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 ♡
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!
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
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 Crawfish after 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 ♡
SALLY ♡ T
SALLY♡THINGS 