qingdao, china... again!

my hotel, hanyuan hotel in the chengyang area of qingdao, isn't 5-star by any means, but they have wired internet, working phones, AC/heat, and hot water.  and every hotel i've ever stayed at in china offers a breakfast buffet.  this one isn't that tasty (the days inn in jiaozuo city has an AMAZING breakfast buffet), but a girls gotta eat.  they always have (and i always eat) dumplings, congee, tofu skin and some sauteed veggies.  beggars can't be choosers.  that said, there's a market across the street, and i stock up on water, bread and yogurt.  for a country of lactose-intolerant folk, the yogurt is mad good. 

breakfast buffet

 market across from my hotel

yummy yogurt!

if we have some downtime during the day, my factory agent suggests going for a massage.  we tried a new place the other day that looked as though it would fit in perfectly in singapore's geylang (red-light) district.  the masseuse manhandled me pretty intensely, and i'm confident that i left feeling worse than when i went in.  30min = 38rmb (today=US$5.57), which i think is somewhat expensive by china standards, considering my go-to massage place in SHANGHAI (a real city) is 50rmb (US$7.32) for an hour, it's antiseptically clean and they have a "buy 10" card which gives you a discount.

ghetto massage place

the best part of these trips is dinner - we eat and drink well every night.  not great for my "diet" but certainly the highlight of my trip.  so far we've dined out on korean kalbi, hot pot (communal style with a spicy and non-spicy soup), lamb grill and tuna head sashimi.  tuna head sashimi was the coolest - a sushi chef tears apart that tuna head right at your table and slices up the cheek, nose, neck, etc - but also the most repulsive.  i'm still nauseated thinking about him chopping up the RAW eye goo and the eyeball and serving it up.  i'm quite adventurous when it comes to food, plus last night i drank an entire bottle of baijiu myself, but even i couldn't go there.

meat for our hot pot

the hot pot 1/2 & 1/2

mmm lamb grill

sashimi platter

sushi chef + tuna head

sushi chef + tuna eye goo

now that my factory agent GC has hired an ayi (basically the most comprehensive houskeeper/cook/nanny available on earth), we also eat at the office sometimes.  i think living away from home, GC likes some home cooked food; he even likes to get in the kitchen himself.  one night GC and his buddies bought a mountain chicken (from a chicken herder(?) at the mountain nearby), and they made chicken soup with ginseng; last night we visited the market (intense!) and got 3 live fish, sea cucumbers, super fresh sesame leaves and the most delicious fresh tofu ever, and they sliced up a sashimi feast.

seafood market

not sure what's on deck for tonight, but it's my last night here... i'm sure it'll be another doozy!

35 hours in seoul

i travel a lot, especially to china for work, and i don't write about any of it nearly enough.  i left nyc 4/14 and stopped in seoul, korea for a night to visit some family (my adorable grandparents and my aunt/cousins).  on my last trip to seoul in january, i'd left my wedding ring behind, because i'm braindead sometimes, so my S.O. will be happy that it's back on my finger.  the trip had fortuitous timing because my cousin jeesun had a baby the day that i left (he was 10 days early - i think it was so he could meet me, but who's to say...) so i even got to see the new addition! 

my ring!

my cousin's new baby boy: jihyo

my aunt with her 1st grandchild

we stopped at a post office near my aunt's apartment to send a wedding gift (you can send cash from the post office directly from your bank account - you even receive a text notification once it's been processed!), and i noticed the 2010 stamp schedule... i'm a total stamp nerd, i wish they would do this in the US!

nerdy stamp calendar

it's very korean typical that you eat certain foods when you have a baby.  my aunt wanted to make my cousin soup with lots of collagen so we stopped at street stall butcher (this is obviously NOT regulated by any FDA) and picked up some cow leg and other meats.  i love that my aunt haggled with the guy, and he even threw in extra meat as a gift.

outdoor meat shop

cow leg

dinner with my grandparents, and a short morning later, i was on the express bus to incheon airport.  i love ICN because they have two of my fave stores, duty-free - CHANEL & CARTIER!  whenever i walk into chanel, a wave of tranquility washes over me; it's very soothing.  however, i don't think my S.O. will want me going through ICN anymore - i'm 2 for 2 with purchases at ICN's chanel in 2010!  my S.O. says it's fine as long as it makes me happy... i think i have the best S.O. EVER!

my new chanel!

next stop - QINGDAO.

