Unicorn Frappuccino!

I did the thing! Super trendy white girl Emily strikes again and does it for the insta

Clearly Starbucks know's what they're doing with branding and trends because they're making big bank on this one. I especially like the tagline that they put on the sign "Only available if you believe." That made me laugh for sure and the barista who made my drink seemed nice enough to make it for me with a smile so she was on board this limited time trend. 

As pretty and photogenic as this drink is though, the appeal stops there for me. It happened to be a warm day when I ordered this and it was about a 10 minute walk from Starbuck to school where I planned to consume this so texturally this drink did not hold up. The bottom starts to get all melty and watery which adds to the changing color and flavor but doesn't make me want to drink it. I also shared this drink with about 7 other people and I can honestly say 1 out of 8 people said this was ok at best and the reviews just went down from there.

The drink seems to be okay when it's sweet but the second the blue starts to melt into the drink you get pockets of sour that are not pleasant. I like sour too and didn't enjoy it at all. It's super sweet and has a weird unidentifiable flavor to it. One of the guys said it tasted like drinking OJ after brushing your teeth. Not good. Starbucks says this is a mango flavored drink but it didn't resemble mango at all to anyone. I feel like if you melted down a bunch of random candy and threw some whipped cream on top with sour sweet cotton candy sugar you'd get a similar effect. I'm pretty happy this was only a limited time deal but I supposed if you're in love you can always ask for it 'secret menu' style. 

CHI - Nina's Birthday!!!

It's Nina's birthday and she wanted to celebrate with dinner out and was kind enough to invite me! Nina is as indecisive as I am and it took some back and forth between logistics with restaurants before she decided where she wanted to go for dinner. 

LOCATION: 857 W FULTON MARKET, CHICAGO, IL., 60607

Duck Duck Goat is owned by Stephanie Izard who is the owner of the Little Goat Diner that I wrote about before so I was pretty pumped when Nina picked this place. Her other choice was the restaurant we went to a little while back, Ba Ba Reeba which I would've been pretty cool with but I'm always partial to going somewhere new so it was cool.

Each room in this place is decorated in a different Chinese street food style and it's honestly much bigger on the inside with lots of different rooms. I wanted to walk around just to photograph everything because it looked so great from room to room. 

I didn't take pictures of food because as you can see, it was quite dark and it was her birthday so I didn't want to be super awkward with her friend's that I just met and take pictures of the food which we shared family style. Let's see if I can remember everything we got because with 7 of us sharing we tried quite a bit of everything.

We started off with some goat and duck spring rolls and the sichuan pork boiled dumplings. I never know how I feel about spring rolls because sometimes they're fried and sometimes they're more like 'summer rolls' which are what I think of when someone says spring rolls. They were indeed fried and skinny little things but tasted pretty good. The dumplings were great and were moist and flavorful. Nothing too out of the ordinary so far, but still good.

Nina and I are always about octopus so of course we had to order the cold octopus, cucumber, and peanut salad which i've never heard of or had before but loved. I always love octopus so I was pretty hyped for this and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't a huge serving so between 7 of us I got about a bite and wish I had more for sure. 

For noodles we got the shrimp and goat sausage slap noodles (a special here) as well as the goat belly lo mein both of which were good but, again, nothing out of the ordinary. the lo mein was a little salty which tends to happen and not my favorite kind of noodles because they feel somewhat americanized to me. We were pretty excited about ordering a lot of goat dishes because of the name of the restaurant and feels like a treat to me because I don't get it often. 

Finally, we ordered duck fried rice which has a duck egg over jasmine rice as well as seafood fried rice which had shrimp, clams, and sea bass. Both were good with a nice balance of flavor and not too much salt. I'd say the seafood fried rice was a bigger hit but that's not to say we didn't finish every grain of duck fried rice we were given. We also got an order of green beans in black bean sauce which tasted great. It had that wok taste to it so I could tell they did it right and just reminded me of when dad makes me green beans at home.

It's pretty impressive that the dishes tasted really authentic and makes me wonder who the actual chefs were because they did their research and did a great job. This is also to say that while the dishes were all tasty, they weren't too out of the ordinary over all, and I felt like I could get the same food from an authentic chinese restaurant in chinatown for at least a third of the price. I wouldn't go back just for that fact alone but it was a good experience and the interiors made me pretty excited so at least there's that. They also have a really cute take out window on the outside of the building which apparently has a slightly different menu from the sit down menu which is a fun twist but I'm not sure that it's as popular because a big part of eating at duck duck goat was for the atmosphere.   

CHI - Medici on 57th

Today's field trip was a little south near the University of Chicago. We headed to see a short architectural tour of the Robie House designed by famous, incredible, architect Frank Lloyd Wright! I was pretty pumped because this was my first Frank Lloyd Wright House and from what I've seen in photos, all of them are incredible beyond belief. The design of the Robie house was really beautiful and had a large amount of glass windows that you could see out of but not into and an amazing overhanging roof for extra privacy. (Turns out the Robie's were kinda paranoid.)

I could talk about this house for awhile, but I'm no architectural student and no expert on Frank Lloyd Wright houses so take my word for it and go check it out of you're in Chicago and like quick architectural tours. It's worth it.

