This past weekend I had two aunts come into town and Friday night they invited me to dinner at the Signature Room.
For those of you who don’t know, the Signature Room is a restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center. The food was delicious and the view was amazing. Check it out!
One of the best things about having a fall birthday (September 19!) is that it’s one of the first celebration of the year. Even though I’m a junior, I’m only 20. (I hated driving after everyone… but as the years progress I’m sure I’ll love being the young one!) Because it isn’t a major birthday, I was just going to lay low. Maybe get some Portillo’s, hang with friends and relax.
I was expecting to come back downtown, get my friend, and head out to lunch, but I was in for a big surprise. I came back to three of my best friends in my room with a cake and decorations everywhere. It was a great surprise to come home to, and completely unexpected. Here’s a picture of their masterpiece.
For the rest of the day, I hung out with friends, watched movies and ate a lot of Portillo’s. (Best. Italian beef. Ever.) This Saturday, my friends and I are all going out to eat a place we’ve never been, Quartino. As you can see, I like to extend my birthday as long as possible! I’m thankful I have great friends who made my birthday amazing, and I cannot wait until part 2 of my celebration on Saturday!
I have survived nearly a month of school, and I feel quite good about myself. I had my first test of the semester, my Accounting test, this morning, which gave me one of my first official feelings of school being back in session. I have settled back into a nice routine for the semester, so now it’s time to get back to writing and crank out some blogs.
Last week, I didn’t write any blogs (no excuses, shame on me), so I’ll write multiple for this week to try and make up for it. Last week’s main piece of news is that my work has hired new employees. I work in the Undergraduate Admissions Office, and this is the time of the year when we welcome new student workers, so welcome guys!
We had a group meeting last week in which we went over our new computer program where we will be entering data, and afterwards we all had pizza, courtesy to our awesome boss for getting it for us. Our meeting felt like the introduction to a new work year, even though I’ve been working since the school year started. We’ve got lots of work to do, and I’m excited to get started. Go data entry!
Some other news is that one of my best friends just turned twenty-one on Saturday, and to celebrate, she and I went to Dave and Busters Friday night. She hadn’t been there since high school, and I hadn’t been there since I was about three years old, so it was definitely a good time finally going back.
We had dinner at their restaurant before hitting up the games with the Power Cards that we purchased. We wanted to get some prizes, so we mostly played the games that offered tickets. When we were done, we bought some fun little gifts with our tickets, including pens with silly heads on them.
On Saturday, I was invited to go to Wheels Family Day with my boyfriend’s family, which was the perfect day for the event. It took place in Des Plaines, and was a six hour event filled with karaoke, games, psychic readings and lots of food.
The first thing I did was I got my fortune read by a tarot card reader. She said some interesting things, including that I will one day be involved with politics somehow. This was funny to me because I’ve never been interested in politics, so I decided to get a reading from the other fortune teller later in the day. All I can say about psychics is that we are the only people who make our future because the answers I got for some things not only varied, but I personally knew that they weren’t true. Hooray for fortune tellers.
There were several other cool things that I got to do there, but those I will save for tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned for my continued weekend adventures. Until then, go try and read your own palms and tarot cards because you and the internet will probably be as accurate as the real deal.
“The Dark Knight Rises” hits theaters in two days, and I am one of millions eager to see it. My friends and I are already planning an outing for next week, which means the anticipation will build till then.
Summer started out slowly, but after a month, things picked up, and getting to see the third Batman movie in this trilogy is just one of the awesome parts of my summer.
Here’s a brief summary of last weekend’s happenings:
Friday, July 13th
1. I started this superstitious day with bowling with friends. I was out in Lombard, so we went to this little bowling alley called Stardust Bowl of Addison. Considering I’ve rarely bowled into the triple digits and my worst score ever was a 40, I was ready to do granny style bowling every time just for amusement. Though I didn’t reach triple digits (only one of us did- and there were six of us!), I did manage to get third place (by trying). I’m getting better!
2. After a round of bowling and two rounds of air hockey (this I lost at both times sadly), four of us decided to continue the day with a grand buffet meal. We’d been talking about trying Golden Corral, so that’s exactly what we did. That chocolate fountain that they have? It’s no joke- this fountain of sweet chocolaty bliss was perfect.
3. The last trip of this day was to a small place called Puppies. Guess what they sell here;monkeys! On a serious note, I found my soulmate in a small Chorkie (Chihuahua/Yorkie mix). He is four months old and so lively, but alas, I couldn’t take him home. At least I can adore him through this photo I took:
Saturday, July 14th
1. On this day, I got together with one of my best friends as well as two of her close friends from home. The four of us went to Navy Pier and rode the Ferris Wheel (this seems to be my new routine), and then started a walk out to Taste of Chicago.
