Helloooo Denver!

Another food-stuffed weekend - check!  But this time around, my hunger took me exploring through the Mile High City known as Denver (btw, did you know Denver is called the "Mile High City" b/c its elevation is *exactly* one mile above sea level??  I know, I'm a dork for thinking thats SO COOL!)!

After a smooth flight (phew!) into Denver International Airport, C-Murder picked the hubs & I up and took us to the highly acclaimed burger joint known as Duffy's Cherry Cricket.  I ordered the famous Cricket burger w/ white cheddar, bacon, and avocado:

I wish my camera had the ability to capture the juicy-ness - I was in heaven.  Argueably the best burger I've had in awhile...I'm going to *have* to venture out to Red Coat Tavern soon to do a direct comparison w/ the other top contender.  Twist my arm why doncha.

The next morning was scheduled for the much anticipated hike through the Colorado mountains (I even got brand spankin' new hiking shoes, and wanted to count this activity as "x-training"), but due to an uncooperative Mother Nature, it was canceled.  Instead, C-Murder and I got pedis and good shopping done before heading to meet the boys for a drink midway in Boulder after their backcountry skiing adventure.

See the mountains behind us?  I'm counting this as my "outdoor activity."

After a quick nappy-poo, we got ready to head to TAG, a restaurant labeling itself as "continental social food."  The description on the menu was so intriguing, we decided to experience the restaurant tapas style and ordered an array of appetizer dishes.  Here are some of my favs:
- Flash seared hiramasa (yuzu, jalapeno, white soy, myoga salad, & pop rocks, yes pop rocks candy!!  It popped in your mouth!):

- Roasted Wagyu Bone marrow (kumquat-pear pineapple marmalade, ciabatta - mmm bone marrow!!)

- Hanger Steak (pueblo fingerling potatoes, *truffle* herb salad, balsamic syrup, gorgonzola)

And here's a pic of the fantabulous company we had:

Got Expresso Martini?

We finished off the evening w/ two desserts - one we didn't care for and doesnt deserve space on this blog, and the other:

                                               

Banana cream pie yummy goodness - All I can say is nom nom nom...

For our last meal in the Queen city of the Plains, we decided to try Beatrice & Woodsley for their brunch offerings.  After been awe-stricken by their amazing decor, I *finally* decided on the Eggs Johnny Fever (pan-fried goetta on sliced onion bread w/ mustard hollandaise sauce & roasted cauliflower) after the recommendation from our friendly waiter:

The hubs got the special (which I can't remember besides deep fried egg w/ duck fat gravy -yeeeees!), plus the Ramos Gin Fizz (gin, egg white, lemon, lime, orange flower water, cream and soda - now THIS was a drink I could drink forever and evah!)

Great food, great company.  Thanks for hosting a wonderful weekend in Denver to our fav couple friends!

Food food food food!

After last week's sub-par workout performance (more like lack there of!) and the scale that doesn't seem to stop "growing," I decided to reflect on this weekend's meals:

Friday:  Dinner w/ C-ler @ Sahara for some fantastic Middle Eastern food

What better way to catch up than savoring the *bestest shawarma ever* and eating like a true Ironman-in-training should be!  Oh wait, that doesn't include me...  Kudos to the roomie for introducing me to this fabulously addicting place!

Saturday:  Catching up w/ the hub's college buddies @ Blue Tractor

In the midst of exchanging stories, I gracefully shoved my face with rib after rib.  I just couldn't seem to get enough those recently.  It was no Slows, but it definitely hit the spot!  And sweet potato fries?  Yes please!!

Sunday:  Bi-weekly dinner @ the rents

My mom told me this was a "healthy" dinner, and true to her word, I would definitely describe her crust-free seafood quiche as an Atkins-friendly entree.  But when you follow that with a rich, calorie-filled cupcake made of pureed chestnuts & whip cream, my absolute fav dessert better known as Mont Blanc, that *kinda* overides the "low carb" appeal.  Pshhht, oh well...

