My Weekend in Snapshots: Ramen, Running and Brunch

Posted on Apr 2nd, 2012

by Johanna

Categories:

Adventures of a Wannabe Foodie

Our weekend started off at Toki Underground, which had been on the to do list for far too long. Knowing there was likely to be a wait, we stopped by at 6:45 to put our names on the list for a party of 4. Sure enough, we had time to go home and play with Lila, drink a home-brew with Holly and Jason and walk to H St. before we sat down to eat around 8:45. Totally worth the wait, although planning strategically doesn’t hurt.

The cocktails sounded fun (cucumber sea foam, pork belly stirrer) but they didn't deliver. Next time I'll stick to beer. Courtney's Echigo Stout lacked the allure to appear in this photo, but it won on taste.

This duck breast appetizer, a special for the evening, was tender and delightful.

Steamed chicken dumplings. Not bad, but you may as well skip them and save your room for the ramen.

A mid-course chopsticks lesson

The star of the show, the Toki Hakata Classic: Tonkotsu noodle soup with pork loin chashu, vegetables, pickled ginger and a soft boiled egg.

Loved our kitchen side seats- compliments to the chefs!

At our waiter’s recommendation for first time Toki diners, I stuck with the classic. Excellent recommendation indeed, although I don’t know that I’ll be able to stray from it in the future. The broth was rich and a bit spicy from the generous amount of fresh ginger, the perfect medicine for the very poorly timed cold I had coming on strong. Unable to wait for it to cool down, I burnt the shit out of my lips, but it was totally worth it. I ate every last drop.

At $25 a head, for a cocktail, appetizer and dinner much better than I’ve had at some of the higher end restaurants around town, I can see why the dinner crowd constantly overflows the tiny dining area. Souls warmed and bellies full, our crew agreed that we’d all be returning.

Saturday birthday brunch for a friend at Bistro du Coin. Wish I'd taken pictures of the awesome table decor and super attractive pals instead of my mediocre omelette with frites.

I was feeling quite nervous about my ability to run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler with a cold that was making it difficult to stand in line for ten minutes at H&M without getting light headed. I was feeling even more nervous that my taste buds might not be at their full potential to enjoy brunch at Acadiana, which I’ve been looking forward to much more than the race. Luckily, spicy pork noodle soup, Cold-EEZE and an abundance of rest had me in good enough shape to run, and more importantly enjoy brunch.

Ready to run, or at least really good at pretending!

26389_572329056146_32503833_33159550_5634234_n-1 — Flashback, circa 2010. Some things don't change!

Yes, I was using both Twitter and Instagram while running. I was even quite tempted to take my turn in Words with Friends. Maybe replacing my iPod with my iPhone wasn't the best idea?

I did much better than expected on the run, especially given the impending plague (yes, I’m a drama queen when I’m sick. It’s genetic). This was the furthest I’ve run since my marathon in October 2010, and I finished in 1:21:15 (an 8:08 pace). My only real goal was to finish before the DayQuil wore off, but I admit I had an unspoken goal of beating my 2010 time (1:24:13, 8:26), which I also achieved, so I’m happy. I’m always shocked by how much faster I run in races than on my normal training runs. I think I ran all ten miles of the Cherry Blossom faster than any one of the five miles I run on a typical day. I’ve never been someone who runs competitively or for speed, which I think has worked out in my favor in most instances. By not pushing myself above what felt natural, I ran a by no means fast, but very steady marathon, finishing with a smile and running again within two days. Still, I can’t fight the itch to beat my own time.

Update: Only my fellow runners are going to be interested in this addendum to my post, but the RunPix full data and statistics on the results is totally rocking my socks off right now. It shows your percentile in various categories, allows you to search where exactly on the course you were compared to any other specific runner, and shows your exact split times in mph and pace. I know it’s really not rocket science… in fact, I imagine this doesn’t require much additional technology once you have the chip. But I’m totally loving this. Information is power.

**Result in Entire Field - 3397th place**
*13423 finishers behind. About 20% of finishers ahead.*
*(Courtney Tate was one of them. Grrr)*

**Result in Gender (Women) - 968th place**
*8690 finishers behind. About 10% of finishers ahead.*

**Result in Division (F2529) - 304th place**
*2442 finishers behind. About 11% of finishers ahead.*

I ran 7.1mph [8:24] for the first five miles and 7.6mph [7:51] for the second five miles.

During the Second Half:

You passed 439 runners

And 78 passed you

Acadiana’s brunch was recommended by my dear friend Laura, and when I saw it was Louisiana cuisine I knew I’d have to rope Lori & Eric in for the adventure. The $29 pre-fix menu includes an appetizer, entree and dessert, plus mimosas or bloody marys for a $1 each. We held court in an awesome round table right in front of the live jazz band. I think we would have been happy to turn our little throne around and watch jazz and sip cocktails for the rest of the afternoon if they’d have let us.

Brunch did not disappoint, the highlights for me being the charbroiled oysters appetizer and the bananas foster bread pudding dessert. Just these two plates could have filled me up completely, and pushing through all three courses was as much of a challenge as the ten miles. As for the mimosas, while I’m sure the abundance of fresh orange juice provided me with lots of cold-fighting vitamin C, I prefer to have a little bit of champagne in my mimosa.