today's meals are booked

i've finally faced the reality that my work isn't going to get done on its own, so thursday, i went for a quick gym (more like a warm-up) before my pilates mat class at movements afoot.  very stiff from class, i rushed to lunch at alto in midtown to meet my girlfriend choi for lunch with her adorable baby boy.  i've been wanting to try alto for quite a while - i swear, i was italian in a former life - but i wasn't expecting it to be as "all-business" as it was.

the restaurant is set back from the street, which is nice. it's architecture is modern and very square.  i was expecting it to be open and airy (for no reason), but the dining room is a level below with lowish ceilings; it seemed like a modern townhouse layout.  the maitre d' rudely stated that we wouldn't be allowed in the dining room if my friend's son continued to fuss, and they didn't have highchairs available.  the waitstaff was much more friendly, and the service was pretty much impeccable.

i started with the mushroom soup, which burst with mushroom flavor.  it was a touch salty (i've been salt-sensitive lately), but i still licked my bowl clean.  choi started with the gnocchi (she was planning to share with julian), which tasted a little gummy - a touch undercooked, even!  the tomato sauce was good, chunky, tasty, but the gnocchi should have been the star of the show.

for our 2nd course i had the garganelli amatriciana - i'm a huge pasta fan, but i'm not sure if this pasta is for me.  it didn't have enough mouthfeel for me.  the sauce was a seafoody sauce with smoked cod tripe and baby calamari; it was delicious, but i wished it had another noodle with the dish.  i should have gone with my ever-fattening gut and had the tagliatelle with veal ragu, which is more up my alley.  choi had the meat tortellini, which she also proclaimed as salty.  the tortellini were probably the best meat tortellini i've ever had, but i'll agree, the sauce was too salty.  but i still lapped it up with the extra bread that i requested (the olive bread was wonderful).

we shared the zabaglione-filled donuts for dessert, which i thought was just ok - the texture was a little crumby, the filling fell out of the donut, and the chocolate sauce it was served with was pasty instead of smooth and runny like a sauce.  the long lingering lunch was nice to catch up with choi, but i think they were thrilled for us to leave.

i rushed home to change to return to the gym (i have a mini-crush on a squash player at the club, and there was a squash match that evening that i thought he'd be playing in), but was delayed by jetlag tiredness and a call from my younger sister.  then i realized i'd left my favorite sneakers (asics) at the pilates studio earlier!  fortunately, when i arrived the squash match was just getting underway, but then it turned out my mini-crush wasn't playing after all.  all signs pointed to "workout unnecessary" so i rinsed and changed, and hurried to get a cab downtown to meet more friends for dinner!

while i was in china, my friend sent an email about a new sushi spot downtown, sushi uo, whose sushi bar was manned by a young, non-japanese chef david boudahana, and it was getting talked about all over town.  additionally, on tuesday evenings, they were doing live tastings where the sushi chef would serve all sorts of live seafood, and there may twitching and such going on.  originally, i made the reservation for tuesday, but when i called to change the number in our party, they told me they were closed for the week due to a change in sushi chef.  HUH?!  then i received a follow-up call to notify me that they were actually reopening on thursday, and they were going to do the live tasting on thursday this week.  i'm jetlagged and easily confused, so i changed the reservation to thursday.

sushi uo is a cute small space, and everything we tasted, including the live sampler (octopus, giant clam, torigai, orange clam, scallop and uni) was quite delicious.  you could tell the fish was good.  the new sushi chef, john, was friendly.  the staff was less knowledgeable.  the toro collar was amazing.  we did an uni flight (which is not on the menu, and we requested as such) of the santa barbara, hokkaido and maine uni (i think the hokkaido was best), which is a nice different thing for a sushi restaurant to offer.  the sushi rice wasn't as tasty as yasuda's and it was a touch hard like kuruma zushi.  they have a diverse selection of good sakes to drink, also right up our alley.

the real problem was that the service was just SLOW.  i mean, if we'd ordered more food, we would've been there until the next day.  we were there for almost three hours, and i ate as much as i would have in 15 minutes at yasuda.  and because it was slow, they brought us a number of complimentary dishes.  the fish was good enough that i'd go back, but i recommend sitting at the sushi bar, either alone or with one other person, and doing an omakase.

after our meal, we had to double-down at barrio chino a few blocks away.  we had an appetizer sampler, and three entrees (yes, we did just have dinner at sushi uo, and there were only 5 of us, but we're piglets), plus margaritas.  the appetizer platter was quite good, filled with grilled steak, beans, chorizo and queso fresco, served with warm tortillas.  for the entrees, we had lamb barbacoa (i didn't love, but the boys really enjoyed), enchiladas mole (i didn't like, but i don't like the sweetness of mole), and enchiladas verdes (i liked the sauce but i thought the chicken was dry).  i loved the tanginess of my fresh lime margarita, and i forgot how much i loved the buzz of NYC at night since this was my first night out since i've been home from china.

