YOLO - Chicago!
Guys, I went to Chicago for the first EVER!!! What did I do? Eat! What else did you expect? No fried chicken or wings, though :(
I've been wanting to check out Chicago for a while. After knowing more and more people (read: three) who live there, I finally went with my friend Carly. I was excited to visit the windy city after hearing so many great things about it. I was even more excited to have my friends meet each other. As you get older, you have friends from different parts of your life and they're all over the place. So, it's rare to have your friendship circles collide. Tiffany and I grew up together in CT; she moved to Chicago recently. Carly and I met when we studied abroad in Singapore in 2009. Jesse, Gabby, and I sailed together on Semester at Sea on the spring 2015 voyage.
To prep for the weekend trip, Tiffany and I met on Google Hangout to create a tentative itinerary. We ended up with a list of 10 activities and 30 restaurants. Clearly, we had our priorities straight.
My first meal was at Serai, a Malaysian restaurant in Logan Square. I was absolutely ecstatic to see roti pratha with chicken curry and laksa on the menu. I loved pratha and laksa so much when I studied abroad in Singapore. I got laksa every time I was in Singapore since then, but never pratha, which was a tragedy. Pratha is a type of Indian bread that is buttery and flaky. It's delicious on its own. But, dip it in curry, and it's 100 times better. You must try pratha if you see it! The joy I got from the pratha compensated for the laksa that was just ok, lah.
Carly and I got brunch at The Bongo Room in Wicker Park the following afternoon when she arrived. The food was delicious and the portion was massive. I got their special blueberry french toast with sweet cream. It was quite decadent.
We also got brunch at Bang Bang Pies & Biscuits, which was highly recommended by friends. It had a long line when we arrived, so we knew the food had to be good. The line moved pretty fast because people ordered at the counter, sat anywhere in the little shop or awesome outdoor patio, and their staff brought the food out. The entire place was super cute! The patio was perfect with the nice weather.
At first, I wasn't too sure about having pies and biscuits in Chicago when Carly and I were coming from the south. But, Bang Bang did not disappoint. They were pretty good.
After some more wonderful meals with great company, Tiffany and I concluded the weekend with dim sum at MingHin Cuisine in Chinatown. The meal was of epic proportions. It was legendary. We ate shamelessly. It was the epitome of our 19 years of friendship.
Between the two of us, we ordered 14 dishes. You read that right. F O U R T E E N, 10 + 4. YOLO!!!!
Thank god we sat at a large round table for six people alone. Otherwise, the restaurant would have probably given us our own dim sum cart to eat off of!
I've had dim sum many times in the US and even once in Hong Kong. I must say that MingHin's was the best. Everything had great flavor and were prepared perfectly. My favorite was the beef rice crepe. It was really simple. The savory beef balanced out the light rice crepe. After eating 14 dishes, I can safely conclude that you can't go wrong with any dish off their menu.
Here's Tiffany packing up our leftovers for dim sum, part 2, later in the day.
As overindulgent as it might've been for two people to order so much food, we loved every single morsel we ate. When you see your best friend a few times a year, you take advantage of your precious time together and eat everything you want. And when you're indecisive about what to get, you get everything. Friends don't leave friends with food regrets!
In all seriousness, I love my friends not only because they're truly great people, but also for our shared passion for food and our ability to eat like it's our last meal.
"Do you ever stop eating?"