Sorry for the big lapse in posts! Here are our excuses…
Excited to see my parents!
Omusubi (Sunny Blue)
Freshest of fruits
LA Street Art
Family timez
In n Out
Hungry taking creepy pics of me sleeping on the beach
Bad bad sunburns
Post beach-ness
Ramen!
Promenade
PIE
Hungry got interviewed by a Japanese reporter of course…
Airport food…
You may have noticed that we have lapsed in our posting the past week. This is because my parents came in for an Easter visit! It’s been tons of fun. We did loads of stuff and there are tons of pictures that I still need to steal from other family members. Here’s a short snippet. But no worries, we are back in the saddle here at Hungry and Fit!
Spring has sprung!
We went to Estes Park…mum is modeling…
Mum made tons of lovely breakfasts
Noke got to enjoy the sun as the whole family gardened
EASTER!!
Noke cuddling
Rainbow!!
Some darn good food…
Good view of Boulder
Mum made scones
Mum being ridiculous
Eldorado
Poor Noke
She gets revenge
Good Indian food
Good Korean food
Fit’s parents…miss them already
We have just arrived back from a nice 5-day vacation on the magical East Coast! We went out to visit Chris’ family (he’s from New Jersey/New York) and also see some friends. We had planned to prepare posts for each day ahead of time…but obviously that didn’t work. We have a little pathetic excuse, that there was no wifi we were able to get onto in the house…but still, sorry! I hope this post of deliciousness and friends will help you forgive us. It will be picture-heavy and text-light.
It was an early start to the Wednesday of us flying out–6:30am flight called for a 3:15am wake-up. We drove the car over to the airport and had a nice smooth ride, stopping briefly in Minneapolis before arriving at Newark. Since everyone who could pick us up were working, we decided to take it slow and just take public transportation back to Chris’ town, Midland Park, New Jersey. We got to the train station, his mum picked us up and we had an early first dinner of some good Chinese food. Two hours and a chiropractic appointment later, we had another dinner with his brother at a great thin-crust pizza. We finished that night off with some great Van Dyk’s ice cream and played video games all night with a good friend, Po.
Po & Chris, ice cream buds
On Thursday, we wake up bright and early (not getting much more than 5 hours sleep…who sleeps on vacation, right?) and pack in the car with Chris’ mum to visit Chris’ sister in Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia. And grabbed delicious bagel sandwiches on the way! It was a great day of relaxation, visiting Chris’ niece, adorable puppy, spending quality family time, and watching movies like Hotel Transylvania and Puss in Boots. We didn’t get home until around midnight and collapsed right to sleep.
Chris and his niece on a walk
Puppppyyyyyy
On Friday, it was another early-wake-up day for us because we were visiting the city–New York! We had a great day seeing lots of friends from college. We found our way to my friend Mary Kate via bus and had a great breakfast with her before she headed into her super awesome 60 Minutes work. Then we took the good old 1 train uptown to the college where we met, Manhattan College. We got to meet up with some friends who still are attending, some who drove in for the day just to see us, and our old bosses. Chris got to fit in a leg workout while I hung out with my old JustPeace (a social justice club I led) club while they held an event. I got to see Kathleen and Hilary here.
Times Square, crazy to be back
Yum
hi!
Roomates 4 lyfe
My boss (Lois), Kathleen, and I
Quad livin’
Sweaty buds
After that (still Friday), we grabbed Kathleen and kidnapped her back downtown where we forced her to see The Grandmaster (review coming soon), which was pretty epic at one of our favorite indie theatres at Lincoln Center. We walked around Central Park for a bit before walking down to the famous Halal Cart which came from humble beginnings but is now 3 carts deep. We chowed down on some platters and then met up with Allan to go to the Yankee game. It was a lot of fun and we got great seats! Pretty good game too–2 of Chris’ favorite players hit homers. We then got a ride back to New Jersey, had some ice cream, then went to sleep.
Central Park walk
Chowing on Halal–thanks for the pic, Kathleen
DROOL.