Motivated by KT's 5-mile tempo performance last week, I too decided to take another stab at it today after work (I failed miserably at my first attempt last Thurs).  Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't realize my Garmin was set up to average the overall time instead of per quarter mile, so I pushed myself a little more than I thought I was.  Finally, after a week of lackluster workouts, success!

Time to kill...

After a great race experience this past weekend, I was ready to get back on the horse and hit the pavement.  Fortunately, I had the experienced J-Woww watching my back.  She advised me to rest up a few days to avoid injury, and I'm doing just that :)

Who knew slacking off on a lil' running would provide me with time to do other random things!  So far, I have been able to cram my week with non-traditional activities like the following: 

1)  Attend a fancy-shmancy black tie awards banquet in the D:

2)  Meet up w/ a long lost friend and reminisce of old school Japanese school days

3)  Enjoy a walk in the park w/ the "kids" and hubs:

4)  Even be domestic!

Atchfalaya chicken w/ eggplant fries & rice

Martian + Festifool = Out of this world festivus.

On a typical winter evening a few months back, the "fam" and the neighbors feasted over a meat 'n potatoes meal while making a casual challenge - for K-special to complete a half marathon race.  Who could have predicted that 12 weeks later, the then-sedentary K-special (from 4-yrs of Med school chaos) would not only successfully complete her very first half marathon race, but shatter her anticipated pace!

Congrats K-Special!  Look at that smile at the END of the race - Piece 'o cake!

No water for her, hand over the beer!!

I too participated in the local Martian Half Marathon yesterday in Dearborn.  I signed up last minute, just for the hell of it.  But my lack of running motivation and hunger for carbs ended up being the perfect combo for an uintensional taper week.  On top of that, the weather was perfect and the course couldn't have been flatter or more runner friendly.  Here's a sequence of my race:

Excited to get the blood flowing and start thawing!  Yee haw!

Mile 5 - The roomie's cheers were music to my ears!  Here was my "secret signal" to let her and the hubs know I heard/saw them!

Mile 13, with just a few feet to go...dying, but gotta put out my Asian peace sign one last time to the hubs.

Congrats, everyone!

And what better post-race meal than one from Angelos:

Mmm, crab cakes benedict!

The roomie must be rubbing off on me, for this morning I got up and called the inner domestic goddess w/in me and made the "fam" some pb & dark choco chip pancakes, topped w/ cool whip.  I was so hungry I didn't even have time to snap a shot before they were all gone.

We then took the dogs to their very first Festifools - a parade of gi-normous papier-mache creations marching through the streets of downtown Ann Arbor. 

Maybe it was the excitement of the huge creatures, or maybe it was the all the food at Bar Louie they got to smell, but boy were the pups pooped!  Good night, y'all!

Sweet *and delicious!* Lorraine

I opted out of yet another workout last evening and instead headed to Sweet Lorraine's in Southfield to celebrate K-Jo's belated birthday.  We quickly reminisced about the years that have flown by since we met 20 years ago and all the birthdays we have celebrated together since then...

If I were to have what could be considered a "second family" growing up, it would be K-Jo's.  Although my family was fabulous in its own way, I grew up basically as an only child, for my sis was 6-years older than me in grade school.  By the time I reached 7th grade, my sis had moved out.  So instead of the quiteness of my home, I of course longed for a noisy, eventful household, and therefore loved spending time at the K-Jo house.  There was bound to be people and commotion w/ 6 kids, and some sort of artsy project was always going on. 

After quickly updating each other on our lives, we ordered our usual appetizer to start - calamari.  The trio of Asian dipping sauces that came w/ the dish were just a-ok, and we both definitely avoided the most likely Thai-inspired sauce like the plague.  Peanut + calamari = grossness.

We then ordered the portabello ravioli from their regular menu and the lamb shank from their daily special menu and "played split-ties."  The creaminess of the stuffed mushroom and the spicy tomato-based sauce went together perfectly!  And the lamb meat fell off the bone and tasted oh-so-delicious w/ the gravy and a slather of mashed potatoes.  We were definitely in heaven!

