Good Chicago Eats

One of my favorite things about traveling is tasting my way through the city I am visiting, and in Chicago there are definitely lots of good eats! My sister and her family loves this restaurant called Joy Yee Noodle. It's a Pan Asian restaurant that serves up Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Thai dishes. Their menu is pretty detailed and amazing!  There are literally hundreds of choices.  Here is their page on Bubble Tea and Shaved Ice Drinks.  Oh my, I was in heaven.  If you've never had Bubble Tea or Shaved Ice Drinks before, it's a Chinese / Taiwanese tea based drink that usually has a combination of some type of syrup or fruit and tapioca or grass jelly balls known as "pearls" found at the bottom of the drink.  I'm not a fan of tapioca so I usually go for the shaved ice Bubble Tea drinks which are kinda like an Asian slushie topped with real fruit. I love how they had pictures of every Bubble Tea drink on the menu, since the ingredients can be pretty elaborate, it helps to visualize what the drinks look like.  It really helps with choosing the flavor!

I ended up choosing Watermelon / Lychee Bing, which is a shaved ice drink with sweet red cherry syrup, condensed milk, and watermelon and lychee fruit.  I grew up drinking this shaved ice concoction as a kid and it's still one of my favorites.  So refreshing!

Not to be outdone, the entree menu also had these amazing photos!  The menu is so elaborate and there is so much deliciousness to choose from.  I get overwhelmed when I see a menu like this because I want to taste everything on it.  I love that they had pictures of everything on the menu!  If only every restaurant could do that!

I couldn't decide between a few dishes.  So I went with the combination of Pho soup and a Bánh mì Vietnamese Brisket Sandwich.  If you haven't had Pho soup before, if you ever see it on the menu, get it.  It is wonderful goodness.  Pho is a rice noodle and the soup I ordered had a beef broth and sliced beef, and it traditionally comes with bean sprouts, cilantro, mint, scallions and basil.  All the fresh herbs makes this soup really tasty.  The Bánh mì sandwich traditionally is on a crusty French loaf bread and has meat with julienned pickled daikon radish, pickled carrots, pickled cucumbers, cilantro and mint.  These sandwiches are addictively good.

My brother-in-law ordered a Korean sliced beef dish in a hot pot.  If I didn't go for the Pho / Sandwich combo, I would have ordered this.  Korean style beef is delicious.  These are thinly sliced beef with a teriyaki style marinade.  Accompanied with rice and kimchi.  YUM.  If you are ever in Chicago, look for Joy Yee Noodle, you will not be sorry!

Chi-town

I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, I love visiting my sister and her family, it's not often that I come out here, but I should do it more often.  It's only a 2.5 hour flight and this time of year, it's fairly inexpensive to fly.  My flight from NYC to Chicago only cost me $99!  What a bargain!  I took these photos from the airplane.  I love going to the mid-west and seeing all the squares and farmland!  It looks like a patchwork quilt!

This photo I took as we were getting into Chicago. In the back, you'll see Lake Michigan. It's so pretty from this viewpoint.  When I landed at Midway, I headed to the baggage claim and waited and waited for my luggage to load onto the carousel.  Forty minutes later and no luggage.  I checked with the attendant and she said there was no more luggage coming.  Argh!  Southwest Airlines had lost my luggage.  The flight I was on had a stop in Chicago and then they were on their way to St. Louis.  I suspect my luggage went along for the ride.  I filled out a lost luggage report and hoped for the best.

My sister works in downtown Chicago, so I told her I would take the train from the airport to meet her at her office.  I saw this bike rack on my way to the CTA entrance at Midway.  I was so impressed that many people ride their bikes to the airport!  Wow, so green!

This was my first time taking the CTA and my sister said it was pretty easy. She said, if you can navigate through the New York subway system, this one will be a breeze for you. There is just one train from the Airport to downtown. She also said don't call it the subway though, because people will know you aren't from around these parts. The locals refer to it as the "L". I found the train easily enough and headed to the Chicago Loop.  The train was indeed quite easy to figure out.  Much much easier than NYC!

