Chicago Vacation

Wow, it has been over a week since I last posted. It's not that I haven't wanted to, life and busyness have just been getting in the way. Things are calming down now, so hopefully I can get into more of a rhythm with this blog.

Anyway, as was mentioned in my last post we had a mini vacation in Chicago. It was so wonderful to get away and just be with each other. It was pretty relaxing, but there are some things that we have learned that need to be implemented into the next trip. Firstly, get a hotel that is a bit closer to the subway line that we are going to be using the majority of the time. Secondly, be sure to have shoes that can hold up to the extra walking that will be done. I think those were the major lessons :). All in all it was a great trip, and in true food blogging fashion, I will share how we spent our days through the food we chose to eat.

We got off the train Thursday afternoon and headed to our hotel. Since we had not eaten lunch, we stopped by the Trader Joe's near our hotel and picked up some things to munch on. We relaxed a bit, ate, and checked out the cable channels that were available. We don't have cable at home, so the TV channels we get when staying in hotels is always a highlight. After some downtime we headed out to P.O.S.H. (a gorgeous store by the way, full of dishes and antique things) and then went in search of Indian food, and found a restaurant called Indian Garden I think. So delicious! Yum Yum Yum. Indian food makes my life all the more exciting. We had the complementary poppadoms and dipping sauces.

I choose my favorite Aloo Gobi, a potato and cauliflower dish cooked in spices served with rice and naan. Aloo Gobi is what I typically order at every Indian restaurant that I go to. Try as I must to branch out and try something new, I just can't resist it's charms.

Matt choose his favorite Malai Kafta which is usually vegetable dumpling type things in a creamy tomato sauce, but this time it was more of a cottage cheese based dumpling sans the usual vegetables. Not his favorite, but still delicious none the less. On exciting cooking news, I found a vegan recipe for Malai Kafta the other day and am thinking of trying it this Friday night.
The rest of the evening was spent chilling in our room. Friday we headed out to the Wicker Park area (one of our favorites) and went to The Wormhole coffee shop and to my great delight, they had vegan doughnuts! Of course we each got one with some coffee. Check out the Latte art. I must learn that skill someday! This coffee shop was great. It had old movie posters all over the walls and a model of the car from Back to the Future, as well as old video games all over. Even a TV to play them on.

Earwax cafe was the next stop for lunch before we walked the streets in search of good thrift store finds. This was my least favorite meal, due to my pickiness about the quality of lettuce I am eating. I know I overreacted, so the meal wasn't to pleasant for the both of us, but all in all, wilting lettuce aside, it was a good meal.

I had a veggie sandwich and a salad with raspberry vinaigrette. The dressing was amazing as was the sun dried tomato spread on the sandwich.

Matt had some crazy stuffed French toast. So he had mainly eaten sweets that day :). But we are on vacation, so no rules!

We did some shopping and I found a cute shirt. We then headed over to The Chicago Diner in the Belmont area. It is our favorite in Chicago. Always amazing food and desserts. I don't know what happened to these pictures Matt took, but I think the camera was on a different setting. Oh well. I had the black bean and quinoa tostadas with a green salsa. So so so good! I am wanting to make this at home sometime.

Matt had a black bean burger and sweet potato fries.

Dessert was carried back to our room, and I am still salivating thinking about it, and also must recreate this recipe. It was a peanut butter cookie cup filled with peanut butter mousse, and topped with chocolate ganache. Amazing! I'm thinking of trying to recreate it into a pie at home.

Saturday we headed back to Wicker park for the Renegade craft fair. It was raining that morning, so we walked a ways to get to the blue line (seemed so much farther in the rain and with my aching feet - the reason for good shoes next time we go). We stopped in at the Wormhole again for more coffee and doughnuts and then trekked the 15 minutes it took to get to the fair spot. Passing a subway stop that we could have got off at that would have put us right around the corner. Oh the irony, especially since we were miserable and wet. But as I stated later to Matt, if we had gotten off there, we wouldn't have had more doughnuts, so I guess it was a win win.

The craft fair was really fun, and it soon stopped raining, so it turned out to be a great day. We bought a couple things for ourselves, but mostly we picked up some Christmas presents for this year. We saw so many amazing things that people are making. It inspired me to want to start creating more.

Here is a beautiful hand powered music box. So pretty. I would love one in our home.

As for treats at the fair I had a chocolate chip cookie, and a spinach pie that was so good. We went back to the hotel for a little breather and then headed out to the French Market so I could order dinner at Raw. So delicious and I was so disappointed that I had forgotten my camera. I had an "egg salad" sandwich which was dehydrated sprouted wheat bread slathered in a coconut meat based "egg salad" with sprouts and grated carrots. It was quite good and the "egg salad" was quite convincing in my opinion. Matt and I also shared some coconut macaroons and this amazing tiramisu dessert. It wasn't at all like traditional tiramisu, as it was more like a pie. but oh was it delicious. It had a coconut cream on the top that was my favorite part, and espresso grounds in the cake part of it.

That same night we met up with Matt's family for dinner. They ate Italian and I ate my raw meal. It was good to visit with them but it was only for a few hours. We walked to Michigan Avenue and went to the Ghirardelli Chocolate cafe for some ice cream for Matt's sisters and then went with them to the American Girl store. I was so sad to find out that my favorite Samantha has been discontinued. So sad.

After they left to go back home we walked back to our room and hit up the hot tub for a bit, and just relaxed. Sunday we hurried out to catch the train home, and found out it was delayed, so we walked down a few blocks in search of this Thai restaurant we had been to previously. On our way we stopped by a sushi place that looked so good we ate there. Much to our surprise we think it was the same building as the Thai place, as it looked exactly like it. It was a great meal that truly softened the blow of our train delay.

Matt had some crab rangoon which he said was the best he had ever had.

I chose a vegetable maki roll that had sweet potato and broccoli tempura and avocado, and oh do I want some more. So good.

Matt had the sweet potato tempura maki as well.

Then we stopped by a coffee house to wait some more for our train, and then finally headed out for the long ride home. We left wishing that we could take some more days off and stay longer, but work was calling as Matt had to be in that evening.

So there you have it, our mini vacation. Hopefully it didn't bore you to much. Here is a photo of one of our purchases. A pretty silk screened pillow. I'll leave you with that.