all i do is eat

in an effort to be recession-friendly and healthier, i'm cooking more. after spending 2+ months in a hotel, i also really missed cooking/having a kitchen. after our eating bonanza monday afternoon, i planned shrimp scampi dinner tuesday and osso buco yesterday.

i chose to serve the shrimp scampi with spaghetti & broccoli; my S.O. only likes a few veggies, so there aren't many choices. i added the broccoli to the pasta cooking water about four minutes before the pasta was a touch undercooked, and i doubled the sauce for the shrimp scampi (plus some additional olive oil) in order to finish cooking the spaghetti & broccoli in the yummy scampi sauce. i tossed it all together and served with grated pecorino romano. the S.O. loved - hooray!

i woke up yesterday at 4:08a (ugh), so i started prepping my osso buco in the morning. i took a recipe from cook's illustrated, but i adapted because i only had two veal shanks. i decided to serve with polenta and either asparagus or cauliflower, and i thought i'd make a little extra sauce for the polenta to soak it up. i threw it into a low oven, then went to the gym (1h 15m alternating walk/jog - about 775 calories) before i rushed to meet my new mandarin tutor!

i arrived home starving, and perfect timing - my friend bunnard asked me to lunch! he wanted asian, and ramen sounded quite appealing. we went with ippudo because in my quick research, it's been deemed a top spot in manhattan AND neither of us had been. it's also convenient to both of us, located right near union square. we started with shishito, and the yuzu salt that comes with it is fantastical. i chose the akamaru ramen with extra pork lunch set (with grilled eel rice) PLUS a topping of kakuni (because who can resist pork belly); bunny chose the tori ramen lunch set (with mentaiko - spicy cod roe - rice). this was probably the best ramen i've had in new york (the best i've had is in LA, but i'll keep trying!). my only concern is the salt content. i was dehydrated the ENTIRE afternoon and evening, and i drink A LOT of water.

ippudo akamaru ramen

the jetlag was so horrendous last night (and my leg hurt from being exhausted AND overdoing it) that i decided to forego the afternoon pick-me-up workout and started to make dinner an hour before the S.O. said he was coming home. i made polenta with water, added a touch of salt, butter and grated aged provolone. the osso buco was very tender (i pureed the sauce because it was too veggie-chunky, and my S.O. wouldn't eat it if he saw the veggies). and i went with roasted cauliflower with prosciutto, garlic, lemon and a touch of grated pecorino romano. so the verdict: since i only used two veal shanks, i think the sauce lacked a lot of the meaty flavor. the polenta was a good base, but i think my cornmeal is too fine for polenta. but the star of the show was the cauliflower - it was yummy caramelized from the roasting (i tossed in garlic & tiny diced prosciutto during the last 5 minutes), and the squeeze of lemon juice gave it a fresh/clean taste while the cheese, mmmm, cheese makes everything better. my S.O. deemed the osso buco just eh.

today is another food-filled day. lunch at alto and dinner at sushi uo!

my first weekend home

i had total crap internet access in korea, and work in china became too busy to blog, so i'll post a recap of my week in korea and my final three weeks in china later, but i want to focus on HOME now that i've returned to new york, the greatest city in the world!

on the way back from the airport thursday evening (2/11), we picked up lombardi's, which may not be the best pizza in the WORLD, but it's pretty delicious, especially after 9 weeks of asia traveling. our favorite is the white pizza with meatballs (lombardi's meatballs are fantastic).

my jetlag has been fierce since i returned, so wakeups have generally been between 4-5am. i desperately wanted to cook veal parmagiana for dinner friday, so after gymming in the morning, i hopped in the car to my favorite italian grocery store, dipalo's, in little italy, to pick up some aged provolone and fresh mozzarella. lou dipalo is the face of the store, and he's usually around, but his brother sal is my hidden gym - he's always smiling, super friendly, and he always gives me a taste of what he's slicing. mmm, this time mortadella. after picking up my intended groceries, plus an additional provolone, fresh ricotta, a baguette, cacciatore sausage and a chunk of the butt of the prosciutto, i headed home.

i decided to serve stuffed artichoke with my veal parm since my S.O. loves gino's stuffed artichoke, and i found an easy recipe on saveur. my problem was that my best hours are the first 10 hours after i wake, so by dinnertime, i was becoming zombie-like, even though i went back to the gym for a pick-me-up (i'd already have been on the floor without the shorty afternoon workout).