And for the finishing touch to a grand evening, what better dessert to order than the one which launched the Sweet Lorraine restaurant to begin with?  If Lorraine Platman herself has been making and selling her Russian cheesecake since 1980, then we wanted a piece of that!  Our version was even better, w/ a strawberry-pomogranate sauce.  Perfect combo of sweet & tart.

Happy Birthday, K-Jo!  Welcome to the "Oh-Crap-We're-Thirty-Next-Year" club!

A very Easter (?) weekend.

After recovering after a unplanned night-o-tequila, we started off our Easter Eve by getting the dogs ready to see the Easter Bunny! 

(notice the gap b/w Gymmy and the Easter Bunny...this was the closest we could get him)

I'm not sure if it was the massive winds, or the after effects of the booze from Friday, but I was just a ball of laziness on Saturday.  The only potential form of any physical activity I can account for would be this:

That's right, curling.  And in the only country where it sold out during the Olympics - O' Cananda.

I followed that first-time adventure with some BBQ action at Smoke & Spice in Windsor.  I've been wanting to try this place out ever since I read that this joint beat out Slows for the top BBQ restaurant position by Metro Times.  Whaaaat??  A place that shoved out our highly acclaimed, nationally famous, Detroit's pride called Slows?  I'm a sucker for the underdog, so I went in w/ an open mind.  The hubs and I ordered the "Que for Two" - Ribs, pulled pork, and chicken wings combo platter with sides of mac & cheese, waffle fries, and collard greens:

(I don't know how to rotate pics yet!  Bare w/ me)

Now I'm no expert on Slows or bbq in general, but their St. Louis cut pork ribs were A-MAZING!  The meat just fell off the bone and after a small dippin' in their Smoke & Spice Original Sauce, I was salivating for more.  Their smoked chicken wings is what they are known for, and they did NOT disappoint.  That coming from me, the self-proclaimed anti-chicken declarer, is a feat in itself!  The pulled pork was good, but unfortunately ranked last among the other two top contenders.  I guess I'll *have* to go back to Slows to refresh my memory for an official final result for this bbq head-to-head competition!

I got a whiff of this when I got up this morning:

The hubs made the roomie and I the most *perfect* egg mcmuffin (using our professional egg mcmuffin maker, thanks Dr. K!!).  Yumm-o!  What a great way to start Easter (for the roomie) and our day-long SPRING CLEANING!!

After smelling like bleach and sneezing up a storm from all the dust, I was able to squeeze in a quick 4-miler before heading out to the rents place for a very traditional Easter dinner of sukiyaki & mom's homemade strawberry shortcake.  What, you didn't have that for Easter?  That's a shame!

You may now drool :)

Most. Frustrating. Run. Ever.

Now THIS is the sign that summer, errr, spring has begun: 

A cup 'o Constant Buzz from Dominicks

Motivated by the hubs getting up at *gasp* 7am this morning to go cycling and the mid-summer-esque weather, I too got out of bed...at 11am.  And then watched a DVRed episode of Greys.  And THEN finally put on my new pair of Cw-x tights, my Garmin, and (drumroll please!)...my heartrate monitor!  Yes that's right people, I decided to attempt my very first heartrate based workout.

So KT informed me that her target heartrate for long runs ranges from 150-160.  So I started off aiming for 150, but when I realized I was being passed by walkers, yes walkers, I decided to up my max to 160.  Not much of an improvement.  I finally settled around 165, but when I realized how slow I was running, I was so frustrated.  My body seemed to be telling me I could go faster, but my stupid Garmin kept telling me otherwise.  I tried shortening my stride, I even tried taking deep breaths as an attempt on lowering my HR, neither being successful.  So, I finished the 10-mile workout running over a minute/mile slower than usual, and a bundle of frustration.    

Hopefully an evening of outdoor grilling will make up for an unsatisfying run...