Helloooooo, I’m back with another food blog from Chicago! You’ll probably see tons of Food Alerts blogs from Chicago because I only live a few hours away and I’m the type of person to drive for some good food. What I love about Chicago is the variety of food spots that exists and how there’s constantly new places popping up! This one has a special location because we also have one of these restaurants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yes, you read that right! You don’t have to travel as far to my Wisconsin readers. In today’s blog, I’ll be talking about all the spots that I visited in one day. Let’s get HUNGRY.
First stop of the day was Bearology. Boba teas are always a must when traveling! I don’t exactly enjoy tapioca pearls like that, but the teas or the drink part is where it’s at. This was a smaller location in Schaumburg, but they had this cute bear decor on the wall! If only they had it on sale, I would have bought it on the spot. The green drink on the left is their Shimmering Kiwi Lemonade with Tapioca Boba and the right drink is their Strawberry Mango Green Tea with Lychee Jelly. The cool thing about Bearology is that you can choose their jars or flask to have the drinks in and if you bring it back on your future visits, you get 10% off your drinks! We love reducing plastic waste ♡
Imagine this, you’re sitting down in a small convenient store eating a pizza puff, Pho Bo, an Ube Cookie and the Viet Dip while listening to Slow Down by Bobby Valentino. Yeah, you bet I felt like I was 10 years old back in 2005 eating a home cooked meal blasting the radio. Phodega is where it’s at if you want that nostalgic experience. The food is authentic Vietnamese food (yes, even the pizza puff. It’s the bread dough that they use.) Plus where can you get a pizza puff and pho at the same place? The place has limited seating, but it’s worth the wait! The Viet Dip is an Italian dip, thinly sliced ribeye, cilantro, onions, and jalapeño on french bread with a side of pho jus to dip in.
Now let’s talk about some drinks! A foodie adventure is not an adventure if you don’t have some drinks and I’m not talking about our boba from earlier either. A L C O H O L, but make it unique and innovative. Yes, you heard that right! Machine: Engineered Dining & Drink is the place to go for that. I’ve never seen a place like this before, they had a flower wall and fall trees indoors. Then you can request the florist and flower cart to come to your table and make a personalized bouquet for you right on the spot! Now that is service! I ordered the Caged And Infused cocktail drink and it came with a little hammer to smash the candy cage. I failed pretty badly, but it was fun. My boyfriend ordered the Dragon’s Breath.
Caged And Infused Butterfly flower infused roku gin | Maraschino | Lemongrass | Lemon | Violet candy cage
Dragon’s Breath Tenjaku Japanese whisky | Spice note cinnamon tequila | Lemon juice | Triple syrup | Orange peel | Served hot
Boba, lunch, drinks and now some sweets! You can’t forget the dessert treats, you always have to make room for dessert. I came across 2D Restaurant on Instagram and knew we had try their mochi doughnuts. The idea of the restaurant is super cool, the interior decor is painted to look as 2D as possible like you’re in a comic strip! 2D Restaurant has more than mochi doughnuts, so we had to try their Mild Rooster Sandwich and the Iced Organic Blueberry Tea. The chicken sandwich was very good and very mild, basically no spice at all. I think we could’ve handled the hot one. The Mochi Doughnuts that we ordered were The Pooh, Strawberry Sprinkle, Berry Easter, S’more, Matcha Dream and the Churro.
2D Restaurant is also very limited in seating, so you might have to wait a bit in order to get in! I believe you can make reservations though.
Last, but not least…. SEAFOOD BOIL!!! Yes, we are obsessed. We’re always on a lookout for a new seafood place to try. Lowcountry is the name of the restaurant and good news for us Wisconsin readers, they have a location open in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So we’ll be able to have it again whenever we’re in town. The seafood boil here was good, not the best cause Orlando is still my #1, but I will definitely be eating here in Milwaukee. Lowcountry is doing something right cause when we ordered the heat level as hot, it was actually hot. A spicy hot, but a good spicy hot. It lived to its name.
We ordered a Combo A – Shrimp Combo (1 lb shrimp, 2 piece corn, 3 piece potato, 2 piece cornbread and drink) and did a fill your own bag with 1 piece Snow Crab Cluster, 1 piece 8 oz Lobster Tail, and 1 lb Crawfish. Both with the Everythang sauce and one in heat level hot (2 pepper) and very hot (3 pepper). The sauce was addicting even when our mouths were burning from being pretty spicy, we kept smothering our seafood in it. I’m actually ready to burn my mouth again for it, I can never get enough seafood boil!
You can visit a good amount of restaurants in one day, you just have to plan it accordingly. Food trips are one of my favorites. So many good foods and drinks out there that’s waiting to be consumed! I told my boyfriend once before “I don’t eat to live, I live to eat” and I will forever stick to that hahah. All I’m thinking about is the seafood boil now because I just relieved the experience through writing about it. I’m also about to heat up the last of our mochi doughnut for a quick morning snack. I hope you guys are enjoying these Food Alert blogs, many more on the way! STAY HUNGRY ♡
Here we are with another food alert! It’s another long one for you guys. Destination: Houston, Texas For the location, I chose to visit Houston mainly because I heard about how good the food is and I needed to try it for myself, specifically Vietnamese food. Back in Grand Rapids, we have a few Viet spots that are worth going to, but in Wisconsin there’s even less. Houston definitely did not disappoint me, it actually left me with wanting more. There was no bad dish!
So let’s start off with day one with Shokku Ramen. Besides some airport pizza in the morning, our first meal in Houston was at this cool anime themed ramen restaurant. The restaurant plays different anime series on their televisions, plays anime music the whole time and even serves some of their dishes on cool wooden plates with anime figures on them. Unfortunately, the ramen wasn’t one of those dishes. I ended up choosing “Da Oxtail” Ramen and my boyfriend choose the Surf & Turf Ramen. The entrees were super delicious and thank you to whoever decided to add crispy garlic to the ingredients! Garlic pretty much goes on everything.
“Da Oxtail” Tender, shredded oxtail & steak in a combination of our Tonkotsu and house-made oxtail broths with a hint of miso, served with yellow noodles and topped with 2 shrimp tempura, Hon-shimeji mushrooms, soy-cured egg, bok choy, red ginger, crispy garlic & ginger butter with a hint of Togarashi. Rich and delicious.
