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.