I’m behind on the series and I can’t even tell you a summary of these months anymore. I’m just kidding. There’s so much that I want to say, but I can’t find the correct words to say it. There’s been so much ups and downs in the beginning of the year. I just want to thank my people for being with me and to thank myself for holding on.
January
February
March
Usually I write a summary of the months here, but for this one I’ll just say this: you were wrong, but you had the right to be wrong. Ended 2024 strong. Literal definition of trying to live your best life.
October
November
December
These summer months were filled with travels for me. Remember how I said I was going to live it up this summer? I definitely did! Having a life outside of work has been a long time coming and well deserved. I’ve been able to romanticize my life again and mentally I’ve been so much better. I turned 29, I ate good food, I danced, I added to my plushie collections when I literally have no space in my room, I loved and was loved back, celebrated my friend getting married, saw old friends and made ones. It was the best. I would love to thank the summer sun for all it provided, you’ll be very missed soon. Hopefully the winter blues will be kind this year.
Loving every little thing in the world ♡
July
August
September
Memories from mid summer to the end. Summer goes by way too fast. I would love it if we could get a little extension, maybe an extra month or two please? Birthdays to Breakaway Music Festival to starting school and to Lost Lands. So many memories ♡ Keep living life. Keep loving life.
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
Yes, I know. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. I should move there, I visit like every few months. It’s in a great area so traveling is super easy! So this a combination of food and places you can visit while you’re there. Some places are repeats from previous food alerts because I just can’t get enough. Can you guess where? Let’s get into another weekend in Chicago!
DAY ONE IN CHICAGO
First thing first, FOOD! We got into Chicago and went to Iron Age Korean Steakhouse for some all you can you Korean BBQ. It was a Friday, so it was dinner price of $29 per person. For the options of meats and sides, I thought that was a good price compared to other prices that I have seen. So you get unlimited rounds, but it’s 3 meats and 3 sides per round for the whole table. So you order more as you finish the rounds. If any leftovers remain, then you do get charged a percentage of it to your bill. We only ate two rounds. Yikes I know we’re getting weak, but you actually get a decent portion of each protein.
First round: Spicy Pork Bulgogi, Hawaiian Bulgogi, Iron Age Soy Beef Steak, Rice, Kimchi and Veggies.
Second round: Top Blade Steak, Spicy Squid, Spicy Pork Steak and Japchae.
My recommendations would be to skip out on the Top Blade Steak and go with the Iron Age Soy Beef Steak. The Top Blade Steak is very plain and simple, while the Iron Age has the soy flavor and a richer quality meat. I really enjoyed both Bulgogi meats, the Hawaiian Bulgogi and the Spicy Pork Bulgogi. I would like to come back to try their chicken options and especially their Beef Brisket.
What’s a good meal without some dessert after? Look there’s no rules to dessert, you can eat some after every meal if you really want. We’re all grown here, we make our own rules!
We had the pleasure of being overloaded with sweetness and cuteness at Kurimu! We had a small sample of their ice cream when we visited the Color Factory for my birthday back in July, so it was nice to see what the actual store had! There was a Care Bear x Kurimu Popup, so a lot of the ice cream flavors were based on the theme. We had the Black Sugar Milk Tea ice cream with Mochi topping and a Pink Vanilla cone.
It’s still summer time, so what did we do? Grabbed some rooftop drinks with a beautiful view of the city. Club Cabana was perfect for that. It’s a rooftop part of a hotel, so you might have some people in the pool, but if you bring your swimmies then you can join in on the fun! They played good music and had a good selection of drinks on the menu. It’s outside of downtown Chicago, so you don’t get the traffic or noise which was nice, you also get a beautiful view of downtown. I am a sucker for rooftop bars, eating, etc. I love the city views, it makes me feel some type of way, but a good type of way. I was obsessed with my Paloma drink made with tequila because of the Tajin rim. I vote that we get rid of the salt rims on drink and replace it with Tajin, everything would taste 5x better.
