Content
The Porch is where we ended up for a post-CIM brunch. DD and I were able to leave our car at the Hyatt since we had already paid the $17 day-fee - our day lasted until 4pm. Carlos had kindly researched places on Yelp when I mentioned that I was in the mood for Fried [...]
As I mentioned in my CIM 2012 race report, I chose the Hyatt Regency Sacramento for a number of reasons as our hotel for the night before the race. The Pros: Convenience 3 blocks from the finish line Late checkout - 1pm - without an additional fee (ok if you plan on finishing the marathon [...]
This will no doubt be just another of the hundreds of blogposts that will be filed about this day, but I need to get this down since: CIM 2012 was my first-ever marathon. 2012 will be remembered as the year of the epic rainstorm. Warning. This is waaay too long for to be of interest [...]
Wow, it's truly been a while. The last time I posted I was just starting training for my first marathon, ever, and that was back in September, when I managed to run 46 miles in a week - my highest mileage week ever (even during the "peak" of my cycle). I achieved this 46-mile week [...]
It's been a while... but before I get sucked up into other matters yet again, I need to get this down to help with future training. 16 miles is the longest run I've logged yet, ever, and it went surprisingly well. I attribute its success to a number of factors. The Day Before Though I [...]
Like the noob I was, I started running in old, old way-to-small Sauconys - a fairly little-used pair that had seen some Lindy Hop partner dancing and perhaps some hip-hop choreography over the past 8(?) years. As I neared the completion of our Couch to 5K program, I decided to invest in some new [...]
Like the noob I was, I started running in old, old way-too-small Sauconys - a fairly little-used pair that had seen some Lindy Hop partner dancing and perhaps some hip-hop choreography over the past 8(?) years. As I neared the completion of our Couch to 5K program, I decided to invest in some new [...]
Tuesday 4.65 miles on the treadmill - easy. 8.36 pace. Legs felt tired, even after 2 days off. Couldn't do much with inclines - halfheartedly tried with some 2-3% elevation but not for very long. Then just tried to go fast. Wednesday 6.03 miles on the treadmill - inclines. 8.50 pace. 3 sets of 2-3, [...]
Yes, still new to running, so I'm selecting the "fast and flat" courses to try out before getting into the more challenging trails + hills or even hillier road races. This event out by the San Leandro Marina, is the speediest of races Brazen offers, and apparently so flat and boring that hardcore trail fiends [...]
Running through the park and down along the Great Highway brings us to the end of the N Judah line by design. We're usually too lazy to run back uphill through Golden Gate Park and would rather take MUNI back home. What's great about this area is that in the recent few years a number [...]
I have to admit being nervous for the Kaiser race. I think it might have been because this was my first “big” race of the season – I hadn’t run an official Half since last November’s Quarry Turkey race. Then, I had jumped from my longest training run of 9 miles to a 13.2+ mile [...]
San Francisco's proximity to the Napa Valley is another one of the zillion reasons as to why we love living in the SF Bay Area. However, DD did not choose his first marathon to run exclusively because it was in Napa. He chose it based on a friend's recommendation that it was a fast, downhill [...]
It's been a while, my friends (all 4 of you who may actually read this, ha!). But - I just wanted to provide an update as to where I am (still in San Francisco, thank goodness), and why I've been silent. It hasn't been for the lack of tasty adventures. We took a trip to [...]
It must have been the moment that I saw Flickr friend anakorpa’s photo of Hainanese Chicken Rice from Cafe D'lite in Vancouver that the cravings began. Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of those seminal foods that I distinctly remember from my childhood. Silky slices of tender chicken, fragrant rice, clear gingery soup and the accompanying [...]
Osaka has a central wholesale fish market much like Tsukiji in Tokyo, with its own 4:15am Tuna auction. Had we known that Tsukiji would be so restricted (we should have known and watched for this after the earthquake), we would have made more of an effort to make it to Osaka's version, which seems more [...]
In my quest for fast and easy desserts, I loved stumbling upon this amazing 3-ingredient recipe for a fruit galette, posted by Smith and Ratliff on Marcus Samuelsson's blog. As I'd mentioned before, I often tend to focus on the savoury, giving short shrift to sweet things. In my family my mom and I were [...]
One of my favourite restaurants in town, I’ve been going to Blue Plate since it opened in 1999 and began serving its wonderful, hearty neo-American fare with plays on old classics like Meatloaf and Fried Chicken. Today, it can still pack in a crowd, so that last-minute reservations on a Friday night yielded only a [...]
This is a crazy luxurious dish, containing some of my most favourite seafood in the world, and cream and butter. I've had uni sauce for pasta before, mostly in fancy restaurants and the like, but not to this degree at home. Well, ok, we did attempt an uni cream sauce once, with actual fresh uni, [...]
Ok, I’ll admit it, Wakuriya only hit our radar after it received its first Michelin star. I have a horrible fault of usually turning a blind eye (with a few exceptions) to anything south of San Francisco, preferring to focus on wine country or Oakland/ Berkeley instead. DD had tried to get reservations before, but [...]
Whenever I open a cookbook for the first time, I’ll usually skim the recipes with photos first. Are they appealing? Do they make me want to read the recipe? Do they make my mouth water and immediately start plotting out how I might make the dish, and soon? Restaurant menus can be different. They often [...]
flour+water had been popular right out of the gate, spurred by a buzz going even before it opened - with Chef Thomas McNaughton boasting a resume listing La Folie, Quince and Gary Danko; a number of stages at Michelin-starred establishments in Europe, including an artisinal pasta apprenticeship: "...basically Tom and a bunch of old ladies with [...]
NYC in late 2009 was a great trip. I'm jonesing to go again, perhaps sometime next year when I hope to also make it to another favourite eating-town, Chicago. As I've mentioned before, our trip to New York had turned into a bacchanalia of eating and drinking - would that our bellies were bigger, or [...]
Saison’s website proclaims that there is no dress code, and urges folks to “come as you are.” While the food is elevated, there’s a nice dichotomy between the white-tablecloth cuisine and the service and warmth of the staff. We had finally made it - after a couple of years and one pop-up when Chef Skenes [...]
