Epicurious Runner

22 April

3Comments

13 Miles to Spanish Food

Posted by Stephanie in food,running

Ugh! I just wrote this post and it got deleted by Ecto, my blogging software. So here goes again…

It’s been an intense week! Work is suddenly busy, I have a lot of side projects going on, Derek’s birthday was on Thursday and I’ve had an unexpected good week of running.

I met up with Jocelyn, Katie, Laura, Carla, and Alanna yesterday for a 14 mile run. We started on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge and headed toward Prospect Park. We ran the first half of the Brooklyn half course and finished the rest of the miles inside the park.

Here is and old picture of the park for you.

The run was a lot of fun, I had a great time talking with everyone and just running with people is way better, I need to do that more often. I ended up stopping my run at 13 miles because I was just so ready to be done. I stopped with Jocelyn, who was already at 17 miles and we cut through the park to meet up with the rest of the girls on the other side.

It was a beautiful day and it was so nice to run a new route.

My friends Jeremy and Kat picked me up at the park and from there we headed back to Queens to grab Derek and then we were off to Pio Pio.

Salchipapa and Chicken Pio

Maduras

Oh man, Pio Pio was soooo good! I can’t believe we’ve never been there before. It’s a huge (well NYC huge) restaurant that serves simple, and basic Spanish food. Derek was in heaven, he loves his Spanish food. We will definitely be back, it’s a short drive from our place in Queens.

A great post run meal!

So….I hurt my back a bit during those 13 miles. My back was a little sore while I was running, but it never really bothered me or felt like I needed to stop. When I got out of the car after the drive back, I was shocked at how much my back hurt. I am wondering if it’s from running on the huge hill(s) that we conquered during the run. I read that hills can cause lower back pain and I have not been doing any hill work at all, so it kind of makes sense.

Anyway, it’s improved a lot since yesterday, but it’s definitely still sore. I am hoping a few days of not running will do the trick. Good thing I’m not training for anything, so I will take off as many days as necessary to make sure I’m okay.

In other news, Nuun is announcing the Hood To Coast teams on Tuesday, I can’t wait!!!

Tags: Ethnic

28 July

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SHIRA KIKU – My First Japanese & Korean Experience

Posted by Stephanie in Restaurant Review

I was very happy to oblige when my brother in-law suggested we go out to a Korean restaurant. I had yet to eat Korean food and I had been dying to try it. Okay so technically i twas Japanese and Korean, but I was excited because my sister, Kerri and her husband, Scott said this place was awesome and they didn’t mind going two weekends in a row.

We arrived at Shira Kiku on a Saturday night a little after 8 o’clock. I believe we had the same waitress as they did the previous weekend. She was extremely outgoing and friendly and made us feel very welcome! It was nice to have such an involved waitress who seemed to actually care that we enjoyed our time there and our meal.

After studying the menu for several minutes, we decided on some sushi for an appetizer and we were finally ready to place our orders for our entrees.

We didn’t order this, this is what is brought to you automatically, which is pretty impressive in my opinion. Okay I can’t remember what everything was, but I can tell you what type of food it was. Starting on the left, there were pickles, covered in something spicy, in the middle, was some kind of egg thing, on the right was tofu, on the upper right were black beans, then the top dish was turnip and on the left hand side were bean sprouts. It was all delicious and I couldn’t believe this was brought out complimentary.

We ordered two kinds of Maki Rolls for an appetizer and for the life of me I cannot remember what the first one was and of course I forgot to take a picture. Maybe it was spicy tuna? Anyway, our second rolls were YAMI YAMI, Japanese sweet potato & cucumber and they were freakin fabulous! Sorry for the blurry picture.

I, of course ordered a drink to go with my meal, since I just spent hours and hours traveling that day. I got a Hawaiian Mai Tai and it was so perfectly made! Mmm, I would go back just for that drink.

Miso Soup came with our meal, which is Japanese and it was the first time I had ever tried it. It was so good and light, I loved it! I drank every last bit.

My sister and I both ordered the same meal;

STONEPOT BIBIMBOP, Bibimbop in hot stone pot. This

was listed under the Korean Specials and it seemed like the perfect thing to get.

This comes with a barely cooked egg on top, you can barely see it underneath there, but apparently when they have time and aren’t busy, they will crack the egg fresh at your table. They then come around and stir your pot up, which allows the egg to cook completely and it becomes mixed in with the rest of the pot.

I can’t remember exactly what Scott ordered, but it was definitely one of the hottest things on the menu. I tried a bite and it was delicious, just like the rest of our food.

I was happy that my pot was filled with lots of vegetables! It also came with a sauce to pour over it and I ended up using the whole thing, it was definitely necessary. The Bibimbop had kind of a light flavor to it, it wasn’t super saucy or overwhelming with any one flavor. It tasted fresh and healthy, but it was also very filling. I feel like I barely made a dent by the time I called it quits. It was so good that I made sure to pack it up and bring the rest of it back to NYC in a cooler with an ice pack. I definitely wanted these leftovers!

I can’t wait to go back to NH so I can bring Derek here, he missed out on this awesome meal. I am also proud to say I ate my whole meal with chopsticks, Ha!

Tags: Ethnic, Food