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.