Dessert: Bake Chicago

This is one of my favorite bakeries, admittedly for the extremely adorable vibe. I have to be honest about that. This is what I think my house should look like. The treats are also delicious, but I usually can't eat as much I see in the counter and I think that adds an element of (very temporary) sadness. This is Bake. It even has an awesome name and logo. I know, unrelated to taste. They had run out of most treats by the time we got there, which was too bad because I really wanted a chocolate chip-involved cookie. 

 I did end up getting a Bailey's chocolate cupcake. There was a little too much frosting for me, but that is a problem easily solved by scooping it off my cupcake and giving it to Nitin. The cupcake part was perfect though.

I like the horrifying awkwardness of this picture. My effort to take more pictures, especially of people, is being exhibitioned in a very forced manner. But somehow I like it. We look strange and the positions are awkward but it's very us. And technically it was taken on a table with no one looking through the lens, so I think I will choose to interpret it as having come out shockingly well.

Hoanh Long- Vietnamese

"Jocelyn, I'm wearing my baller sweatshirt today for your blog." And with Nitin's statement, we embarked on our journey to Hoanh Long in North Park. For anybody who is Chicago neighborhood crazy (okay, mostly for myself because I'm a little bit neighborhood crazy), North Park seems to be just slightly northwest of Edgewater. Besides a foray onto Devon Ave, where our ethnic food experiences began, I'm really unfamiliar with the area. You go a few blocks north and you start getting confused about whether you're still in Chicago.

First thing I learned is not as much about the food as it was about us. We are not photogenic. Nitin doesn't look bad in his baller sweatshirt, but I'm including this picture of me and Saad for two reasons, and they are simple ones. A) Observe his shirt. This is possibly my favorite shirt of all time, anywhere. It is rambunctious, and Saad wears it with pride. B) Saad's face in this picture is halfway there to his "consideration" face. When he tests something out and decides it's actually pretty good, he makes this face. It's pretty elusive and its full effect has yet to be captured on camera. I have lofty dreams of getting it someday.

Nitin was the most excited to try pho. He kept making pho jokes like, "Pho sho," and "Pho no!" Saad and I tried, but we were not as talented as we hoped to be (much like medical school and many other functions of daily life). I've had pho before at Pho 777 (I couldn't remember the name of it, which is why we tried this new place and I'm glad we did), but Nitin and Saad had not. I definitely love their willingness to try new things so fearlessly.

The reason I love pho is that it tastes simple and nuanced at the same time. It has so much flavor to experience, but is not overwhelming at all. And the best part about it is that it achieves this flavor without just being a strong salty sodium-esque taste. Nitin thought his was too minty, but I only tasted the subtlest flavor of mint, if at all. Just another indication of Nitin's body shutting down.

We also got this dish. I can't remember the name of it, even though I have had it at Chinese restaurants every weekend I, as a 5-year-old hater of food (especially Chinese food), considered a torturous family friend dinner. The difference was that this dish had short, flat noodles (they are the white things in this picture). I enjoyed it a lot. I definitely applaud this restaurant for its strong flavors that didn't overpower everything else.

#1- Pictures

These pictures are by David Cartier. He has so many beautiful pictures of the aurora borealis-lit night skies. Honestly, all I could think when I saw this was "Wow." It makes me really excited to travel this summer and eventually cross seeing this in real life off my bucket list.

love in the time of cholera

In an effort to stay caught up these past few weeks for this random school thing I'm doing, I've been neglecting a lot of other stuff. I've also been trying to avoid collapsing into bed without showering. Trying to keep the hygiene together. But I got called out majorly about not blogging in the form of a text from Nitin, "Why u aint blogging our pho experiences son?" Therefore, Nitin, Saad, and my endeavor into Vietnamese cuisine will be up soon.
And since waking up this morning, it has been my favorite kind of day so far. Rainy (intermittently) and cool. I like constant rain if I'm going to be indoors but during the day, it's nice to have the sun peak out and so I have a small window to make a mad rush to wherever I need to go. Today, it's for coffee since I haven't had caffeine in about 48 hours (totally not feeling it). That's neither here nor there.

I realized that I didn't post pictures for Cherita when she sent me flowers for my birthday. I never used to be a flower person but I think getting flowers on your doorstep and then getting to enjoy them and think of the person who sent them to you for the next several days (and these lasted like... 3 weeks at least, crazy longevity), is awesome.

babette blanket, revisted

My mom and I started working on this project three years ago. A lot has happened since then, but I thought of it today- probably because I spent the entire day at home trying to be a responsible adult and get chores and studying done. It was not a generally good focusing day for me. I did finish a lecture and get three loads of laundry done. And two dried.

I think I will work on finishing up all the laundry today and do dishes tonight. I still need to make it to the gym and do four lectures. Ideally, I'd like to respond to e-mails too. We'll see how that goes.