Surf & Turf Soft-shell crab tempura & tender NY strip steak in a combination of our house-made Tori and Tonkotsu broths served with yellow noodles, tempura scallion, soy-cured egg, crispy garlic, red ginger, fried onion & ginger butter
Next we went over to Houston’s Asian Town over on Bellaire Blvd. I will say that it is the biggest Asian town that I have ever seen or been too, but I’m only from Michigan and Wisconsin. We don’t have too much there. You have your Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, etc. stores, markets and restaurants all along the street. Everything looked so good and I’m coming back to Houston over and over to try them all! We came across Viet Street Drinks & Snacks where we got the Tropical Green Tea drink. The Tropical Green Tea drink is a fresh fruit tea and had fruit pieces of strawberries, mangoes, pineapples, lychee, peaches, passion fruit, and jackfruit. The freshness of the fruit and drink was much needed after traveling all day and stuffing ourselves with ramen! They also sell Viet street foods there, but the kitchen was closed when we got there. I’ll definitely want to head back to try those. There were snacks that I have never heard of!
I was so in awe of the wall murals at Ninja Matcha that I forgot to take a picture of our ice cream. Ninja Matcha is also located in Houston’s Asian Town by a whole bunch of other food places and markets. There we shared one of their house made Green Matcha Ice Cream cone (with 38% matcha powder). If you have ever had matcha, you know that it can taste pretty bitter. I would say I would not go more than 38%, that was a little more than enough for me, but it was still very enjoyable to eat! They had cool matcha sundaes that were huge and filled with different toppings. If we weren’t so full already, I would have dug into one of those bad boys. If you like matcha, this is the place for you!
Yes, we stuffed ourselves as much as we could on the first day because we ended our night with some tacos from a food truck by our Airbnb called Taco Arcelia. We tried their carnes and pollo tacos. I’ve had my fair share of tacos, but I would have to say that Taco Arcelia has THE BEST tacos ever. They didn’t add any fancy unique toppings, it had the usual toppings like the protein, onions, cilantro with squeezed lime and your choice of salsa, but maaaaaaaan. It was incredible. There’s actually a lot of different taco food trucks that are all around Houston and they are AUTHENTIC not American catered. Most of these taco trucks are open all day and late at night, honestly what gets better than that?
DAY TWO IN HOUSTON When it comes to me, there’s no such things as breakfast foods, anything can be eaten for breakfast. I will eat a steak or pizza for breakfast, it doesn’t matter as long as I feel full after!
With that being said, we started our day off at Lúa Viet Kitchen. I’m a *little* bias, but Vietnamese food for the win always. I originally wanted to visit Houston for their Vietnamese food because I heard it was really good and Lúa Viet Kitchen proved that. We ordered the Gỏi Cuốn also known as Summer Spring Rolls with the lemongrass pork, Bò Lúc Lắc also known as Shaking Beef, and Phở Bò or their Lúa Beef Soup. I am guilty of always ordering Phở at Vietnamese restaurants, so I got Bò Lúc Lắc instead. I’m not bashing the dish in any way, but the Phở Bò was the best dish. Honestly, #2 best pho that I’ve ever had in my life. (Sorry, but nothing beats my mom’s homemade pho)
Gỏi Cuốn (Summer Spring Rolls) Tofu or tiger shrimp or Compart Duroc lemongrass grilled pork, sunbutter hoisin dipping sauce
We drove around the area and found a street with tons of other food places and some cool stores and stumbled upon another taco food truck called Tacos Mi Pueblito. The temptation was real and hello steak tacos! These tacos weren’t as flavorful as Taco Arcelia, but they still hit the spot.
Right down the street was this outrageous looking place called Present Company. From street view all you could see was this two story building that was purple and other colors with a huge disco ball shining, when you go inside, they have neon signs everywhere, some awesome halloween decor and very vibrant wallpaper. Even though we just ate and snacked, we had to try to it out! You do have to be 21+ to enter and you can sit outdoors on both floors or indoors.
I was sad that we came across Present Company because they had some really good looking alcoholic drinks, but cause of medical reasons I couldn’t have any the whole trip, so I had to order a mocktail of their Stranger Danger drink. It was still good, but it definitely would have been better with some vodka. My boyfriend ordered a Blackberry Mimosa and a Breakfast Brisket Taco. I didn’t sample his food because I was still full from the first two places, but he really enjoyed the Breakfast Brisket Taco. I would love to come back to see how it is at night. They already had a live dj in the morning, so I’m sure they get pretty popular during bar hours.
Stranger Danger (with alcohol) watermelon vodka, lime juice, honeysuckle liqueur, watermelon-kiwi la croix, topped with bubbles
Breakfast Brisket Taco scrambled eggs, slow cooked brisket, onions, cilantro, monterey jack cheese served in a flour tortilla
I’m sure everyone has heard of Voodoo Doughnuts already, so I won’t go into too much details, but they are a must have! We had some when we visited Orlando, Florida and had to get more doughy goodness in Houston. For those who don’t know Voodoo Doughnuts, they are known for their crazy, but creative doughnut creations and their pink boxes! We just got one doughnut to share and to stuff ourselves more with. It was the Viscous Hibiscus which is a raised ring doughnut with hibiscus frosting and black sprinkles. Personally it was a little too sweet for me, but still good. It was a one bite to a whole gulp of milk ratio.
After our day of exploring and eating, we came across Two Hands Corn Dogs, a place that sells Korean corndogs. They taste as good as they look and you can customize if you want cheese, hot or original sausage or both. From left to right it’s the Spicy Dog, Potato Dog, Two Hand Dog, and the Crispy Rice Dog. I don’t remember what ones had what fillings, but their spicy sausage is good and pretty spicy and the sausage cheese combo was the best. If only they mixed the cheese and spicy sausage together for the ultimate combo. I’ve been seeing Korean corndogs a lot more on social media and it makes me happy that foods from different countries are gaining popularity in the US! Just please don’t gentrify the dishes.
DAY THREE IN HOUSTON With how much we ate the last two days, we still found ourselves eating good. I mean if you’re in Houston, you have to take advantage of all the food places that they have! Day three was no different.