When I arrived to downtown Chicago, my stomach was growling.  I was starving from traveling and I decided to get some lunch.  Feeling sad about my lost luggage, I decided to get something that would make me immediately feel better.  I went to get a Chicago dog with fries.  This Chicago hotdog had tons of toppings, and is definitely not something you can easily get in NYC.  On the hotdog was relish, mustard, onion, a pickle, hot peppers, and tomatoes!  It was delicious and definitely made me temporarily feel better about having no luggage!  I'm not sure if the locals eat these or if it's more a touristy thing.  It sure is good!!

Later that night, I received a phone call from Southwest stating that they found my luggage!  It was returned to me at 12am Midnight.  Thank goodness I didn't have to buy new clothes during my stay here!

Living Social

This weekend, I redeemed my voucher that I bought from Living Social. If you haven't used it before, Living Social is just like Groupon but it is geared towards activities such as travel, dining, trips, theater, arts and culture, salon services etc. If there is one based in your city, definitely check it out. They offer great discounts, usually 40 - 50% off. The deal I purchased was a weekend getaway to Atlantic City that included hotel, four meals, bus transportation, and spa admission, and all for $125. Talk about a bargain! The hotel room was awesome. We had an oceanview room. Check out this view from our hotel room window!

The hotel was steps from the beach.  Too bad it's too cold to actually go swimming.  We still walked out to the beach to enjoy the sand on our feet and feel the ocean breeze.  Here is our hotel, we stayed at the Resorts Casino.

I haven't been to Atlantic City in years, even though I only live 2.5 hours away.  It's probably been 10 years since I've been there.  I'm not much of a gambler, so the only other activities really are concerts, the beach and the boardwalk.  Despite not being here for 10 years, the boardwalk has barely changed.  In fact, the rides on the pier look like they also haven't changed since I last was here.  I don't know if it was the change in season or the lack of tourists, but the boardwalk and it's stores, games, and food vendors to me seemed really run down.  Maybe it always looked that way, and it's been so long that I don't remember.  I definitely think AC needs a "facelift" to modernize the Pierfront.  It looks like it's stuck in the 90s.

Despite the cold Autumn day, we still enjoyed walking around.  One of my favorite activites down at the shore is boardwalk junkfood. I had to get me some of this. Funnel cake!  Where else can you find something so incredibly junky?  Fried dough with powdered sugar on top?  Yes please!

There are also some interesting games on the boardwalk.  I saw one of those old Zoltar fortune tellers.  These always remind me of the movie Big, when Tom Hanks turns into a little kid again.  That's one of my all-time favorite movies.  This is a horrible picture, there was a bright glare on the window.  I should of had him read my fortune, but I was afraid that I might turn back into a kid.  ;)

And since we were in Atlantic City, we tried our luck and had to get in some gambling.  I'm not a big gambler, so I stuck to the penny slots.  I had a good run on this machine, check this out, ALL 7s and ALL watermelons!  On this particular run I won $10.  LOL.  It is afterall, the penny slots.  However, I didn't stop while I was ahead.  I continued playing and quickly lost all my winnings and soon I was $50 in the hole.  Despite being a penny slot, the funds add up quickly! There is definitely something about all the flashing lights and winning ringing noises that pump you up.  But then when your pocket is empty, you quickly hit reality.  Haha.  All in all, the weekend trip was definitely fun!  I'll do it again if another bargain comes around!

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Flying With Me

I am enroute to Chicago this morning and I picked some tomatoes out of the garden that have a flush of color. I thought... I probably could bring these on the flight with me to Chicago. So I threw them all in one of those takeout soup containers. My sister is totally going to chuckle that I am bringing tomatoes from my garden with me. I also picked some green beans, basil and tomatoes that went to my neighbor. I just couldn't let it go to waste!

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