New blog post series? Yes, we LOVE those! Every few months, I’ll post my favorite photos or videos from each month. The point of living is to live and I’m trying my best to do just that. A little trail of memories you can say.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
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 ♡
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
Bò Lúc Lắc (Shaking Beef)
seared USDA tenderloin beef, watercress salad mix, bell pepper, onion, garlic confit, jasmine rice, scallion oil
Phở Bò (Lúa Beef Soup)
44 Farms Premium Angus beef (medium rare), rice noodle, bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil, rice paddy herb, scallion, jalapeno, lime substitute Admiral’s jumbo shrimps
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 Thai Bao 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:
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
Hello again food lovers! I am here with a couple of new food places that opened up in my hometown Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the pandemic still going on *cries* and Michigan being pretty closed (but I’m thankful for the Gov. Whitmer taking cautious steps), I haven’t been able to go out to eat as much as I wanted too. Otherwise, there would be tons of more foodie post from Grand Rapids. The city is growing and there’s so many great food options! Luckily before my move, I was able to eat at two recently opened restaurants. I just want to acknowledge that the community of Grand Rapids is so full of support for each other. I haven’t heard of too many restaurants closing down and the customers have been really nice, kind and thankful to restaurant staffs. Hearing a “thank you” for working during this crazy time really makes your day. Not only customers, but I see a lot of restaurants around town being very active with helping and getting involved with the community as well! I have so much love for Grand Rapids.
The first food place that I was able to try out is called Kaffeine. It is this cute little cafe over on Michigan Street. They have coffee and fusion Korean foods. It’s such a great place for a more quiet or relaxed eating date. I would love to go to Kaffeine for some delicious food, coffee and time to work on homework, studying, work, etc. by myself and I don’t like going places by myself.
In my opinion, the bulgogi is probably the best bulgogi that we have in town. It is so flavorful and they give you a pretty good portion of bulgogi in or on their meals. My friend ordered the Bulgogi Toast with a Matcha Latte and I ordered the Bulgogi Burrito with Sweet Chili Sauce with an Apple Caramel Latte. It was so delicious that I actually took my mom and boyfriend there the following week. I will definitely be back to try more foods from their menu! They also have stickers of a cute puppy drinking coffee as their little logo and it was too cute to not buy.
The second place that I went to was called Condado Tacos. Condado Tacos is located over on Bridge Street. I actually ate here twice as well because the food was that good. One thing, that I love about here is that they have an outdoor patio area! I love eating outdoors on a nice patio. The vibes is just so different and you get some Vitamin D, life can’t get better than that.
Condado Tacos is not authentic tacos, but don’t let that stop you from going. The picture does not do any justice either!
So now for the food part! The first time at Condado Tacos (pictured above), I ordered the House Flight Margarita. The 3 flavors that I chose were Blood Orange, Prickly Pear and Pomegranate. Then ordered the Chorizo El Tradicional taco, the Beef Bad Habit taco, the Pulled Pork Bubba Kush taco and the Beef The Heater Taco with a side of guacamole. Plus my friend ordered the Dirty Queso to start off with and it was THE BOMB. Hands down best queso I’ve ever eaten.
The second time eating (video next to this), I just had to order the Dirty Queso again. You can easily say that I’m hooked. I got some of the same tacos as before, the El Tradicional and the Bad Habit, but tried the Beef Cali Dream Taco and the Beef Sweet Heat Taco this time. Of course with a side of guacamole, I love anything avocado. All of them are just as good as the ones I tried before. I haven’t had anything that I disliked yet!
My mouth just waters when I think back to these foods. I’m so excited to see all the new restaurants that will open while I’m gone. I definitely will miss all of the awesome restaurants that we have back in Grand Rapids, but I’m certain that I’ll find some spots here in Wisconsin. It also gives me more reason to explore the area and get to know the location better. Thankfully, my boyfriend loves to try new food places as much as I do too! This won’t be the last of Grand Rapids or Michigan though, I’ll be eating good when I come home to visit haha.
Stay hungry guys ♡
SALLY ♡ T
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 ♡
SALLY ♡ T
Are you ready for more food and drink boomerangs? It’s probably my favorite thing to do haha. Today’s city is Madison, Wisconsin and you’ll notice that I’ll be writing a lot about here or already have, but the answer for that is because my boyfriend lives in Wisconsin. So I do spend a good amount of time here and you guys already know that we both like to eat. Let’s jump into the food though!
When I arrived into town, our first food stop was to the new asian market that just opened called Global Market and Hall. It is a market, but it also has a food court inside with many different stands to choose from. I can’t remember the name of the food stand that I ordered from (oops), but I got a bowl of Beef Brisket Pho and a side of Barbecue Pork Buns. The Pho broth wasn’t as flavorful like how Pho usually is, but the beef brisket was really good, tender and just melts in your mouth. I was pretty disappointed with how dry the pork buns were, but I’m the type of person to give places a second chance, so hopefully next time it will be better!
If you guys follow me on snapchat, then you know my new favorite thing to eat are seafood boils in a bag. I can eat these forever! I usually get full quick, but when it comes to these, I will sit there for hours eating everything like I have a bottomless stomach. This one is from Ragin Cajun Seafood. You always have to get the House Special flavor, which is all the flavors combined. They have a good variety of seafoods in their combos compared to other seafood boil places that I’ve been to as well. So far King Cajun Crawfish in Orlando is my #1, but Ragin Cajun Seafood is pretty good if you find yourself in Madison, Wisconsin!
You can’t enjoy all these yummy entrees and big meals without some desserts. Treat yourself and top it off with some sweets! The boyfriend has a bigger sweet tooth than I do, but it’s starting to rub off on me. I do have a soft spot for boba and pleasing pretty looking drinks. We had to go get some drinks and dessert from Le C’s Patisserie & Tea House! Ugh, I wish we had places this like in Grand Rapids. Pretty tea drinks are so pleasing. We got the Flamingo Boba and the Peach Green Tea with Rose Flower and Lemon. Both are very delicious!
The dessert that we picked to try was the Caramel Coconut Custard Cake. It tasted so much like Flan, but with a soft custard/pudding like texture. It was really good! I wanted to get about 5 more just to eat. The desserts come in such cute boxes, white all over and gold on the inside. Felt like I was about to eat a million dollar cake. Both yummy and satisfying!
If you guys were wondering, my favorite thing is to make my boyfriend make boomerangs with me and he probably gets so annoyed with it hahah.
There’s so many other locations to eat at and a couple more seafood boils to try over in Wisconsin, so I’m ready for all of that. Don’t worry, these Food Alert post won’t be going away anytime soon. I think these are my favorite to write about and share. Recommendation for other food places are always welcomed, you can post them in the comments below or on the contact page!
SALLY ♡ T
SALLY♡THINGS 