Yes, we did get actual breakfast foods. I was still so full from the day before so I ordered the typical breakfast entree. We started the morning at Revival Market. My Revival Breakfast didn’t taste typical though. The sausage was packed with rich flavor. Revival Market makes their own sausages and you can tell they spent the time to perfect their recipe. Super fresh tasting too. The boyfriend ordered the Butcher’s Brunch Burger and he killed his food while I struggled to finish mine. I got into the fall spirit when I saw the Hot Caramel Apple Cider. The drink was super delicious and perfect for the chilly morning!
Revival Breakfast 2 yard eggs your way, bacon OR house-made sausage, breakfast potatoes OR fresh fruit
Butcher’s Brunch Burger 44 Farms beef, house blend & grind, cheddar, Revival bacon, Yonderway egg, LTOP, toasted bun with crispy potatoes
We couldn’t miss the opportunity of visiting The Rusty Crab by Kefi HTX. It’s a Spongebob Squarepants/Bikini Bottom themed pop up. (It ended on 10/31, but will be an anime pop up next) This pop up was pretty fun and they had cool props everywhere. Since we ate right before, we just grabbed some drinks to sip on while we enjoyed our time there! Both my boyfriend and I actually won first and second place with the painting competition haha. I got their non-alcoholic lemonade called The Invisible Boat Mobile (right) and my boyfriend got Pineapple Under the Sea. Should I make another post of our time there?
BAO on BAO on BAO! I’ve never seen so many bao or dumpling places in a city before, so we had to stop by one. Thankfully there was one right by the Color Factory while we were waiting for our reservation time. Fat Bao has many, many different options to choose from and they all sounded so good. We ended up getting five different ones, the Spicy Thai, Bulgogi, Pork Belly, Katsu Pork, and Duck. I will have to vote that the Spicy ThaiBao was the best one, then it’s the Bulgogi Bao. The Bulgogi Bao definitely could have used some more kimchi on it though! Fat Bao also serves other foods like salads, tacos and plenty of appetizers!
The famous Lee’s Sandwiches. I only heard about the California locations, so when we saw the big building, you know what we did. I didn’t expect it to be so huge, they had a little market inside the building. The moment we got out of the car I felt like I was home. There were some of the adults outside smoking cigarettes and drinking Viet coffee while playing card games and the rest inside taking care of everything else. Vietnamese music playing and the voice calling out the order numbers was in Vietnamese too. Just relived my childhood all over again, it felt very comforting. I see why people love Lee’s Sandwiches. Their Bánh Mì‘s are so good and the portion size was perfect. You always have to try the house combo, so that’s what we got the #1 Lee’s Combination. I wrote a post before on different Bánh Mì places (click to read -> Food Alert: 3 States, 3 Bánh Mì.) Well now I can add Lee’s Sandwiches and put them at #1.
We tried to walk around the area after Lee’s to walk some food off for dinner, but we remembered there was a Harry Potter pop up cafe in the same area and went there. I know we’re fatties hahah. My friend Nia actually recommended this place because before the theme was Sailor Moon, but we missed the date for that. Popfancy Dessert Bar Fan Cafe is throwing The Broom Closet right now. We came a little late, so they ran out of their potion bottle glasses, but we were still able to get the Babbling Bevy Potion. The potion that causes and consist of uncontrollable speaking of nonsense, Butterfly Blossom Tonic Lemonade and Crystal Boba.
How did we do it? I honestly don’t know, but we went to Crawfish Cafe for dinner. My stomach will make room for seafood boil anytime of day. Crawfish Cafe was a recommendation from my friend Nou. Seafood boil was a must try for our trip. Seafood boils from the southern half of the US is 1000% better and tastier than the midwest. Plus you get your money’s worth because the seafood size is bigger. We ordered 2 lb head on shrimp, 1/2 lb crawfish, 1 lobster tail, 1 lb black mussel and 1 snow crab leg all in the signature sauce in medium spice. As you can see we got plenty of food for two people and yes we had some leftovers, but we actually ate most of it. It was good, but King Cajun Crawfish in Orlando, Florida still has my heart.
DAY FOUR IN HOUSTON The last day of our trip and I’m still sad that we had to leave. So many good places that we ate at and so many more places we still have to go too! I made a list of places and we only went to 2 of them on the list, all the other places we found by just driving around.
Shabu Zone was our last meal in Houston, an all you can eat hotpot buffet. I’ve only seen others go to one, but I got to finally experience for myself. What did I think about it? Well why don’t these exists anywhere close to me?!?!? You order what broth and meats that you would like, the the noodles, veggies, seafood and sauces are all buffet style. Adults each get their own little personal bowl/hotpot on the table and you just go from there and cook everything! I love the huge selection of everything, so you can really make a different bowl every time. I was doing the happy food dance the whole time and jamming out to the music they played. I didn’t want to leave.
My Hotpot Creation Broth: Tonkotsu soup (pork bone), Akaushi Wagyu Prime Chuck Eye, Akaushi Waygu Beef Belly, Lamb Leg, Shabu Zone Special Prime Rib, Shrimp, asian meatballs, enoki mushrooms, bokchoy, mussels, seafood meatballs, fish balls, green onions, mushrooms, squid, scallop, pork dumplings, and udon noodles with sweet garlic sauce, lemon, Sriracha and chili flakes.
There’s no way that we didn’t gain 100 pounds from our foodcation. Thankfully it was hot outside and the activities that we did in between eating consisted of a lot of walking. We had the chance to burn some calories off. I think my favorite vacations are foodcations, you get to spend time with those around you with a bonus of great tasting food. Eating itself is an experience. Now that we’re back in Wisconsin, I’ve been trying to eat as good and it’s not the same. I’m thinking of writing another blog of places we visited (non food related) soon, so watch for that coming in the next few blog posts. So where should I go next? What foods are waiting to get eaten next? Keep eating everyone!
You might be wondering what is that word ‘Bánh Mì’ means. Well In literal translation from Vietnamese it means bread, but it holds so much more than that. It is childhood memories, it is adulthood, it is family time, it is history, it is culture and it is traditions plus many more. Bánh mì is a Vietnamese cuisine that is gaining popularity in the US.