Last place to end our first day was of course **DRUMROLLL PLEASEEEEEEEE** Jolliebee!!! It’s now a mandatory visit every time I come to Chicago. I won’t post a picture because this will be it’s like 3rd mention on my blog I think? Can you guess what I ordered? If you said Jolly Spaghetti, you’re completely right. This time I skipped out on the fried chicken and got mashed potatoes instead. I can never get enough, the Jolly Spaghetti is like a drug to me. I wasn’t hungry when we got back to the hotel and said I was only going to take a bite or two. I then ate half of it, it’s seriously that addicting to me.
DAY TWO IN CHICAGO
Breakfast for this day was spent outdoors on the patio of Parlor Pizza at the Wicker Park location. We made it in time for the brunch menu and decided order something unconventional. Pizza in the morning, but make it brunch! The Eggs Benedict Brunch Pizza on the menu caught our eye, then it caught out tastebuds. The Eggs Benedict Brunch Pizza consist of three eggs, Canadian ham, baby fontina, Spanish manchego, scallions, chives, and lemon hollandaise sauce. I love how creative and different it was. I can now say I’ve had a pizza that had a sunny side up egg on it! It was delicious and I would love to come back to try other items on the menu.
A little fun fact about the Wicker Park location of Parlor Pizza, on the side of the building they have this mural of a bear eating pizza! I think it’s so cool. Here’s a picture of us from 2019. We didn’t eat there that day, but said we would come back to try it and we finally did!
Next, we made our way downtown Chicago to finish out the rest of the day. We stopped by some stores to shop on the Magnificent Mile. We had some time to kill, so why not stop by the Starbucks Reserve Roastery for some drinks? Yes, as in alcoholic drinks! The Starbucks Reserve Roastery has a total of 5 levels and on level 4, they serve alcoholic beverages. Plus you can get a seat by the windows and see the view of Michigan Street. The drinks are pretty strong and after my Roastery Boilermaker and one of the Espresso Martinis from the Espresso Martini Flight, I was feeling it. So I grabbed a Salame Piccante Pizza before we left.
The Espresso Martini Flight give you three different Starbucks Reserve® Espresso Martinis fused with global liqueurs: Orange Cacao, Molé Spice and Cherry Limone. The Roastery Boilermaker is a Chicago location exclusive and has Starbucks Reserve® Cold Brew, Koval Four Grain Whiskey, Malört, Combier Pamplemousse, Honey Syrup, Fever Tree Club Soda, Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters, Pink Grapefruit Juice, Lemon Juice, Grapefruit Wheel, Salt Tincture, Rhine Hall Bierschnaps.
I have never had a boilermaker before nor did I know it existed, so I was a little confused about the separate shot glass. I was wondering if you take it separately or if you poured it in the drink. I did a quick google search and read that you’re suppose to take the shot then chase it with the main part of the drink which is a warmer beer. I did that exactly and I was not expecting the taste at all. The main glass had a lot of grapefruit flavor, but it was more of the bitter grapefruit rind flavor. My reaction is actually pretty funny, so enjoy the video below hahaha. No drink went to waste, I just chugged the rest and chased it with some sour power strips that I got from the candy store before.
Surprise! Believe it or not, but we don’t only eat. We actually do non food related activities too. Over the many, many years that I’ve been visiting and making trips to Chicago, I’ve never taken a boat tour before. So we found one to go on! There’s plenty of different boat tours, but we did the Shoreline Architecture Tour at Navy Pier. We chose the 7:10 PM time slot and it was perfect for the sunset behind the city. I actually learned a lot of interesting things about the different architectures that are in downtown Chicago. I like learning things like that so it was very worth it in my opinion! Plus beautiful views.
On the way home, we stopped by this diner drive thru place (looks like Sonic, but older) called Superdawg Drive-In. We saw it on the way back to our hotel on day one and said we would try it out. What caught our eyes were the two huge hotdog people with laser beam eyes. One was dressed in a caveman or circus muscle man outfit and the other was a hotdog lady in a dress. That was pretty cool to see.
Fun fact: Superdawg Drive-in has been there since 1948 making it 74 years.