we started with the baguette & fresh ricotta, simple yet amazing. the veal turned out perfectly - crispy crust (panko/breadcrumb mix, with the addition of grated pecorino romano), topped with grated aurecchio provolone/fresh mozzarella mix. and the artichoke tasted good, but i forgot to add the boiling water so it was a little dry/tough. sad.

the next morning, i hit the gym, then pilates tower/reformer class (i said i was rededicating!) in anticipation of a delicious brunch at artisanal. it's my favorite restaurant to hit once i'm back from china, since there's no cheese in china. although the service was spotty, and it was crowded, even at 130pm, the food was solid. we started with gougeres (i like eleven madison's FREE gougeres better, but these are denser, cheesier) and risotto croquettes (would have been good if they were warm/gooey in the center). then the petite artisanal blend fondue with air-dried beef (good), kielbasa (undercooked) and french fries. THEN (yes another course), we shared the croque monsieur and macaroni & cheese. the croque monsieur was quite creamy & rich; the S.O. liked that, but it was falling apart, which it shouldn't do. we had to take the mac & cheese home, which was the perfect snack for dinner later! we were pretty pooped after all that food, so we couched it the rest of the afternoon, until around 530p when i decided banana bread was in order! i change the recipe up to include some almond flour in place of AP flour, but i think i went overboard this time, because it was a little too coarse. still yummy, very banana-y and quite moist; next time i'll work on better proportions.

sunday morning (valentine's day) i woke up early (again) and was HUNGRY. i started making veal parm again since i had leftover breading and veal and cheese. over the course of three hours, i ate 4 pieces! i was very sore from pilates, so i did a really light crappy workout in the late afternoon, and then my S.O. and i went to big daddy's in gramercy for dinner because a) i really wanted a big salad, b) i had a groupon and c) it was the most non-valentine's-y like restaurant on opentable. it's amazing that i was hungry at all, considering all the food i ate during the day, but i amaze myself daily on that front.

we started with the half & half (half fries, half onion rings), which i thought was very greasy, and the onion rings were skinny & limp, and the macaroni & cheese, which lacked a lot of flavor. my S.O. had the bacon cheeseburger which was pretty terrible (dense, dry burger), but i had a really delicious salad - a family affair - but i opted for feta instead of mozzarella. it was exactly what i wanted, chock full of artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, chickpeas... i could've done without the carrots.

monday (presidents' day), i gymmed in the am, and i made my S.O. egg whites with prosciutto and more leftover provolone/mozzarella before he left for work. i did some work (i had been boycotting work all weekend), then went to pilates reformer at noon, which was better than the last one, jeesh, was i sore from saturday! but the real coup de grace was the afternoon. i wanted to hit luke's lobster, which i think has the most tasty lobster rolls of right now in NYC, so after my S.O.'s conference calls, i went to pick him up. since he was running late and since i haven't seen any of my friends after my return, i cast a line to some of my favorite eaters to join us. two bit, so the four of us started off at luke's with two large lobster rolls, 1 large shrimp, 1 large crab - 3 of 4 schoonered (with soda/water & potato chips) plus a large new england clam chowder. it totally hit the spot. but then i realized, i wasn't full.

next up motorino (we tried to hit this little piggy had roast beef, but the place is so small, 4 fatties like us couldn't even fit in the joint!). 3 of 4 of us hadn't been, so we were excited. we started with two pizzas: soppressata and brussels sprouts. i think the brussels sprout one was tasty, but a little too smoky for me. we then ordered a THIRD (the margherita). my fave was definitely the soppresata, mmm. the boys also drank 2 bottles of wine, so they were ready for more. when we realized it was 5pm, there was no debate: terroir, hearth's little wine bar, down the block. although the boys were there to drink, no one would pass on more food (!!), obviously, so we ordered marinated olives, fried sage leaves with lamb sausage, red wine risotto balls with oxtail and duck ham panini with hen of the woods mushrooms & taleggio cheese. seriously, it was like we hadn't eaten twice before. i had been contemplating the bruschetta with whipped lardo (whipped lardo is like food of the gods), but opted out since this was our third meal, but our server could obviously see how much i wanted them because she brought a plate out anyway. after all of this food, i started to get sleepy and zombie-like so i forced my S.O. to leave with me.