2. Though we reached the Taste and the food looked great, we knew the portions wouldn’t fill our rumbling tummies for a reasonable price, so instead we walked through it until we stumbled upon Buckingham Fountain. And to think that just a few weeks ago I said that I wanted to make it a goal to finally see it this summer! It was beautiful, and even more so with the setting sun.
3. After finally getting some food, we traveled back to Rogers Park to my friend’s apartment, where we settled in with some treats and the movie Sucker Punch. Though I’ve seen it before, I hadn’t paid close attention, so seeing it for the second time was amazing. Those critics that said this movie wasn’t good? Their favorite movie is probably Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (no offense to anyone).
So what’s next for the rest of July? Movie theaters, Six Flags, and the event I’ve been dreaming of for weeks now- Anberlin’s acoustic concert at Taste of Lincoln Avenue on Saturday, July 28th.
Having been in Chicago for more than a month now, I can really begin to understand what everyone means when they say: “You must live in Chicago during the summer.” I thought my home town of St. Louis was an interesting place to spend my summer breaks; however it pales in comparison to its big Midwest brother.
Last Thursday, I checked out the largest festival Chicago has to offer, appropriately titled: “Taste of Chicago”. Among many other things, “Taste” is the premier event for food-loving aficionados who happen to be in Chicago during the early part of July. Traditionally a ten-day festival that begins around the Fourth of July, “Taste” underwent some changes this year in an effort to increase numbers. These changes included shortening the event to a five-day celebration (July11-15), as well as cutting back on the amount of food vendors invited to participate (complete rersturant list here).
Though the vendors may have been less in number than in years past, the food quality was of no concern. Amongst the food vendors stood some Chicago pillars, such as Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, Cubby Bear, and Gold Coast Dogs. Dessert was served too, with Chicago favorites like Eli’s Cheesecake and Original Rainbow Cone in attendance. Picky eaters need not be concerned with limited selection because a wide variety of cultures are represented at “Taste”, including Mexican, Jamacan, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and many more. But even with some of the best food in the city, “Taste” is so much more than a food festival.
The icing on the cake for all “Taste” attendees is the concerts that play on the large, open fields of Grant Park. Creating the inseparable bond of delicious food and great music, big-name musicians provide the evening’s entertainment. This year, names like Jennifer Hudson, Luke James, Michael Franti, Calexico, Dierks Bentley, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Death Cab for Cutie all turned out to play for the 1.2 million “Taste”-comers this year. For an up-close-and-personal experience with the bands, seats could be bought for around $25 dollars, but for those who don’t mind enjoying their pulled pork sandwiches and watermelon on the lawn, seating was free.
So, if you dare to bare the heat and mingle with some million-something people while enjoying the cities best food and a wide variety of music, the Taste of Chicago, is an event you should put on your 2013 calendar. After all, it is the largest food festival in the world.
Okay, so I promised two blogs for this week, so here’s the second one.
On Sunday, I was with a friend all day, and we decided to head down to Navy Pier because she wanted to check out the shops and hadn’t been there in a while. I might as well have been an out-of-state tourist because I had no idea that Navy Pier had so many cool little shops indoors.
We journeyed into many places, including the Build-A-Bear Shop and this cool little place with all different kind of ties. If I weren’t already tight on cash, I surely would have been at the end of this trip because there were so many things I wanted to buy.
We decided to spend what money we had on something a little bit more beneficial (but not at all nutritious) to us- Garrett’s popcorn and Haagen Dazs ice cream. Here’s a photo of one of our treats:
Was the ice cream as delicious as it looks? Definitely. Was it worth the money? That’s to be determined at a later time over cheaper ice cream.
After my second trip to Navy Pier in one week, we strolled around downtown until we came across this super awesome outdoor art exhibit. Artists from all over were displaying their work, whether it was handmade clocks, watercolor Chicago skyline paintings, or handcrafted jewelry.
My personal favorites were the paintings done by this one woman named Lidia Wylangowska. Here’s a photo I took of the small print version of a painting that I bought:
The last adventure of the day was lived up in the suburbs, out in Des Plaines. My friend and I took a road trip to a tiny restaurant called Bob Mele’s Little Villa Restaurant and Pizzeria because it was karaoke night there.
Talk about a botched attempt at a song. If Queen had heard us sing “Somebody To Love”, they would have rethought why they wrote it in the first place. We would have to beg for somebody to love our version because it turned out, we didn’t even really know the lyrics to the song (and that was just the beginning).
Other than my Sunday field trips and a lovely Sushi dinner with my cousin at a restaurant called Tank on Monday, the rest of this week has been rather slow. Thankfully, my workweek is over so who knows? Maybe I’ll check out Taste of Chicago this weekend.