Yankee game
On Saturday, we actually slept in! All the way until 9am! I know–crazy. While we waited for our friend, Allan, to wake up, we went and visited Abma’s Farm for some baked goods and sheep humor. After that, and he still wasn’t up, we went to the local Wildlife Conservatory which has beautiful paths and only animals that need rehabilitation. We finally met Allan, Jane Kim (a friend of Chris’) and her boyfriend at a new place in town for “brunch” (…at 12:30pm). Although we were wary about prices and reviews, it turned out to be delicious and a great time! We walked around town afterwards, got some boba, and hung out at the Ridgewood Park. We then grabbed a Tony’s Pizza to eat the next day (because they would be closed on Sunday). Later that night, Chris’ whole family went out to hibachi and it was delicious! Then after, we of course got more ice cream and went to sleep.
This sheep had the deepest voice ever…creepy
Beautiful nature walk
My delicious breakfast burrito at brunch
Friends
Best pizza I’ve ever had
Hibachi!
We have another late morning wake-up on Sunday, this time around 8:30. I decide to go for a easy-paced run in the morning while we get started on the day. We basically spent the entire day visiting Chris’ many aunts and uncles–it was really nice to meet all of them as I hadn’t met many before. That night we met up with Pablo and Brit (Chris’ close friends) and we drove 15 miles to go to East, a restaurant with sushi on a conveyor belt. Delicious! We then watched Here Comes the Boom (surprisingly awesome movie) and, of course, got some more ice cream.
Nom nom nom
Now it’s Monday, and we’re wondering how this vacation is already over! However…our flight wasn’t until 7pm so we had a good amount of time to spend with friends before we took off. We had a nice breakfast with Pablo and Brit that morning while we waited for Allan and Po to roll out of bed. I got way too much food…brie-stuffed french toast, eggs, home fries, and toast! We then meet up with everyone else and to everyone’s disappointment, Chris coerces us to go see the Percy Jackson movie. Okay maybe not coerced, but reactions were definitely amusing. After that movie, we all piled into cars and rushed to Mitsuwa (which will be getting its own post), which is a magical place that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into Japan. Once we gobble down some delicious food, Allan is nice enough to take us down to JFK in Labor Day traffic. We owe him a big one.
Brie-stuffed french toast. yup.
And that was our trip! We had a pleasant flight and watched Great Gatsby (review coming soon) to make the 4.5 hours go by quickly. We are still catching up on sleep, and apologize again for the lack of posts, but here we come on full throttle! I’m probably forgetting a lot in this post, but I did what I could from memory! Make sure you travel to stay hungry and fit!
Thunder storm below us
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BONUS KITTY PIC
Kathleen and I ^.^
This product is a result of the work of the worker and not the place they are working. A true talent can create without any tools or resources because they make everything work by themselves. But some nice equipment and a great working environment can really help maximize those results sometimes! In Northern Iowa, about two hours from Des Moines and Minneapolis, lies Mason City, the home of the Music Man. It’s a large town with a small population but it has one of the best gyms in the country that no one knows about. Welcome to Ironhouse Gym.
Outside of the building
It is what you would expect due to the name. A small building made of sheet metal that absorbs the extreme temperatures and weather conditions of Northern Iowa, but you would never know that while inside because of the great temperature control. I’m not one who cares how hot or cold it is where I workout but it’s nice for other people who have those needs. Another major perk is that the facility is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’re a member and you have a keycard, then you can key in whenever you want. This is the kind of place I would love to have to myself at 2:00 a.m. although all of our workouts were mid-morning. The three days we were there it certainly wasn’t busy during those normally peak times, but it wasn’t empty either. All kinds of people were working out, but no one that unnecessarily threw weights and stacks around. They actually are pretty strict with behavior, which I can appreciate. If you’re deadlifting twice your body weight and need to drop it, okay I get it. Lately however, guys at our gym in Boulder (big guys) have been tossing the 35s on flat chest press like they were lifting 140s. Oh well.
