CHI - CupBop + Ramen

Midterms were rough, per usual, and as a treat my Beiruo asked me out to  lunch for today! I'm always down to eat and she follows a chinese foodie blog based in Chicago so she searched the blog and instagram and we landed on CupBop + Ramen. We had a book release/lecture for one of the teachers and Beiruo figured out that this place was close to the release so we met up around 1 to fill up. 

LOCATION: 2439 N CLARK ST. CHICAGO, IL 60614

This place is right above Old Town and next to Lincoln Park which I love so it was a nice place to walk around and explore while I waited for Beiruo to arrive. CupBop + Ramen is of course a combination of Cup Bibimbop and Ramen which I'm all for. I've been dreaming of my New York City ramen adventures and I'm honestly always ready to eat ramen so I was all in. We checked out this place online and the first sign that they have arranged is one that sets up a game. If you can beat the cashier at Rock Paper Scissors, you get a free drink. Already, I'm pumped. This place is also special because they do a cup/ramen combo bowl which we both wanted to try; it's called the BanBan and I ordered my cup bibimbop with beef and the pork only ramen (Tonkotsu) while Beiruo ordered her cup bibimbop with pork and the Pork Miso ramen (level 2 spice). Her blog also mentioned trying the the Sweet and Hot Chicken so she ordered a half portion for us to share. 

This isn't the most impressive, fancy looking restaurant when you walk in but it's freaking awesome. I will say that I did lose at Rock, Paper, Scissors so I didn't get a free drink, but Beiruo won and offered to share her drink with me so it was alright. The concept of a BanBan is already perfect so we spent a hot second gushing over bowls partitioned like this before we dug in. The sweet and hot chicken was surprisingly good to me. The half portion was more than enough for us but it was a little spicy with a great sweet factor to diffuse it before it got too hot. 

I am in love with the BanBan. Its perfect for days you want rice/glass noodles and ramen all together. Beiruo leaned more towards the CupBop half while I, like I mentioned before, I just love ramen. My Egg was cooked perfectly, the broth in the Ramen was great, and it had a great texture and balance to it. The CupBop half was also a really great melding of rice and glass noodles and eas seasoned super well. It wasn't overly salty, the meat was tender and not too chewy, and all the sauces and veggies mixed in was perfect. 

For sure, I would go back. We spent the rest of the day gushing about this place and telling everyone about it because it was completely worth checking out. The price range isn't too high and you get bang for your buck. It's definitely out of my way to get there, but if I'm in the area I would consider stopping in for a bite to eat. I need to redeem myself with Rock Paper Scissors!! 

CHI - SAINT'S ALPS TEAHOUSE & GOURMET

There's no celebration like Lunar New Year! I'm super sad not to be in Rochester to celebrate New Years and see my dad do all his ritual prayers and see mom sweep the bad luck out of the house but I'll be damned if I don't celebrate it somehow here on my own! This includes two parades and way too much eating in between stumbling upon lion dances in the street.

This is my first time on my own living in  a big city that actually has Chinatown and all of these wonderful things in time for New Years so I was ready to take part in the celebration, starting with lunch! I'm lucky to have new friends in the program that are Chinese and know all the good spots to eat in here in Chicago because there's only so much venturing that I want to do on my own. Of all of their choices we ended up at Saint's Alp Teahouse. 

LOCATION: 2157 CHINATOWN PLACE CHICAGO, IL 60616 (b/t Wells St and Princeton Ave)

I'm Cantonese so I'm not super familiar with Taiwanese food and I asked my friends Peiyang and Beiruo what was good and they pointed to several dishes on the menu that they liked or that were a little more traditionally Taiwanese. We ordered flake almond shrimp with mayo (which is super American) but always a fan favorite to all. We each ordered our own rice sets which come with a hot or cold tea with tapioca pearls (I drink mine cold but was the odd one out), a side of broccoli, tofu, and rice with a traditional taiwanese ground meat mix on top, and I ended up ordering the beef skewer meal. Beiruo got the same as me and Peiyang ordered the curry fish meal.

I personally am not a huge fan of tofu but it was only a small side and ended up being a nice palette cleanser between bites of the rice. The Tai meat mix on top of the rice was super good but also quite salty so I enjoyed the tofu and broccoli as breaks. The beef skewer (and bites of Peiyang's curry fish) were both so good and the whole set offered a really good balance overall. This also ended up being a really filling meal for around $10 and I ended up with the leftovers so I can honestly say it was a successful meal!

We finished just in time to see the parade pass by and walked around enough to digest this filling meal for us to stop off and get New Years pastries nearby because we are eating machines for sure. This was a great first New Years on my own; good vibes and full stomachs with new friends  

CHI - Pho 777

I'm finally back in Chicago after a month of being home for winter break. I can easily say I missed it in Rochester and I'm a little sad to be back on the grind here but school is a must, so I'll keep trekking along. 

Quick stop in Little Saigon before mom drove back home and we had to make a stop for Pho! 