Let’s go into a little bit of the history if it! Like I mentioned bánh mì translates to bread, but for the cuisine it uses a baguette that the French colonist introduced to Vietnam when it was still part of French Indochina along with some of the other ingredients. Sometimes it is called bánh mì thịt, just adding the word ‘meat’ to the end so you know it’s the person is talking about the sandwich and not about bread itself. Bánh mì has been considered a luxury cuisine a couple of times in history, during World War I and after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, but is now a common street food. It has become a staple food of Vietnam and if anyone remembers H’Hen Nie, Miss Vietnam 2018 wore bánh mì as her Miss Universe national costume.
There are different variations of these viet subs, but the ones that I will be comparing today are all Bánh mì đặc biệt which is a special combo sandwich. In these special combo sandwiches, you’ll find these ingredients:
• Vietnamese baguette • Sliced pork or pork belly • Chả lụa (pork sausage) • Head cheese or brawn • Fresh cucumber slices • Cilantro • Pickled carrots and white radish (shredded form) • Jalapeños • Maggi seasoning sauce • Mayonnaise • Liver pâté
I grew up eating these subs and I absolutely love them to this day. In the last month, I have tried 3 bánh mì đặc biệt from 3 different places, which happen to be all in different states. So here is from least liked to most liked.
The first place is from a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. I don’t really want to put the name of the restaurant out there because they have other foods that are really good. I had really good pho from them actually, so I won’t knock them down for just one food item. Their subs were okay though. I probably wouldn’t get any subs there again, but if someone else did they are still tasteful enough to eat. So one main ingredient that makes up a bánh mì đặc biệt is the bread right? I mean it’s in the name. Well the reason why they are my least liked is because their bread was flat, not airy like a baguette. It seemed like they scooped the breading out like how Jimmy John’s does? Also their bread was really wide and the inside ingredient portions did not match at all. The shredded pickled carrots and white radishes were all cut super thin where you could barely tell that there was any in it.
The second place is right down from where I grew up in Kentwood, Michigan at B&N Sandwiches located in the Golden Bridge Plaza. I’m probably a little bias, but the bread there has a nice crunch when you bite into it. The veggies are cut into good sized pieces, the only thing that I would change about it is the inconsistency of the sandwich. Sometimes there isn’t enough of one ingredient compared to the last time you bought some. Overall all, I would really recommend them to everyone!
The last place is from Ha Tien Super Market located in St. Paul, Minnesota. All the bánh mì that I have ever had, Ha Tien Super Market has made it the best! The bánh mì has a nice crunch to it, the inner ingredient portions are more than you can ask for. They really fill the baguette up. I really like cilantro too, so the amount of veggies that they throw on is perfect. *chefs kiss* I don’t know what else they use, but there is just way more flavor in their subs. I would travel again back to St. Paul just to get more. Might have to go back pretty soon to get some!!
I will always be trying other places, so there will be more food blogs on these Vietnamese subs! It’s nice being able to write foods that I grew up eating and that are a part of who I am. I’ll start doing more of these, it makes me feel a little more connected to my roots and my family since I moved away. The area I live in now doesn’t have too many Vietnamese restaurants like they do back in Michigan. I also wanted to quickly add that while bánh mì (and other Viet cuisines) are gaining popularity here in the US, please don’t try to take these dishes and americanize them to make a profit off of. Do not do what has been done to Mexican/Hispanic foods. Foods should be shared with others along with their traditions and origins, even if someone else puts their own twist on it, but shouldn’t be monetized. It’s quite insulting, but that’s another topic for another time.
Until next time though. Should Pho be next? Let me know in the comments or through my socials! Stay hungry♡
food, Food, FOOD! Today’s food adventures are in the lovely city of Chicago! On the way to Wisconsin for my move a few weeks ago, the boyfriend and I decided to take some time to spend in Chicago to celebrate. There’s so many places that I’ve eaten at before that I can write about, but I’ll just start writing about the places I go to from now on. This definitely won’t be the only Chicago foodie blog since it’s so close to me and on my way back to both my homes. Let’s get into the food though!
What’s perfect about Chicago is that if you get a hotel downtown, you can walk to pretty much anywhere and you have so many different options to choose from. What’s a celebration without some BBQ though? We were able to walk over to Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ and it was so worth it. I would have taken more photos and videos, but I was so busy stuffing my face and cooking the meats! My boyfriend and I ordered the Chef’s Favorite to share since it serves 2 people and would be a better price than ordering individually with one side order of their Spicy Shrimp marinated in a spicy jalapeño miso.
The Chef’s Favorite came with so much food. We for sure had leftovers, but you really get everything besides ramen and dessert which was totally fine with us. Everything was yummy though and I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like. I do have to say that even the broccoli with cheese hit the spot. Get ready for your mouth to water cause sheeeeeeeeeeh, here we go. The Chef’s Favorite includes:
The price of all that food is also pretty affordable, $80. PLUS, it’s not all you can eat, so you can take all the leftovers home without a fee or problem. My top 5 favorite items from all of that was the Beef Sukiyaki Bibimbap, Napa Kimchi, Prime Kalbi Short Rib, Shrimp Garlic, and Harami Skirt Steak. 10/10 would recommend to others and come back. Plus Gyu-Kaku has a pretty good Lychee Lemonade drink.
The next day we walked to RAMEN-SAN, theRiver North location for lunch. The place was small, but the food did not disappoint and they had the cutest and coolest wall decor and figurines everywhere. They played good hip-hop music, it was great! For appetizer, we ordered the Pork Belly Mantou Buns, which had a really nice crisp on the pork belly. Then both my boyfriend and I got the Sumo Ramen. Super good, but if you have leftovers make sure to refrigerate it ASAP or the broth will go very bad. I learned that the hard way lol.
Pork BellyMantou Buns Spicy mayo, kimchi, cucumber, crispy pork belly, tobanjan mayo and spicy pickles on a steamed bun
Sumo Ramen Chashu, xo wontons, spicy crushed egg, a fully loaded ramen with pork broth, extra tokyo wavy noodles, green onion, 4 XO shrimp & pork dumplings, spicy bean sprouts, chashu pork, buttered corn, wakame seaweed, bamboo shoots, spicy crushed egg, fried garlic and sesame
I think one of my goals is to try out every ramen place there is in Chicago. I’ve tried about 4 of them now and not once have I been disappointed, RAMEN-SAN included. How does it feel to have so many good food places around you??
