to hang out on a gorgeous, warm, and breezy sunday afternoon, unlike our last adventure when the snow and sleet were coming down like bullets of rain.

we made our way through the mess of tourists at the met, and checked out the van gogh: irises and roses, the modern & contemporary, and the china: through the looking glass exhibits. the van gogh was my favorite this time because though relatively small, with just four pieces, the descriptions were vivid and insightful and the artwork was simple and magnificent.

we had some wine on the rooftop and enjoyed the gorgeous open views of the park and the city!

long run :)

the weather has started to cool down a little this last week so kevin and i made our way to central park to do the full loop this morning. it's been a while since we've run at the park, much less do the full loop, so hopefully it's the start of something good :)

afterwards, maria met us at tavern on the green and we did another loop, less harlem hill, putting me at a total of 11 miles! albeit, the second half was at a much slower pace, but it's a start. in a week, kevin and i will be running the lululemon half marathon in vancouver - i hope we can get through it!

tomato festival

it is that time of the year again for kevin's favorite fruit, the amazing tomato!!! i found a couple of drool-worthy recipes in the nytimes cooking section this week and thought it would be fun to compose a menu based on the amazing tomato. 

first, we made our way to the maison kayser for morning coffee, a fresh baguette (hot from the oven!), a pain au chocolate, and a couple complimentary packets of nutella, for a little morning picnic at the usq park benches. mk's pain au chocolat is quite tasty, but boy, it's pretty hard to beat a warm baguette right out of the oven with nutella. we had a third of the baguette, and saved the rest for lunch.

next, we walked over to the union square farmer's market and made a round to preview the freshest hudson valley vegetables. the farmer's market is so peaceful in the early hours, and all the produce are fresh and plump and organized neatly (before it gets rowdy and they get picked through). we decided on a couple handfuls of herbs and lots and lots of tomatoes of all colors, shapes, and sizes. we also picked up some gorgeous peachy dahlias!

a final stop to the whole foods across the street from our apartment to pick up the finishing touches - breadcrumbs, cheese, and olives.

tomato fest menu

tomato farcies (stuffed tomatoes)

tomato salad with anchovy toast

caprese salad (made with daisy's homemade mozz)

comfort women

the imperial japanese army forced hundreds and thousands of women across asia into sexual slavery during world war ii. many of the women were captured from occupied countries, including korea, china, and the philippinnes, and were stationed at amy bases in japan, china, the philippines, indonesia, malaysia, thailand, burma, new guinea, hong kong, macau, and french indochina. there are only a handful of comfort women survivors left, and tonight we learned a little more about our asian history through a recently launched off-off-broadway musical at the st clemens theatre, comfort women.

through his musical, which is based on real-life accounts of the women who were abducted and trafficked into sexual slavery, director dimo kim enlightens and urges his audience to address and seek closure for the survivors of the horrific tragedies, their stories, and unresolved human rights issues.

it is the first musical to employ an almost complete asian cast of +50 actors. and with the exception of a minor, but memorable, line blunder in the first five minutes of the performance, it was well-directed and i found myself inspired by the music and voices, and eyes filled with tears for some of the sad scenes. it's amazing how much work must go into a performance like this - scripts, music, rehearsals, set design, lighting, musicians, and plenty more. and inspired by our friend, janet, associate musical director, who spent countless hours working with the music and the actors in the months leading up to and during their performances.

yuan's bday get-together

happy birthday yuan! :) here are a couple photos from our annual get together for yuan's birthday! we had a delicious dinner at ootoya in chelsea and drinks afterwards at rye. 

yes, we are seated as if it were a gokon hahah!

photo cred: cuong do

mel & austin

our circle of cmu friends has incredible strong bonds forged back in college days in pittsburgh, pennsylvania and strengthened through years of friendship, holidays, and trips together after graduation. in the last five years, marriages and families have begun sprouting, and we now have a little group of children in the next generation!

this week, one of my oldest friends from college, melissa, was visiting new york from her new home in pasadena, california, so a bunch of us got together for dinner at co. it's gotten more difficult to hang out with everyone given so many different schedules and growing families to accommodate. it was great to see everyone and hear about recent trips to europe, upcoming weddings, and just generally catching up.

the last time i saw mel was in november 2014. although not obvious by her toned arms and petite physique, melissa actually has three children: austin, 3 yrs and 3 mos in her arms, and hudson & bryant, 7 mos old twins. can't wait to visit them again and meet h&b when we next visit la!

using up extra ingredients

trying to use up all the ingredients in our fridge, which included extra chives from our kimchi making and extra thai basil from saturday night's pork larb dish, tonight's dinner included 三杯雞 (three cup chicken), chives pancake, and blanched asian greens with oyster sauce.