although the entire weekend was unbelievably perfect (i gymmed every day, i pilates'd twice, and i ate everything i wanted AND MORE. plus i got to spend some QT with my S.O.), the best moment was leaving my building friday morning on my way to the gym (around 6am), walking down the street, breathing in the cold cleanish air, knowing that bustle is soon to happen, taking in the sounds of new york. it's always that moment that puts a huge smile on my face.

beggars can't be choosers

i skipped breakfast again this morning in an effort to get to the gym early (i took my gummy vitamins), and i had a decent workout in my new asics - yay!  it turns out an asics factory is nearby, and my old asics had been shredded, so my agent made some calls, and poof, a new pair of asics appeared in my size yesterday.  i still miss my old gym, total impulse fitness, but at least i'm gymming.  today's workout: 45m elliptical, 25m arm workout, 40m walking uphill on treadmill = 900calories.  i'm still doing the tracy anderson workout every other day; my goal is to do for six weeks to see the improvement... i'm at about three weeks now... i should've taken a 'before' photo!!  recently i started to run a bit again (i haven't run since my accident in 2003), and i wanted to do a mini-run (3km-ish) today, but i've been having some issues with my knee, and it hurt too much today to run.  it hurt to walk as well, but not as badly as running.  maybe tomorrow.

for lunch, we went to this local korean restaurant, oasis, AGAIN.  i think i've eaten here about 30x since i got to china in december.  if we have lunch here, we always have doenjang jjigae, a soybean paste soup with tofu, which upon request is made not spicy for me.  i must be the only korean in the world that can't eat spicy food.  it's not the taste; it's the effect.  they still overload it with garlic, hot peppers, onions, but i can manage that; plus i was hungry.  it's not bad, but... they also have a pretty lacking variety of banchan... it's not my fave.

today, one of my agent's colleagues brought me for lunch because the rest of the office peeps had already eaten.  he only speaks korean and chinese (and he's from busan, so i'm about 50% lost when he speaks due to accent comprehension issues that i have), so it was an awkwardly silent lunch.  when he asked me if i'd eaten enough, i feigned fullness because i just wanted lunch to be over and done with!  but to be honest, i was hungry enough that i could've housed a steak.  or an entire grilled pork belly, mmmm.  now i'm eyeing these cookies on my desk, but the colleague is still hanging in the office, and i think it'll be too confrontational to nibble on them in front of him.  just my luck!

i'm heading to seoul tomorrow to visit my family, and i'm going to BEG for no doenjang jjigae.  i've totally OD'd.

duck fat, mmmm

we traveled to another area of qingdao for dinner tonight - my factory agent says it's not healthy to eat at the same four restaurants every night, and i wholeheartedly agree!  the restaurant was called grandma's house (in korean), and it smelled like pork kalbi when we walked in.  mmmm.  the table next to us was eating this duck soup - it looked so warming, and in these freezing times, warming is what you want; decision made!  the owner served us a plate of japchae (stir-fried clear noodles with beef and veggies) as a service while we waited for the duck soup (which takes minimum 30 minutes), and to cushion our stomachs a bit for the bai jiu.

the beautiful duck soup (skin-on obviously) arrived looking marvelous.  and it tasted just as good.  but the real joy was the jook (korean porridge) served afterwards that they made with the fat-laden duck broth (not skimmed at all).  rich, unctuous, hearty... it warmed my belly.  artery-clogging personified.

my only sadness was that my three dining companions stopped eating well before i did, so i felt compelled to stop... our assistant has already told me i'm fat (i guess it's not an insult to state the obvious in china?), and i nibbled on cookies the entire afternoon.  hmmm... does that cancel out my morning workout?  new gym: 40m elliptical, 40m treadmill walk (6-7kph, no incline) + november 2008 self magazine arm workout by tracy anderson + a one-sided competition of 5 minutes of ab work (i was competing against the dude next to me, but he wasn't aware that the race was on) = 756 calories.

yummy noodles

we had my favorite noodles in chengyang, qingdao for lunch today.  there's this korean kalguksu stall in the basement food court of a bankrupt shopping mall; it's actually quite odd to enter the desolate building, with no heat, no lights, except for the skylight.  of the 32 stalls available, only five are in business.  and this noodle stall is the only one that's busy.  for 15RMB, you get a big bowl of knife-cut homemade noodles in a delicious clam broth (with tons of ga la - local qingdao clams, potatoes, squash and scallions).  plus a side of kimchi and seasoned scallions.  i love noodles (all ethnicities' - i don't discrimate) - especially chewy, homemade ones - and these are fantastic (i'll never be a low-carb success).  for 10RMB you can also get 10 jeen bbang (korean steamed buns with red bean paste), and they're delicious.