I got this cute little drink from Te’Amo Boba Bar. I’ve never seen a memo bottle before, so me being extra af decided to get one instead of the original cup. Definitely my aesthetic. The drink I got is called Te’amo O2. It has a floral rose and vanilla lemonade, sparkling water, crystal boba and strawberry jelly, topped with butterfly pea tea. Then if you stir it up the drink is suppose to change into a cute different color, but the water bottle did not allow use to do that. It was still very good though! I just would suggest getting this drink in a regular cup to have ice to water down the drink a little, it was a little sour to me at first.
I cannot wait for my next food adventure in Chicago. There’s so many more places to try and I keep hearing about new food places that just opened up. I really need to train myself to have a bigger appetite! Must be so blessed to have so many options like that. Like I said this is the first of many Food Alerts: Chicago blogs. Comment any places to try out below! Until next time, STAY HUNGRY!
Imagine waking up happy the moment you open your eyes all the way until you fall asleep. Imagine less roads traveled and more of that time spent surrounded by love and laughter instead of your radio and your solo concerts. Imagine less conversations through the phone and more in person. Imagine lonely days being less lonely, each day filled with loving stares, more hugs and more kisses. Imagine a world like that.
Big news though, I don’t have to imagine it anymore because I finally get to live like that. I moved to Wisconsin. You read that right, I moved to Wisconsin.
food, Food, FOOD! I really wish I could eat more, so we could’ve gone to more food places in Miami! Everything looked cool and super yummy. There’s definitely going to be future trips to Miami to try all the other spots that I had on my list. Until then, enjoy these places! As I’m typing this post, I realized that we actually went to a lot of places, so this is a longer food post hehe.
The first restaurant that we went to was located in the Lincoln Road Mall called La Cerveceria De Barrio. Coming from the snowy and cold midwest, dining outside surrounded by palm trees was just what we needed. We took advantage of outdoor seating the whole trip. I don’t remember exactly what we got to eat, but the food was pretty good. I do remember the drink though haha. I ordered a lychee margarita and it was a very interesting mix. I’m not really sure if I like lychee flavor mixed with tequila though, I don’t really drink too much tequila to begin with. The drink smelled really good and I definitely felt a buzz from the drink.
On our walk back, we decided to grab some dessert from Icy-N-Spicy. Go check out their instagram when you have the chance, they have super fun and big desserts! I don’t remember the last time I had that much sugar in one sitting. We got the cotton candy + 2 scoops + 1 topping combo. The two flavors that we got for the ice cream was cookie monster and banana dulce leche with ferrero rochers chocolate as the topping. Both ice cream flavors were super good, but my favorite was the banana dulce leche. We didn’t have the option of picking our own flavored cones, but they had some pretty cool flavors like matcha and red velvet. This will be on my list of places to go back too, soooo many more desserts to try from them!
The first morning in Miami, our airbnb host recommended Pura Vida. It was super close and walking distance, so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the Blue Majik acai bowl with an Immune Booster juice shots. Our bowl consisted of blue spirulina blended with passionfruit, banana, pineapple, almond milk, chia seed, topped with vegan granola, shaved coconut and blueberries. We also picked up a fresh coconut to drink from! Smoothie/acai bowls are always so yummy and I really enjoy the taste of immune booster shots. It’s both fruity and spicy, plus it gives me that feeling of me actually taking care and doing something good for my body.
Now my FAVORITE dining experience ever. I booked a table for us at Gianni’s at the Former Versace Mansion, the Villa Casa Casuarina. I can’t even explain how exciting that was for me. I would have never thought that I would be dining in a mansion, let alone Gianni Versace’s mansion. One day, I’ll be able to afford to book a suite there and experience the rest of the mansion. It is a beautiful house and there’s so much details in the design and architecture everywhere. Our table was right by the pool outside and you didn’t even notice or hear any noise from anything beyond the walls, you literally just forget that you’re at South Beach Miami and in this other world.
So for our appetizers, we got the Gianni’s Salad and the Kobe Beef Carpaccio. The Kobe Beef was very tender and so easy to pull apart, the salad was perfect and light with the lemon dressing. For the main entree, we ordered the Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli and the Chicken Scallopini. Both entrees were delicious and then for dessert we both got the Sorbet. Now the sorbet was my favorite dish, the flavor was a creamy coconut. Probably the best coconut ice cream or sorbet that I have ever had. I would eat it all day if I could. For drinks, I ordered Versace Nero D’Avola IGT, a red wine and my boyfriend got the Coco Casuarina cocktail. Another great coconut food item we had on the trip! I would definitely go back to Gianni’s to try the rest of the food and just for the atmosphere itself. Keep in mind that it was fine dining, so portions are small. I don’t eat much, so it was the perfect amount for me haha.
You thought I was done? Nope there’s still a few more places to go! So we ate pretty good the day of the mansion, summer bodies were not in mind at all because we went to Cajun Boil for dinner. The size of the seafood in Florida will always beat the midwest, it’s a must to get seafood in a bag when down south! We had our first seafood boil together in Orlando back in 2019 and have tried every place we could find ever since then and nothing beats the quality in Florida. I would say Cajun Boil is my second favorite place so far. (King Cajun Crawfish Orlando will forever be my favorite.) This place was pretty good, so we actually had dinner here again the next day LOL.
So between the two dinners that we had here, the flavor and spice levels were pretty inconsistent. On the first day, it was so flavorful and we ordered a medium spice level that had our nose running as we ate, but the second day it wasn’t as flavorful and we ordered a level up ‘spicy‘ and that wasn’t even as spicy as the day before. It was still good though, don’t get me wrong. The sauce wasn’t just all butter and oil, it was an actual sauce called the ultimate sauce. The first day we got combo #6 including 1/2 Lb shrimp & 1 Lb clam & 1/2 lb snow crab & 1 lobster tail. The table next to us ordered the pound of Alaskan Snow Crab, so the second day we ordered that with a combo #2 including 1 lb Crawfish & 1 lb Shrimp & 1 Fresh Maine Lobster.
After seafood, we decided to walk on Ocean Drive again for dessert and drinks to end the night. I’ve always seen things on social media about those nitro dragon breath bite things and there a spot called Nitro Dragons, so we grabbed some to try. To be pretty honest, I was pretty disappointed in it. First, I thought it would be more like ice cream bites or like crunchy flavored ice things, but they’re more like cheese balls that taste like captain crunch and they taste stale once they stop steaming. I would say overrated, first and last time eating those.