Speaking of equipment, Ironhouse has it all. I don’t want to tell you what they have because it’s like a spoiler in a good story. However, I will say that the dumbbells do not go very heavy. I think the heaviest were in the 120-140 lb range. I would expect up to 200 in such a great place but that’s fine! There are plenty of other ways to get your heavy lift on here. Full and half racks, roman chairs, captain chairs, wide chest press, elevated stand for back exercises, standing shrug machine, tons of plate loaded stuff, lots of cable and stack based machines, every bench you need, places for pullups and dips, tons of cardio equipment, and more and more and more.
I was like a kid in a candy shop. I wanted to do something on every machine because no place in Boulder has anything like this. The only gym I have found in Colorado that can compare so far is Armbrust Pro Gym where Phil Heath trains. The amount of cable based machines with stacks is ridiculous. They have nearly 5 machines just for triceps in that section alone. It’s absurd and everything is this bright firehouse red, which is awesome. I want to go back!
The dressing rooms are modest and the lockers are on the floor. There are no showers but who needs those anyway. There is also a supplement and apparel store attached to the gym that is open during normal business hours. They have great deals on great supplements and I bought this awesome tank the second that I saw it. They also have an honor-based mini-store in the gym itself for when the store is closed. If you need a pre, intra, or post workout you can grab it out of the mini-fridge and throw some cash in the cash box if you’re an honest man or woman. You can buy belts, lifting straps and other gear too if you need it. They have everything you NEED and a ton of stuff you WANT.
We did a push day, lower body day, and a pull day while we were there and it was a blast. Check out the website or leave a comment if you have any questions but if you need the best gym in Northern Iowa and maybe even a greater area around that, Ironhouse Gym in Mason City, Iowa is your place. Bring one to Boulder! Bring one everywhere! Very nice employees, awesome facilities, great products, and the best equipment makes Ironhouse Gym an easy place to help you stay hungry and fit!
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If you read the title you know that there are a lot of good things going on so this has to end well. Hungry’s favorite soup and potentially his favorite food is ramen. Most of you are probably thinking why would Hungry love ramen; it’s not good for you and it’s disgusting. That’s what a lot of people I know say until I get them some real ramen. Ramen is a type of noodle popular in Asian cultures such as Japan and Korea.
You can find it in American supermarkets made by Maruchan and Top Ramen for anywhere from 15-25 cents a package. It’s almost completely nutritionally void or negative with dead calories and large amounts of sodium and abundant processing. But I love it. Ever since my sister ate ramen in high school, I have loved it. Luckily, I live a generally healthy lifestyle so I do not feel guilty or see the negative effects of eating it, even in excess, but you need to be careful consuming these supermarket brands (but the real stuff is okay!). BUT this all is going to be saved for another time because I didn’t mean to say this much about ramen. This is a restaurant review for Men Oh Tokushima Ramen in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.
Little Tokyo (you can see Fit on the left corner!)
Daikokuya is the most popular ramen spot in Japangeles. It is always packed and it was very busy when we went with our party of 6. We decided to pass it up and continue to Men Oh because of reviews on Yelp. It is not in the main drag of Little Tokyo and is hidden in a strip mall so it can be hard to find. You need to find it. The 6 of us (Fit’s family and family friend) walked in the Sunday night before Memorial Day. It was empty but by the time we left it was completely full although it is small. The menu is tiny but I can assure you that nearly everything is amazing since we had nearly everything. Everything we had was amazing so we figure everything is just as good.
The Menu
The atmosphere mimics a perfect, small ramen shop but not ramen stop. It was very clean and cute. The staff was organized, kind, professional and efficient. The food was ridiculously filling, delicious and cheap as dirt. It also was much healthier than your store-brand ramen. Their theme is ramen influenced by Tokushima Prefecture on the smallest of Japan’s 4 major islands, Shikoku Island. The industry here is based on raising pork so the ramen has broth heavily flavored by pork bones and filled with pork meat. We got 4 of their 3 ramen dishes available (custom) and all were nearly flawless. I was the only one with great ramen experience but even people having it for the first time were as thrilled as I was.