DAY THREE IN CHICAGO
We went over to Little Vietnam on Argyle Street, the Vietnamese town for Tank Noodle. I wanted to try something other than Phở. I already knew that it’s pretty good at Tank Noodle, so I went with the Bún riêu. Bún riêu is a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice vermicelli noodles. This one had shrimp, pork, tofu, quail egg, pork cake, pork blood, tomato, onion, green onion, shrimp paste, cilantro, crab paste, and pepper. I would have to say Tank Noodle has the best Bún riêu out of the other restaurants that I have tried it at, but nothing beats my mom’s homemade version of it!
On the way back to our cars, we quickly stopped in First Sip Cafe and ordered the Ubae Nior Latte. It was such a cute decorated cafe with black walls covered in plants and lights. Then around the register there’s a bunch of different teacups hung up and gave it a very dainty feel. I thought that was super cute. The picture may not look as appealing, but it was a really good drink. I would order it again! It’s a black tea with activated charcoal latte, sweetened with Ube or sweet purple yam.
The Museum of Ice Cream was our last stop. Back in July we came across it, but it wouldn’t be open until the weekend after. I first found out about the Museum of Ice Cream through some friends when they were visiting New York, so I was excited to find out about Chicago opening one up since we couldn’t fit it in our NYC trip earlier in the year.
I wouldn’t say this museum is made specifically for selfies and photo opportunities, but more for you to learn about ice cream while tasting a bunch of different versions! You can definitely get your photo ops in though. I’ll do a separate blog on the Museum of Ice Cream and my experience there. All you need to know is that we ate 6 different ice creams going through the museum and everything’s pink!
Another weekend spent in Chicago, a lot more places explored, and still so much more that it has to offer. I can’t wait for the next trip and the places/foods that we’ll try next. Very soon, I’ll be writing individual blogs on the Museum of Ice Cream (Chicago) and the Color Factory (Houston and Chicago) and my experiences there as well as the various locations visited! You can follow me on socials or you can sign up to receive email newsletters on new blogs that I post right under here.
Stay hungry in both your stomach and heart until the next adventure!
I know ANOTHER Chicago post?? Sorry, but Chicago is only 2 hours away from me and there’s constantly new things to try. This time I’ll include places that we also visited so it’s not just food! Welcome to our one day trip to Chicago ♡
So I have a huge list on my phone with places to visit food wise and entertainment wise. Whenever we decide to go to whatever city, we’ll look through my list and choose what places to visit that time around. I do save every place, so if you would like my full list I can definitely give it to you guys, just send me a message.
I took a little bit of time to get ready, so by the time we got into Chicago this cafe was just about to run out of their pastries. Luckily, we got to Vietfive Coffee just in time before the last Bánh Mì Empanada was gone. It’s exactly what the name is, it’s a traditional Viet/French Baguette style sandwich in a form of an empanada and the flavor we got was the 5 Spice Tofu + Veggie. It was pretty good so it’s a must to come back early and try the other meats. Then of course, I had to get an Iced Cà Phê Sữa Đá with Condensed Milk or their Vietnamese style coffee.
After, we went walking around to see if there was anything cool nearby and we ran into Eat Me Milk Me Coffee & Tea. Here we ordered two different Chinese Baos, the traditional Taiwanese Pork Belly Bao and the Korean Style Beef Bao. These baos were so flavorful! The pork belly literally melts in your mouth and the korean beef was perfectly paired with the kimchi toppings. Not only do they have food, but they also serve coffee and boba tea. We just didn’t order any which I do regret, but that just means we’ll have to visit again. They also have a concept store, so you can buy these cool jackets and purses.
We weren’t expecting to go to two food places back to back, so we continued walking around to try to walk off the food and honestly the weather was just perfect. Guess what we ran into next? Hamburger University.
You are missing out if you don’t know what Hamburger University is. Before I get into their pretty cool menu, Hamburger University is a training McDonalds facility, it’s the corporation’s global headquarters. They train high-potential restaurant managers, mid-managers and owner-operators in restaurant management. It’s pretty big on the inside AND they have some of their different global foods that you would find in other countries! We had to absolutely try the global menu even though we were already full. We ordered the Taco seasoned Fries from Norway and the Matcha Oreo McFlurry from Japan. The fries were okay, nothing really special. It was pretty fun shaking the seasoning in the bag, just something different, but the Matcha Oreo McFlurry though. The only difference is the matcha flavored ice cream, but it takes it to a whole other level. Please bring the Matcha Oreo McFlurry to all US McDonalds please!