We went over to Sugar Factory for drinks and a small french fries snack. Of course we had to get their popular 60 oz. glass bowl. On my 21st birthday, I had a big bowl to myself, finished only half of it and had to take a fat midday nap because I was so drunk, so I wanted to share one this time just incase I wouldn’t be able to walk back to our place. My alcohol tolerance is so much higher now though, I’m sure I can handle a whole bowl to myself this time. The flavor that we got was The Watermelon Patch and fun fact: the Watermelon Patch was actually designed by Pitbull. So thank you Pitbull for that! (We also grabbed a slice of pizza on the walk back and fell into a deep food coma sleep)
Our last full day in Miami was an adventure day, so for lunch we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and hotdogs from places we passed walking around in Wynwood. After our activities, we got some Taiyaki Ice Cream from Taiyaki NYC located inside 1-800 LUCKY. If we weren’t so full from the day before and saving room for another seafood boil dinner, I would’ve tried the ramen or other asian foods from the other restaurants located there too! It was such a vibe there, I could’ve stayed there all day and just ate listening to the music. Imagine a beer garden with asian influence. It’s a place that we’ll definitely go back to try out. We got the Cafe Con Leche and the Matcha Made in Heaven Taiyaki flavors.
Just writing and looking at all the pictures again made my mouth just water. So much good food and that wasn’t even all the places that I wanted to try! Most of the time I find food places through instagram, but this time I literally just googled best _____ in Miami and found tons of options. It’s honestly the best part about planning and going on trips, the food! Expect another food blog post from Miami with new locations later on, until then I’m going to train to eat more. HAHA. Should I make a post about where we visited in Miami? Let me know! Stay safe everyone and warm if you’re in a snowy winter season like me! xoxo♡
Yes, you read that right, it’s our time to shine! Grand Rapids has a lot different options when it comes to food and drinks and there’s always something new coming. Even though I’ve lived here my whole life, I’m not even close to trying everything, but it’s one place at a time. Follow me into a two day foodie/drink weekend! #GREats
On Saturday, I met up with my friends at Butcher’s Union for some food and drinks before work. Butcher’s Union is one of my favorite places to go, it’s so cute in there and the servers are always friendly. We enjoyed some Brussel Sprouts for our appetizers, which is my favorite appetizer there. Then I got the White Chicken Chili. (Yes, I only got soup to eat. If you don’t remember in the last post, I really don’t have much stomach room haha) I did wash it down the a nice Watermelon Mojito. It was the perfect drink to end the summer weather and season with.
On Sunday, I went on a food and drink adventure. Every place was so good and I had very good company! 😉 It started at Royals, this cute little brunch diner. It was a recommended by another one of my friends and he was not wrong at all. The food there was very good and the drinks sounded delicious! I unfortunately went out to brunch hungover, so I wasn’t ready to start off with some drinks at our first stop.
Our seconds stop was to one of my favorite rooftop bars here in Grand Rapids, Haute at New Mertens Hotel Rooftop Bar. It’s has the perfect view 360 view of our downtown and the drinks are always good. The menu changes through out the year, so it’s never the same drinks, which makes it so fun to come back. They are open besides during winter, but a cold fall night? No problem, they have space heaters, fires and before the pandemic, blankets. There’s just something about having drinks while the sunsets in downtown. This visit, the drinks are customizable spritzers. You choose your base, then they add champagne and fizzy water and there! Your drink is born! We got the Lillet Blanc.
We went to a candle making bar after the Haute, then decided to check out this new restaurant for dinner that opened called Tupelo Honey. It is so cute inside and out and the drinks and food are just as pleasing! We couldn’t have a Sunday funday without a mimosa, so we each got the Sweet and Tart mimosa size mega of course! A grapefruit with blueberry puree mimosa. It’s exactly like the name, very sweet and tart. They also use paper straws here and WE LOVE THAT. I really wish I wasn’t so hurt cause I definitely would have ordered another drink to try. This won’t be my last time here though, but let’s get to the food!
So everything sounded so delicious, we went in on Tupelo Honey. In the video, are only the appetizers that we ordered. We got the Fried Okras, Crispy Brussels, and the Mac & Cheese Bites. They were all so good and mouth watering. I’ve just discovered Okras this year, so I had to those, but the Mac & Cheese Bites were my favorite. Who just doesn’t like mac & cheese?? Everyone that has gone here recommends their fried chicken, so for the main entree I ordered their Fried Sweet and Spicy Chicken sandwich. It comes with a potato bun and have NEVER tasted any buns like it. Please use potato buns for every sandwich and burger now! These buns will change your life. Anyways, the honey sriracha on the sandwich was really good. It lives up to the hype!
I was so full this day, when I got home at 6 pm, I took a big food coma nap. I’m pretty sure the nap lasted 4 hours. I had a lot of fun though and it was such a fun adventurous day with my friends. Three things that I love, my friends, food, and drinks. It’s all just L O V E. Like I mentioned before, there’s so much more for me to try here in Grand Rapids, so expect more of these! There’s so many places already and there’s still more coming in and I think it’s so awesome. Very lucky to be in a growing city! I love Grand Rapids, I really do. Until next time though!
FUN FACT: Grand Rapids is also know as Beer City in the United States! We have tons of breweries here, so I’ll introduce some of my favorite places to you guys soon!
For the past few weeks, I’ve been eating waaaay to good for my own good. Just food and drinks after another. I LOVE FOOD, but I do not have a big appetite and get full off of a couple of bites. It’s so hard to be a food lover when you can only eat a few bites. Maybe one day it’ll all change and I can just stuff my face, but let’s get into the yummies!
Let’s start off with some of the food that my boyfriend and I ate. We started the trip with some pizza from Flippers Pizza and they did not disappoint at all. We got their Hog & Honey pizza which had ricotta cheese and local raw honey drizzle. That combo was just the best that I have ever had. I was way too excited to eat it, I didn’t even take a picture like I usually would haha. If you are in the area, try it! I love trying new pizza combos.
The second day, we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The food everywhere in this park smelled so yummy and I wish I could have eaten everything! One thing that caught our attention was the Satu’li Canteen at Pandora – The World of Avatar. What a hearty breakfast we had that day. We got these Na’vi cultured or inspired protein bowls where you choose your base, protein and then sauce. I got a potato base, steak and a creamy herb sauce and my boyfriend got the same, but with a noodle base. It was so delicious, the sauce was filled with flavored and you didn’t need much of it for the whole bowl.