Awesome painting
My dish
Fit’s dish (without meat or pork broth)
I can’t say much more than this is the perfect spot. You get a cheap, delicious, and filling meal that is quickly served by an efficient and kind wait staff in a clean and enjoyable environment. We will go back whenever we can and bring whoever we can. Michelin might not give this place a star, but I certainly do. And that says a lot. Really. Hungry approved. More to come about my obsession and history with ramen in the future!
Hungry & Fit chowing down
Double-fisting…finishing everybody else’s broths
While I was in Korea, I spent a lot of time in a place known as a jjimjilbang. It’s essentially a spa, translates into heated bath room, but it’s unlike those I’ve found in the United States (Not that I go to many spas). Although King Spa is not as extravagant, in terms of activities to do, it is an excellent destination. Essentially I want to discuss these places so that you can look for one near you and experience something amazing.
It’s a treat for the body and mind. The ones in the United States, including King Spa, are ridiculously more expensive than those in all parts of Korea. I’ve stayed in ones in Seoul, Boryeong, Jukjeon, and Donghae. Maybe some others but I can’t really remember. I spent the most time in Jukjeon because it was so close to the school I attended so I frequented those jjimjilbang and they were obviously my favorite. But moving on to why they are so amazing.
King Spa
At King Spa, you can park your car and enter the spa for a full day and night of peace and relaxation… and delicious food! Obviously the choice of food and television is Korean and there are mostly Korean Americans at King Spa, but you get other individuals that have discovered the magic within as well. They have lots of showers and different temperature baths. There is a nice warm one, a burning hot one, and a freezing cold one.
There are also equivalents for steam rooms. These are painfully hot. In my opinion, the main attractions are these dome like rooms that are typically made of mud that contain special scents and materials that help heal the body. These domes are also temperature controlled and they range from hundreds of degrees to freezing. Some rooms require wearing burlap sacks and some have snowmen in them. There are chairs for watching television and relaxing and rooms dedicated to complete sleep and relaxation. There are tons of delicious food to snack on and if you want to find out more about the food there… then make sure to read our review on Korea House in Boulder. Alana also gave her go at Korean food too.
I don’t want to go into too much depth because King Spa doesn’t have as much to offer as places in South Korea, but it is your responsibility to treat your body right. Find a spa like one of these and treat yourself to some rest, relaxation and recovery. It will make you healthier and stronger and such a happier person. Find a jjimjilbang if you want to stay hungry and fit!
This picture was AFTER all-you-can-eat sushi at around 11pm after no sleep from flying to NJ. But still happy
Watch out, it’s another stop on our New Jersey Easter Vacation! And of course, yes, it’s another food stop… And this time, it’s PIZZA! Who doesn’t love pizza? (Awkward for lactose intolerants…) So if you read our About section, you know I hail from California. Before I went to New York, I thought we Californians had pretty good pizza. Boy, was I wrong! Not that Californian pizza is horrible, but it just doesn’t compare to New York or New Jersey pizza. Especially, Tony’s Italian Kitchen.
Us driving around Chris’ hometown
It’s easy to pass up Tony’s, it’s in a tiny strip mall along with some other offices like Chris’ chiropractor and other little places. But once you discover it, it’s a gem! Luckily, Chris and his family had been getting Tony’s pizza for years, so all I had to do was tag along. The first bite I had, I was able to declare this the best pizza I’ve ever had, and trust me, I’ve had a lot of pizza. More specifically, it has the best cheese pizza. His family very often gets it to bring it home. And then I always eat too much.
So during this New Jersey Easter trip, it was our second food stop after having bagels for breakfast. We had two of our friends with us and split a large cheese pie between us. The wait was tantalizing. And then it came out to us, sizzling and hot. We always let it cool a little so the cheese can settle. And you should always have a Peach Snapple with it too. That first bite into that pizza was awesome. We hadn’t had it for six months or so, so it was that much better!