There was just way too much food within a sort time, so we drove off to Chinatown Chicago for some shopping! I love going into Chinatown Chicago. There’s just tons of little shops, bakeries, and restaurants to go too. Plus it reminds me of all the times my mom would take us when I was younger, so I guess you can say it’s nostalgic for me. The shops and restaurants have been changing more recently, but you still have the classic JoyYee. We didn’t eat there, but it was so tempting! We did some shopping and walking around. I got a new Hello Kitty plush and we found some different flavor lays chips like lamb cumin. It’s pretty good, strong in flavor, but good.
We checked my list out and found that there was a food place about a block or two away, so you know why not? Kong Dog is where we went next. There’s not a single Korean corndog place where we live, so we couldn’t pass the opportunity up. I was still so full, so I let my boyfriend choose what to order and he chose the Rainbow Kong Dog with sausage. It was an interesting choice I would say, but it still tasted pretty good! Who knew a corn dog covered in fruity crunch puff and sausage would taste good together.
There was no way that we were going to let the perfect weather in one of our favorite cities go to waste. You know it, we brought along our longboards and decided to take a cruise along Lake Michigan. It was so beautiful, the video doesn’t do it justice. Plus I love that they made this area for those who want to skate, bike, walk, run, etc. If I lived in Chicago I’d be on this path or trail everyday. I’d be way more active outside than I am currently. Cruising along the lake with the sun setting and city views? I love it. I just love it! ♡
Our last stop of the night, we found on accident. We were making our way out of the downtown area so it wasn’t so busy and was going to grab fast food on the way home until I spotted the Jollibee sign. I was so excited cause when did a Jollibee exists in the midwest?? I’ve only seen it on social media over on the west coast. I made my boyfriend turn back around so we could eat there, no way was I going to miss out on it. It was the best decision ever though because Jolibee is my new favorite fast food or quick restaurant place. My new go to!!! Jollibee is a Filipino chain fast food.
It’s so good that this Jollibee blog section is getting two pictures. It might look like it’s nothing special, but when I say FLAVOR I mean it. I basically dream about the wings and spaghetti everyday. We ordered the 10 pc ChickenJoy Bucket in Spicy with gravy for dipping and Jolly Spaghetti. The wings were perfectly spicy and juicy, not a dry meat in sight! Then the Jolly Spaghetti sure made me Jolly. It’s addicting stuff. The description on their website for the spaghetti is “our unique spaghetti topped with Jollibee’s signature sweet-style sauce, loaded with chunky slices of savory ham, ground meat, and hotdog.” It’s the best thing in the world.
I’m in need of some Jollibee after writing about it, looks like I need another Chicago trip soon. Ugh, Chicago has my foodie heart wrap around a finger. I will always go back for more food and regular adventures. I really don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Chicago. I think the next time I’ll be in town is for the Taste of Chicago Food Festival in July. Hopefully it all works out and I’ll be posting another blog soon! I know a lot of my followers live in the midwest, so these Chicago blogs are perfect hahah I hope everyone has a good day and night. You’ll be seeing more of me soon!
Remember! We don’t eat to live, we live to eat ♡
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 ♡
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:
STARTERS
Miso Soup ×2
Beef Sukiyaki Bibimbap
Gyu- Sushi 4 pcs
Napa Kimchi
Gyu-Kaku Salad
BBQ ITEMS
Prime Kalbi Short Rib – (Sweet Soy Tare Marinade)
Harami Skirt Steak – (Miso Marinade)
Filet Mignon – (Salt & Pepper Marinade)
Umakara Ribeye
Garlic Shio Cabbage
Pork Belly – (Shio Marinade)
Shrimp Garlic
Broccoli w/ Cheese
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, the River 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 Belly Mantou 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!
SALLY ♡ T
SALLY♡THINGS 