LOCATION: 1065 W ARGYLE ST., CHICAGO, IL 60640

Apparently mom and dad came to this restaurant when they moved me to Chicago but I was at orientation so this is my first time in this neighborhood. Mom was also very cryptic about her opinion of the restaurant until after I told her mine. 

I'm the only one that was on the band-wagon for Pho while my mom and my cousin were about the pork chop rice platters. I can easily say that I probably should've gotten the rice as well. Mom told me after we started eating that she and my dad didn't really enjoy the Pho here last time but she's always up for letting me make my own mistakes and form my own opinions so there we were.

I ordered a bowl of Pho Dac Biet or basically the Pho beef special with all the variations of beef (tripe, meatballs, eye round, flank steak, brisket, and soft tendon) because I was feeling like beef that day and you might as well go all in if you're gonna do it! 

The service wasn't too bad for a weekend and the restaurant had maybe 3 or 4 other tables besides ours with two very quick waitresses that seemed a little bored to be honest. The food came out pretty quickly and I had pretty high hopes for a real authentic bowl of Pho from Little Saigon. The portions were right for a traditional Pho and the noodles and amount of meat were very fair for the order. The only thing I had a problem with was the broth. With Pho, broth is everything, and when it's not right, you might as well order rice because what are you doing. This broth, while full of flavor, was overwhelmingly sweet for what Pho should be. I felt like there was too much cinnamon and/or star anise and that just ruined the whole bowl. I couldn't taste any beef-y flavoring and that was the whole point of the order. Disappointed, I just ate the noodles and left a bowl full of broth at the end.

While some people may be fans of Pho777, I'd like to try another restaurant in Little Saigon for Pho that tastes more like Vietnam to me.  

CHI - Little Goat Diner

I've been dreaming of trying out Little Goat Diner since I moved to Chicago 3months ago and I finally made it!

LOCATION: 820 RANDOLPH ST., CHICAGO, IL 60607

My cousin was feeling better after these past few days and her stomach was up to try something a little out there so I finally got my wish and we headed to Little Goat. Of course I showed her the website before we went and we both fell in love. The illustrations are fun and whimsical and super crazy which just makes me happy to play around with. They of course carried over into the menu when we got to the restaurant too which was perfect and make me smile. 

Also walking up to the place and seeing that happy spinning little goat on the rooftop was the perfect welcome on this chilly day. Surprisingly we were seated right away and we decided to sit at the counter though a booth was available. We could see into the kitchen and I can easily say i was happily distracted by the fun and happy workers. Everyone was really nice and professional while looking like they were enjoying themselves. 

The menu is a mish-mash of a lot of different things and it was exciting to read through and try to figure out what to get. My cousin is pretty picky though and just ended up with chicken fingers and we ordered a side of fries to share. These fries were shoestring style and seasoned perfectly and had a nice crunch to them. For my meal I went with The Fat Club which is a smoked turkey, ham and bacon, havarti, avocado, cabbage, and tomato with mayo, and a special sauce on fat toast. This sandwich is stacked so tall there was a slice of toast in the middle for support. I made a great decision. This was a great sandwich with a great balance in the middle. The toast was a little hard and did that thing where it scraped the inside of my mouth but it was definitely worth it. I will say that if you're picky, this isn't the best place to go. Also it can be a little price especially since the menu is a la carte and we had to pay extra to add things like fries to our meal. The portion sizes are generous to me, at least the fat club sandwich was very filling and was enough for two meals. If i was with someone that was interested in trying something a little out there, I would go back for sure. 

CHI - Toast

Lunch Time! My cousin has been in town visiting for the past couple of weeks but turns out we haven't gone out that much (at least not anywhere super noteworthy). But today we didn't have much planned so we figured lunch out would work. She's been a little sick the past few days so we didn't wanna try anything too adventures and figured Toast would be the safe choice. 

LOCATION: 2046 N DAMEN AVE., CHICAGO, IL 60647

To start off, Toast was right next to the bus stop so that was perfect in terms of not having to walk out of the way and there was almost no chance of getting lost or not being able to find it. The dining room was pretty small and there was a semi large group of people standing outside so I was worried it would be a wait even at 1pm on a Saturday but because there were just two of us it was pretty quick.

The staff was pretty quick at their job and paid a fair amount of attention to us, but while they were casually dressed, felt to me like they were giving of an air of stuffiness. A lot of them seemed like they thought they were too good for things and this was a turnoff for coming here.

The menu was pretty standard for a brunch place and I ordered the Crabby Benedict which came with a side of potatoes while my cousin ordered Chocolate Chip Pankcakes. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the english muffin was toasted well, and the crab weren't too salty or overpowering. The potatoes were great and the cook and seasoning on everything was just right. Portion sizes weren't too crazy and I managed to finish most of my meal. My cousin said her pancakes were light and fluffy and the distribution of chocolate chips was perfect.

Overall not a bad brunch experience. This place is a little out of my way so I don't know that I would make the effort to come back but if I was around the area I would consider stopping by.