Drool-worthy
What really makes Tony’s the best is the amazing sauce. I don’t know what they do to it, but it is so fresh. It was really difficult not to scarf it down way completely fast. The crust is scrumptious and dusted to perfection. If you think you’ve had good pizza, come to Tony’s Italian Kitchen and see if you’ve really had the BEST. Cheers!
BONUS KITTY PIC
Cute Sajah
This is another stop during our New Jersey Easter vacation. Make sure you check out the last one, which will make your mouth water for baked goods. Unfortunately for you, you’re due for another drool-session. This time, make it ice cream. And yes “Team Gluttony” (see picture below) went to Van Dyk’s right after Abma’s.
“Team Gluttony”
What is Van Dyk’s? Probably the homemade ice cream store with the best black & white (aka chocolate and vanilla) milkshake I’ve ever had. We always go here on our stops in New Jersey, and during this trip we went too many times. Their ice cream is made right there in the little store and you can tell. Every bite is delicious and never tastes like artificial crap not worth paying for. For the first time, I got something other than the black and white shake (well…ONE of the times we went during a 2-day period). And I can personally say that their ice cream is just as tasty and satisfying as their shakes.
Me gulping down a milk shake
And let me tell you, I was never really even into milkshakes before this place. I am now. This ice cream trip was even better because we got to enjoy it with some newcomers and old timers, both of whom we hadn’t seen in a while. Friends and ice cream–hard combo to beat. [Note to family: my Powell ice cream genes are flourishing right now] Writing about this place makes me miss it…can’t wait until our next trip to Van Dyk’s for some delicious homemade ice cream.
Van Dyk’s little homey shop
Cheers! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
This is one of the many posts you will be receiving about our trip to and from New Jersey–Chris’ home. Since it’s mid-morning, I decided to start with Abma’s Farm. A magical place filled with baked goods and hungry farm animals. It’s a farm, nursery, petting zoo, and marketplace all in one! It is always a necessary stop for us when we visit. And it was, too, when I would visit him from New York while I was still in college.
It was our…third food stop of the day, and I think we got there around noon or 1 o’ clock. This day (Friday) was a special treat because two of my friends from college either drove all the way from the city (Jordan) or took the train all the way up from South Jersey (Kathleen). Hadn’t seen them in six months or so, and it was amazing to see them again. Another friend, Hilary, was about to drive from Connecticut as she was planning, but then got very sick, so she’s visiting this summer here in Boulder instead! We also got to have Chris’ good friend, Po, around with us pretty much the whole day. Awesomeness. See pic below of Kathleen (left) and Jordan (right) and one of Hilary and I.
Kathleen and Jordan
Hilary and I
“Po” with a delicious donut
“Team Gluttony”
Anyways, onto the important stuff–the FOOD (just kidding, guys, love ya). This place has all sorts of delicious items like mozzarella cheese, pies, peppers, and so forth. But what you come to Abma’s for is the BAKED GOODS. And especially from the baked goods, is their cinnamon donuts. Literally right from the oven which is a building away (about 50 feet from the marketplace). You see them bring a big batch in and it’s hard not to gobble less than four down at once. It was Easter weekend, so it was packed–which means lots and lots of baked goods. Everything tastes very fresh and, baked goods-wise, everything is pretty well-priced. It’s hard to beat and it’s definitely hard NOT to pig out. Which we of course did.
So tasty
Then there’s the farm animals which are usually adorable and hungry. In the case of today, where there were 10x more people than usual, they weren’t so hungry–but they were still pretty cute. Abma’s has room for pigs, ponies, mules, goats, chicks, chickens, and more! It’s always fun to see them and give them treats.
To summarize, Abma’s has it all. It’s always a place we’re excited to go to and leave feeling happy and full. The animals are always cute and make funny noises, the baked goods are always fresh, and the marketplace is always full of anything needed to be eaten. If you haven’t already, check it out when you’re in North Jersey!
Cheers!
BONUS KITTY PIC
“Katt” — Get it?
Swim training
Just keep swimming!
Competition
Scuba-ing