On to the real topic here, food. After our tours of the day the professors in charge of schedules for the Basel Students offered to take us all out to dinner. Free food? I'm always hungry. Let's go.

LOCATION: 1327 E 57TH ST, CHICAGO, IL., 60637

They professor's talked of a cool college hot spot nearby so we walked together to Medici On 57th and even though there were way too many of us in the group they seated us in less than a half hour with no reservation. We walked around and checked out a bookstore to kill some time before heading into this really cool restaurant. This place does feel pretty college-y with wood everywhere, weird art, and writing in all of the tables from people who made a stop in for a bite. The menu was pretty vast and had a variety of food from pizza and hotdogs, to salads and sandwiches. There were some entree's listed but I got caught up on the sandwiches and was feeling like a kid so I ordered a grilled cheese. 

This, however, was no ordinary grilled cheese sandwich; It came with cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and pesto on a hand cut grilled semolina sesame bread and I added bacon for an extra 80 cents. I also got a side of fries because I'm always down for fries.

This grilled cheese was boss. I've never thought to put pesto on a grilled cheese but I want this to happen all the time now because it was an incredible combination with the cheese, tomato, and bacon. A little fancy for a grilled cheese which I can appreciate for sure. Love. The fries were a little thin and if you're into fries like that they were seasoned well for sure, I tend to like potato-ier fries but that's just a personal preference. Super pumped with my order but this place for sure looks like it has a lot of great options and if I was in the UC area I would come here often. Rumor from our profs was that this was one of Obama's spots when he want to school there and I'm just gonna say he knew what was up cuz I like this place and the atmosphere, super chill.

We also ordered pecan pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert split between 4 or 5 girls just because we were so full. It was a great balance between salty and sweet as well hot and cold. I"m not a huge pecan pie kinda person but this kinda turned me on to them so there may be more in my future.   

CHI - Latinicity

A bunch of graduate students from our sister school in Basel, Switzerland are visiting for a week meaning we get a week off class and a week full of hanging out with cool talented designers and going on field trips around the city. Best. Week. Ever.

Today, one of our stops was to the Chicago Design Museum which happens to be inside of a mall (Block 37) right around lunch time. Thankfully they're pretty cool and are in between exhibitions so the place was in the middle of being painted and set up and they were alright with us bringing lunch to eat during their presentation. Cue Latinicity.

LOCATION: 108 N STATE ST., CHICAGO, IL, 60602

So Latinicity is basically a really cool food court with a twist. When you enter they hand you a little swipe card and you head into see all the different food options. This ranges from a taco shop to a chinese wok section to seafood. You order, hand them your card, and pay when you leave the court. Of course, as hungry as I was, I couldn't make the decision of what I wanted. I walked back and forth between tacos and seafood and ended up at the Saladero Latin Grill. What got me was, no surprise, Beef and Caramelized Onion Empanadas with guac, which I ended up being super excited about. It was a pretty quick deal and they popped it into the deep fryer and put it into a to-go box for me along with my order of yucca fries 'con mojo' aka an incredible lime dipping sauce. 

Honestly, I need to go back and try out some of the other dishes at this stand and at others because for a food court it was great. The empanada was a little over salted but the outer crust was flakey and a great balance especially with the mild yucca fries on the side. This whole meal was a wonderful balance with the guac and the mojo adding a tart kick. I love empanadas and they make me miss the farmers market at home with an incredible empanada stand on the edge. I know it took be a long time at Latinicity to make the decision of what to get but boy am i satisfied with my choice in the end. Totally awesome. 

CHI - DOX

We got a little lunch break today in between our studio visits with the Basel students and we happened to be around Wicker park and of course, Nina had a place nearby on her list of places to eat! She's the real MVP.

LOCATION: 1566 N DAMEN AVE, CHICAGO, IL 60622

This place is Dox which has great Mediterranean food made quickly. You order at the counter, they give you an number, and bring your food to your table. This was pretty convenient since we were a group of 7 and splitting checks is always an ordeal so fast places with good food that let you pay on your own are always a win.

Everyone ordered various things off the menu and everything looked great but Nina and I decided to share a meal today and honestly, it was a great idea.

We split their grilled octopus, of course, which comes with Santorini fava on the bottom and caramelized onion. This is listed under their 'Snacks' section which meant it wasn't huge but it's octopus so for $8.50 it's not a terrible decision and for us octopus is always a must. The octopus had a great char to it and it was perfectly tender. The fava and onion puree underneath was a great balance to it and had a nice creamy texture to give a nice contrast to the octopus.

Since we figured it wasn't going to be a large dish for the two of us we also ordered avocado hummus which comes with pita and that was a great idea because it was a nice addition to the meal. I wasn't stuffed after we finished everything but I was for sure full enough that I was content. The hummus was good but it wasn't super avocado-y so if that's what you're expecting it's probably not what you're ideally hoping for but it was still a very good hummus and I'm fairly certain Nina and I scraped the bowls clean so this seems like a mission accomplished to me. I would totally go back if I was in the area and was looking for some light fresh medditeranian food for lunch.