My primary reason for wanting to go to Sunset Park was to pay a visit to the Yun Nan Flavour Snack, which I noticed in the past month in both the New York Times and New York Magazine. I don't know anything about Yunnanese food, other than the fact that the Yunnan province is bordered by Sichuan province to the north, and the Vietnam, Laos and Burma to the south. So I had a feeling that it would be a tasty mix of the spiciness of Sichuan with the tanginess of Southeast Asia.
The Flavour Snack is a tiny little place, with no tables and just a few seats lining the counter which wrapped the room. The menu was equally minuscule, consisting of only noodle soup, with a choice of three different noodles and six different toppings. Our plan was just to get a "snack" here, in order to try out the famed noodle soup before going somewhere else in the neighborhood for a slightly more upscale dinner. So the three of us shared a bowl of the rice noodle with crispy meat sauce. Ooooh, sooo goood! It was a delicious mix of gently-cooked sliced pork, tender slices of pork intestine and crunchy fried pork skin, in a richly flavored broth heavy on the cilantro, chili peppers, and fried shallots (not to mention a healthy dose of MSG).
I would have been happy ordering another bowl of noodles all to myself, but the three of us eyed a cute Sichuan place around the corner, Metro Cafe (menu here), which we wanted to stop into. Apparently just opened in March, the Metro Cafe combines an authentic Sichuan menu with some fun Japanese and Taiwanese dishes. We mostly stayed on the Sichuan side. One of my favorite Sichuan appetizers is fuqi feipain, which literally translates as "Husband and Wife Lung Slices"--it's a cold dish with beef tripe, tongue and tendon, marinated in a spicy mala sauce. The fuqi feipian was delicious here, definitely better than at Grand Sichuan. It was more "ma" and less "la" than than Grand Sichuan (i.e., less chili-oil hot, and more Sichuan peppercorn spicy), and it left my mouth and tongue with a great tingly/numbing feeling.
The other highlights of the night were the braised fish with hot bean sauce (dou ban yu) and the twice cooked pork (hui guo rou). The fish was a giant piece of (I think) buffalo carp belly. It came with so much hot bean sauce that it was served in a deep pyrex baking dish! When we ordered the twice cooked pork, I naively asked whether it was made with pork belly or lean pork. The response, in Chinese, was: "This is an authentic Sichuan restaurant. We don't serve lean pork!" It was delicious. :-)
The next morning, I joined Mikey, Matt and Peter on a 14 miler from Rutgers to the South Street Seaport and back. I don't know why, but it seems like every time I do a long run, I end up eating crazy spicy food the night before--usually either Sichuan or Thai--which invariably unsettles my stomach the next day. Without getting into too many details, it took me four attemps Saturday morning to rid my body of the mala-fest and begin my run. Even so, I had to make everyone wait at the Christopher Street facilities around mile three for a quick pitstop. But after that, I felt fresh and about two pounds lighter, haha.
The run felt pretty good most of the way. After my pitstop, Mikey and I slowed down a tiny bit while Matt and Peter stepped it up. They got to the turnaround about a minute before us and waited for us to finish. (Of course, that meant they got a minute break and we didn't! By that point, I really would not have minded a break...).
On our way back, the run started getting a bit more difficult. Since I'm just running about 2 or 3 times a week because of my continuing butt issue, I felt like 14 miles was definitely pushing the limits of my fitness level. Then, around mile 11, I felt my right hamstring tighten up. This was similar to the feeling I got around the last eight miles of the NYC marathon. I knew this wasn't a good sign, but I pushed on. The last couple of miles were not easy. And the last mile, from 53rd Street to 72nd Street, always seems like it goes on forever.
In the end, though, I finished, without too much pain, just a few second behind Mikey, and about 3-4 minutes faster in the second half than in the first half. I was pretty pleased, considering everything.
The rest of the day, though, was kind of a mess. I went to get brunch after the fun run, and had to get up twice in the middle of eating to stretch my legs because my butt/hamstring was so uncomfortable. Later, I went to the Museum of the City of New York, where they show a 25-minute film on the history of the City. Halfway through the movie, I had to get up from my seat and stand against the wall. I'm feeling much better today, and am looking forward to the Tritons swim workout tonight--my first swim workout in a very long time. Also, tomorrow I'm going to see Dr. Eric Degis, the guy who Chris Stoia saw for his butt problem, who, apparently, was able to work wonders on it. I'll keep you posted.
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