Next and probably not to your surprise, but we decided to get some nice cold alcoholic beverages! You can find this drink stand in Asia, right next to the Expedition Everest ride. It was in the early to mid 90’s with the craziest humidity, so you bet we got a lot of cold beverages or ice creams. Plus, who wouldn’t enjoy some booze at Disney World? That’s pretty much the added bonus of going to Disney as an adult. I enjoyed a nice snow leopard lemonade and my boyfriend got a delicious Yeti slush. I couldn’t gone about the day with out a boomerang cheers!
After a day at Animal Kingdom, we got some all you can eat Korean BBQ from Izziban Sushi & BBQ. That was our second time there, our friends took us there on our previous trip to Orlando. There’s only like one Korean BBQ place where I live and it’s not all that, so you bet I was happy dancing while cooking all the foods. I think Korean BBQ is just so fun too. I don’t want to say I like playing with food, but I like playing with food. All the meats where seasoned and sauced so deliciously, my mouth is watering right now just typing about it.
The third day in Orlando, we went to Universal Studios as well and I experienced the wizarding world of Harry Potter. My dreams came true and I’ll post all about that soon! Even though I was skeptical about how the Butterbeer would taste (I’m not a butterscotch fan), I just had to try it while walking down Diagon Alley. I was actually pretty surprised at how much I liked it! The Butterbeer is a non-alcoholic beverage and is pretty much a butterscotch-vanilla soda. A nice cold sweet drink to have in the Florida heat and under that dragon fire!
We went to King Cajun Crawfishafter Universal Studios and it is the best and I mean T H E B E S T seafood boil that I have ever had. If you know me, then you know that I literally thrive when eating seafood boils and it’s the only thing that I can just eat so much of. This location that we went too, it was also vietnamese owned as well! (Love supporting my culture and people) Seafood boils are my absolute favorite. We got the Shabang flavor with a medium spice level. King Cajun Crawfish is so flavorful and their flavoring is more spices or a sauce than oil like most places I’ve eaten at. Another thing is that the day after eating the seafood, I did not wake up feeling super thirsty like after every other place. The spice level was actually a medium and you could taste it too. It was just perfect. I’ve been craving it everyday after since! It is a MUST every time we’re in town now.
Now, we can’t forget about dessert… This place was right down the street from the seafood boil and if you’re a matcha lover, what are you doing cause you need to go now?! Matcha House Tea & Creamery, the mother of all matchas. Their menu is insane with different drinks and ice creams. Everything sounds and looked so good, tooo bad we ate so much seafood before or I might’ve gotten three different sundaes! The one we got was the Matcha-Lover. DELICIOUS, perfect dessert after a boil. Matcha ice cream, with coconut jelly, mochi and lychee fruits, topped with strawberry pocky sticks.
For our last day, I hope you didn’t expect anything less. We literally had two lunches from two different places, one right after the other. Our first place was Krungthep Tea Time. They are known for their teas and their Thai Twist sandwiches. Why isn’t there one by me? The universe hate me. These sandwiches were so flavorful, Panera Bread could NEVER. I chose the Thaiger is Crying and my boyfriend got the Larb sandwich. Bon Appétit! Now let’s talk about these gorgeous colored ladies to the right. Their teas are just stunning in color and they taste absolutely amazing. The one on the left is the Honey Lemon Anchan and the right one is the Lychee Anachan.
Our second lunch and last dish of the blog, Korean fried chicken. We found Chi-Kin on accident actually. It was the place right next door to Matcha House Tea & Creamery and we just couldn’t leave without trying it. Funny enough, we actually talked about finding some Korean fried chicken before we knew about this place and said that we would save it for another time. So it was just fate that we came across Chi-Kin. Korean fried chicken just hits differently and the flavors are better than our usual American ones. We got the sweet soy and gochujang sauces. Top tier chicken wings, I’m telling you!
Everything we ate on the trip was just so amazing and satisfying. I cannot wait to go back to Orlando for everything else we didn’t go too and to eat the same things again! My mouth has been watering this whole time typing and my stomach has been growling and craving. Food from anywhere else then where you live is just automatically better. (But I do have a post coming up on some good eats here in Grand Rapids, so stay tuned!) You can find pretty much all these places on Instagram and just admire the presentations on there. I pretty much find a lot of the places off of Instagram for trips or even when I want to try something new at home. That’s where I found the majority of these food places and drinks! My personal pictures and videos do not do any of the food justice, I might just have to invest in a camera that will! Hope you enjoyed my list and if you have any recommendations in Orlando let me know and I’ll definitely add them to my list for next time! Also I would like to give credit to @seigeyourday for his “Cluck Yeah!” mural that I used. Stay hungry guys♡
Hello, I’ve gotten asked a lot of questions about travel during this pandemic time, so here’s everything that I’ve experienced so far from using rideshares to air travels. Hope this helps with any questions or nerves that you may have! Disclaimer: I do want to say that I am just sharing my experiences with traveling and that I’m not promoting or against anyone who decided traveling during this time is not for them.It’s really up to you and if you feel comfortable enough to travel right now, but if you really need too that this will be a nice guide for you. Thanks!
Rideshares/Ubers/Lyfts/Rentals: All of these vehicles transportations are pretty much the same as before with the additional rule of wearing your mask the whole ride. All my drivers wear their mask as well. My concern is how the drivers clean or disinfect the car in between rides or if the drivers even follow through with it. I do always carry hand sanitizer with me and sanitize my hands before getting into the car and after getting out. Rental cars on the other hand, are definitely sanitized between customers. It’s just up to you if you want to wipe it down again with disinfectant. You definitely want to keep wipes or sanitizer in the car for when you pump gas or just need to clean a spill.
Hotels & Airbnbs: Hotels – Every hotel has a different policy right now with their early and late check-in and check-out. Some need you tell notify them before you arrive for check-in and some you can just tell them once you check-in. Some just require an early notification so they can have time for the extra cleaning and disinfecting before the next guest. You do have to wear your mask whenever you are outside of your room and some hotels will check your temperature every time you enter. The elevators are also limited capacity, mainly one family per ride or up to two people if not in the same room. The elevators are not regulated by staff, you choose. Breakfast services that I’ve seen so far have been you order it and they bring it to your room for you or its still set up buffet style, but a staff member will grab the item for you. Some hotel restaurants/bar are closed, take out or available for dining in, depends on the state you are in and how open they are currently. Pools, gyms, and business centers are available in certain states as well. I would just ask the front desk before hand!
