Getting back into the groove =)
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Sep 19, 2007 Wednesday. Did my first SF Chase Corporate Challenge, 3.5 miles, 25:53 min. Just under 7:30 min miles. Not bad for a smoker. Karen did a great job organizing and she was still waiting for folks to show up after the race started. So selfless. I’m very grateful to and proud of her setting this all up for us.
Course was very similar to the Presidio one we did last year with Mandy, Mikey, Rob
Chen, and someone else . . . I forget. It’s a little longer than the 5K (3.1 miles) run but it was way fun anyways. At the beginning of the 3rd mile, runners were turning back running downhill while I was running uphill to the turnaround point. I was all pumped up by them. All I could think about was "I want to be one of them", running back down looking at the running up "slower" runners. HAHAHA I started running like there’s no tomorrow and sprinted like I’ve never done before at the last 0.5 mile.
I gotta try do 7 min miles next race. Oct 7 Run for Peace in Berkeley.
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“既來之，則安之”Just trying to see if my blog page would display Chinese characters. It means since you’re here, why don’t you settle down and be content. The last part may be implied (by me) but it sure is implying that one ends up somewhere reluctantly, and instead of sulking all day and night whining about not wanting to be there in the first place, one shall try to make the most out of the experience.
Tong Cho Pai Gwut (sugar-vinegar-spare-ribs)
Time to talk about food. Not about a restaurant this time. I started putting my restaurant reviews on YELP. They’re a bit more organized and communitized (is this a word?).
So I was getting my $9 haircut in SF Chinatown, depositing allowance for my dad at the HSBC on Clay and Montgomery, AND buying Vitasoy for Mikey. I went into this tiny little shop that’s still open at 6:45pm on Stockton. Most Chinese grocery stores are closed by 6pm. I don’t know why but we seem to always run into kitchen crew, wait staff, store keepers eating dinner when we go about our own business. Anyways, while stocking the ramen shelves with her super agile feet and toes, this auntie was eating a simple bowl of rice with boiled cabbage (I think there’s dried shrimp on it too) and a few pieces of braised spareribs with sugar and vinegar TCPG (see above). It was so simple but beautiful my eyes got watery, or was it the salivary glands in my mouth . . . screw the details yo.
I was so inspired I immediately bought some spareribs and made it at home. God I was good. Sometimes I’m so good I scare myself. But then I get scared by my own shadow at times.
I used the Chinese black sweet rice vinegar (ChenKiang, similar to balsamic) and a couple pieces of the Chinese wafer brown sugar. The tanginess of the vinegar and sweetness of the brown sugar were deeply infused into the meat, OMG. And the pork fat combined with the thick brown sauce coating the spare ribs seeping down the little pockets of air between clusters of rice. Shit, I’m drooling on my keyboard now. Gotta stop typing and stuff my face with something substantial quick . . . butter on sourdough English muffins would be a nice little first breakfast course!