The Golden Nugget, located off the Lawrence Red Line stop, sits at the humble corner of W Diversey Avenue and N Western Avenue. Boasting its name with a large golden sign (and blinking lights), the Golden Nugget begs for any hungry passer-by to stop in and give their food a try. My three buddies and I, in search of a late night meal, stumbled across this gem online and thought we would give it a try. In theme with many Chicago restaurants we have been to, we were not disappointed.
After a sizable walk west down Diversey Ave. we finally came across the Golden Nugget. Upon entering the sparsely populated diner, we were told to sit at any seat we liked. We then opened the menu, only to be overwhelmed by the shear quantity of options presented before us.
Like most diners, breakfast food was a staple on the menu; pancakes, waffles, hash browns and eggs were offered in any number of combinations. Page two outlined further outlined the breakfast options. Page three was dedicated to sandwiches and four was the entrees. Page five covered the cuisines: Italian and Mexican/Spanish dishes and six, the dinner menu. Flipping to seven and eight we encountered the soups, salads and side menu options and by page 9 we were at the skillets and burgers. Rounding out the gargantuan menu were the desserts and then finally the drink options. Needless to say, the Golden Nugget provides a plethora of options for all palates.
In the Sinfully Delicious section of the menu (located somewhere between pages two and four on the menu), are daring pancake creation that would make all moms frown in disapproval. The Golden Nugget boasts a handful of menu options that mix meal and dessert. These items include the Oreo pancakes, Oreos baked into pancakes and smothered in an icing-syrup, and the Alaskan waffle, a Belgium waffle topped with ice cream and fruit compote (a warm fruit jam).
For me and my friends, pancakes were enough. I had a large stack of the fresh blueberry pancakes while my buddies got the banana pancakes (smothered in homemade pecan syrup) and the traditional buttermilk pancakes. All at the table were pleased and sufficiently full by the end of the meal.
After eating, we bid our farewell to our pancake haven, acknowledging that we would see the Golden Nugget again.
Pictured: My two friends and some Chicago TV anchors, all having a good time, or course.
For the second year in a row, I have decided to abstain from eating meat during Lent completely, not just on Fridays. I take these 40 days to reflect on how I have been doing in regards to my faith life, and how I can improve in my relationship with God, but those around me.
At first, it can be hard because I always feel hungry, but I know that this brief sacrifice is worth it.
Over the weeks, I have found meatless options just in case I am not up to cooking my own meal. Oysy is a sushi bar off of the Grand L stop. The restaurant offers an interesting lunch special that lasts until 5:00 p.m.! For $13, one can get miso soup, vegetable tempura, edamame, six pieces of sushi, salad and a grilled seafood or meat.
I chose to go with the grilled eel and I thought it was delicious, filling, and definitely cost effective. The ambiance is very relaxing, and the service was great. If I could have meals like this until Lent is over, it comes to show that giving up meat is not that bad after all.
One of the greatest things about Chicago is the diversity. Every neighborhood is different. From Little Italy, Chinatown, Greek Town, to Devon. Devon Ave is a street very close to campus and at times it can feel like a different country in itself. Chicago is packed with culture, and with culture comes food.
I have been to most of the cultural centers of Chicago and experienced the food, the people and the special environments they create. This weekend I took a trip down Devon.
Countless Sari shops, rug imports and restaurants remind you what exists in the world outside the United States.
After much deliberation, my friends and I ended up at Hema’s Kitchen. The restaurant’s sign claims (and might actually be the) “Best Indian Cuisine” in Chicago. I don’t know much about Indian food but it is the best I have ever had.
Lamb Curry with Naan and a Vegi Samosa, it was a good night.
I’m surprised I haven’t thought to bring this up yet, but picking up a cupcake from More, reminded me of the cupcake craze that has hit in recent years. More has a particularly exciting way to score free cupcakes and has become a pretty popular thing to do, especially if you live on the Water Tower Campus.
It’s simple and slightly addictive. Once you “like” the More Facebook page, you are able to tag yourself in photos of cupcakes. The owner will pick a type of cupcake for the week, and every Tuesday she will post pictures of that cupcake periodically throughout the day. The limit of taggers in a picture is 50, and it is quite surprising how quickly a picture will fill up– usually within a few seconds. When you go to the store, you simply present your ID and they check you off a list.
I’ve seen some seasoned taggers work their magic, tagging not only themselves but several friends in a single cupcake. Fortunately, having friends as tagging vets, usually means a guaranteed free cupcake. I’ve become fairly skilled myself.
If you find that tagging isn’t your style, Sprinkles has a system similar to More that requires tweeting to get a free cupcake.
And if all else fails, even the poorest of college students can manage a few dollars for a delicious cupcake treat!