Airbnbs – There are plenty of airbnbs that are available. Before booking one, I would suggest messaging the host and ask if that specific airbnb is available for booking and and if there are certain restrictions. Especially for the ones where it’s part of a resort. The resort might have their own policy or rules. Once you get that information, then feel free to book! I know recently airbnb has sent out an email to all their guest stating that parties or people outside of the reservations are not allowed to come to the airbnb, which I can understand, but also up to your discretion on that. You didn’t read that from me though. A lot of the airbnb host hire an outside business to deep clean the place before the next guest, so they are very clean, but that also means that the fees are higher and airbnbs are more expensive right now. Airbnb has an option for you to rent certain places for a period of months instead of days, if whatever situation like that comes up for you. Please note that some host will ask you what you are renting the place for and if it seems like it’s not going to comply with social distancing, then they have the right to reject you.
Air Travel: Flying during this time, for me, has not been a bad experience either. I do get a little nervous when I get a flight that is completely booked through vs. a flight where they leave at least 1 seat empty in each row. I’ve been on both and it really depends on what airline you choose to fly with. You do have to wear your mask the whole entire time at the airport and on the plane ride with the exception of actively eating. Any kids over the age of 2 must wear a mask as well. If that is something that you do not like, I would suggest not to fly at all then. The airlines are suppose to be cleaning extra in between flights, but I’ve seen some crumbs left on the seat still. My tip would be to bring your own hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Before you sit down you can quickly wipe your chair and the area around you before settling in. Most travelers suggested this even before covid has happened anyways. Some airlines are still serving their snacks and drinks on board, some have stopped it to minimize the traffic in the aisle, so packing snacks or buying snacks before is the best way to go. Some airlines will also include one small sanitizing wipe as well with their complimentary snacks if available. You can find most of this information of the airlines website or if you contact them. Through out the airport all lines will have signs up on on the floors on where to stand to keep the 6ft social distancing. Lines might seems long, but it’s just the space in between parties. I would still suggest getting to the airport two hours early like any other times. You just never know if it’s busy or not! You also get your temperature checked before boarding onto your flight and if it’s over 100.8 degrees fahrenheit they will ask you to sit back down and have you come up at the last call to see if that calmed your body temperature or not. If it continues to stay the same, I believe you will not be allowed on.
I hope that gave you some insight on how things are working now! Just always have multiple mask with you, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes! You can’t always rely on 100% cleanliness from others and it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you do decide to travel, REMEMBER to be kind to everyone and protect yourself as well as protect others! Also follow those social distancing rules and try not to touch rails around you and if you do sanitize or wash your hands! 20 seconds please!! Be safe now!
I’ve always dreamt about last minute traveling where you spontaneously buy a flight and leave within 48 hours. Well… I did just that! I booked my flight the day before leaving and spent that weekend in Denver, Colorado. It wasn’t as stressful or exciting like I always fantasized it out to be, but it was worth the experience.
Going on a flight all by yourself is pretty boring and I did not properly prepare to entertain myself for 3 hours. I assumed that I would fall asleep on the flight and was I wrong. Don’t ever assume that, that’s where I messed up haha. What I DID loved about being awake during the flight was seeing clouds. I don’t think I will ever get over how beautiful it looks up close. When my dog passed away, I read a book and on one of the pages it talks about how each dog has their own comfy cloud to sleep on. So I just imagined my little Koko rolling around in the most perfectly soft, cotton candy like cloud bed. I definitely teared up at the thought. I let myself dream for a little that I was so close to her and her cloud home. Just a sweet little moment.
Time for my favorite part of the trip:THE HIKE.GRAYS PEAK. Oh my… I’m so proud of myself for not giving up even though I wanted to so bad. I don’t even know where to begin with the story. So I do not work out at all. I think the last time I worked out at the gym was August of 2019. I also had a dry cough the whole weekend that would hurt my sides whenever I coughed. So I’m already going into it busted up and not physically ready. Oh, did I mention that the hike was a fourteener? YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Elevation of 14,278. When I said I wanted to quit, I wanted to jump off the cliff and rolled back down to car as a shortcut. It was such an experience though. I can’t decide if it was good or bad yet hahah We left our airbnb at 3 AM to drive there, got there around 5 AM and started hiking. This hike was suppose to take 5 hours all together, up and down. It took our group 10 hours to complete. We dropped like flies, we took tons of breaks, goats wanted to beat us up, hikers kept giving us false hope with how close we were, MAN. My lungs were struggling and the weather was so confusing. There was snow on the mountain and it was windy, but I was in my tank top while the guys were all in their hoodies. It’s the middle of July, my body was never so confused before. The elevation and basically doing knee to chest lunges up got me. My little legs were killing! I told the guys to go ahead of me and if I caught up, then I did, if not so be it. The last hour or so up, I hiked alone and only could walk like 20 steps before having to stop to breathe. I met this very cool hiker though and honestly, he gave me an awesome pep talk about finishing, so thank you guy! By the time I met up with my group I was 5 to 10 minutes away from the top so I had to finish it. Everyone was right, the view is so worth it. I was just way too tired to take decent pictures and kept thinking about how I had to hike the whole thing to get back to the car. LOL. Hiking down was probably harder and you just have to pray that you have strong ankles. Did I also mention I did all of this in some training nike shoes? Not prepared at all! The walk back was killer cause it was at least 93 degrees. I got so sunburned in the last two hours. My shoulders and lips paid their dues the hard way. I actually had a lot of fun with my group though and just proud that I made it. Would I do it again? Honestly, probably not LOL. One time was enough, maybe ask me again in a couple years.
5:30 AM Sunrise
The rest of the trip was a lot less exercise haha. I did have the opportunity to skydive while I was there, but I have no idea why I decided not too. So I do regret that, but it’s okay. That can always be added on to the next trip. I met some new people on the trip and strengthened my friendship with others, so I’m very happy that I went. I’m ready to plan the next one!
SALLY♡THINGS 