I think the spring weather (and yesterday was surely summer) has been making me think about this blanket because of the colors. I think that this will be a good project to work on once school is over in only a month and a half. One of my goals for 2012 is going to be to finally finish this blanket from 2009. I really like it. But there are going to be a few issues because I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of yarn and it's still going to be too small. Some problem-solving will be happening. This was one of the first projects we ever did. If I were to do it again, I would pick much thicker yarn, even though the colors of Koigu are amazing.

remembering who to be

By necessity, March is going to be easier than February. One-third the exams (and easier ones- Neuroanatomy is one thing I'm fairly, okay, deliriously, happy I will never have to experience again). The weather has been beautiful and puts me in a good mood automatically. The sky was a little confusing when I woke up today, but I realized it was probably because I am unaccustomed to seeing such an early morning sky, most likely. Night owl and all. I am determined to get back to exercising again. All good things. But man, there is so much I want to do before April and the craziness that will come with it hits.

Things that should leave me no time to be watching The Bachelorette Women Tell All online today. Really, self? Was everything being said not incredibly predictable? That did not need to happen, especially since I haven't watched the show this season, with the exception of last week I watched a few episodes and felt caught up enough for the whole season. Regardless.

I want to reserve my time only for things that are deeply satisfying for me. Things like trying foods from cultures I hadn't tried before. Checking out and reading lots of books from the library (and I'm still reading Germs, Guns, and Steel). Spending real time with friends, really connecting and understanding. Writing letters. Starting to dream and research travel plans for this summer in earnest. Spending time outdoors, walking and really looking around. Taking pictures and recording moments. Writing down things that were said and important things to remember and ideas. All these things I want to do. But if I could start with keeping up with laundry and doing the dishes, I think I would be satisfied.

Dear Old Love

Last week, I read a book Dear Old Love, a collection of notes written by people to people they used to love, or like- the ones who got away. There are more notes posted on the blog. Here are some of the ones I liked:

I'm so glad it didn't work out the way I wanted it to.

Mother told me, "Don't buy the first coat you try on." So I broke up with you. But in retrospect, I think she was talking about coats. Sorry.

Yes, we had good sex. I have god sex with everyone. That's me.

When I play air guitar, you're my air audience.

I never tired of looking at you over the tops of menus.

If all I cared about was producing a genetic masterpiece, I would've stayed with you.

Even though we broke up five years ago, I still rate the way I feel about someone new on a scale that goes from Zero to You.

I could live in the same small town my whole life if you were there, too.

You are a gigantic ass. And not the good kind of gigantic ass, like my ass.

I keep trying to get my hair back to exactly the way it was when you loved me.

I hope you didn't go through those hair-removal procedures for me. I like my women mammals.

Every time I drove you home, I prayed for traffic.

I'm over you like Batman is over losing his parents.

Tank tops, on your figure, were truly an implement of war.

I want to save the world just so you can't be the one to do it.

I've got a lot going on, but it's still really hard pretending I don't love you.

Even in this retirement village, I can't retire thoughts of waltzing with you.

I finally found someone who doesn't mind if I wake them up to say goodbye in the morning.
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These are my favorite:

I'll always be jealous of whoever is with you. And I'm talking all the way to the one pushing you in a wheelchair down the dewy lawn of your old folks' home.

You have no idea how hard I root for you.

You signed my ninth grade yearbook, "We could've used a girl like you at the Alamo." I've had a thing for you ever sense.
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Somewhat relatedly, I love this scene from When a Man Loves a Woman.

Bucket List #6: Visit African Countries

(my orchid)

Yesterday, I took a 3 hour seminar class about Global Health and Humanitarian Relief. We covered Chernobyl, the genocide in Rwanda, and earthquake in Haiti. I'll be spending the rest of this week researching the Darfur conflict for next week's culmination session when we're presenting what we've learned about disasters, both natural and man-made. This is definitely an interesting reprieve from a lot of science-heavy courses, although I love science. I put this book, The Graves are Not Yet Full, on hold at the library. Just something I was thinking about yesterday and this morning.

Visiting some African countries is definitely on my bucket list. It would be completely different from anything I'd ever done or seen. This one is very vague for now, but with further research, will become more specific regarding exactly what it is I want to do there.

still too young to fail, too scared to sail away

Yesterday was Ghana Independence Day. Coincidentally, one of my favorite chocolates (ever) is from Ghana. It's called Omanhene. I received a package from Alex a few weeks ago before the big slew of exams and felt extremely lucky. I was first exposed to this chocolate at a local coffeeshop and instantly fell in love with it. They don't sell the bars anymore, although I think they might still use it in their mochas? I'm not sure, as I don't typically drink mochas.

The 48% Cocoa Content Dark Milk Chocolate is exactly my idea of chocolate that isn't too sweet or too bitter. I think I've tried the 80% before also, but after eating approximately 15 of these small bars, I can safely and definitively say that this particular one is my favorite. The other three bars can be accounted for as follows: one to my mom, one to my dad, and one uneaten. The uneaten one will probably be eaten today. I actually find it strange that they have lasted this long and must attribute it to my strong sense of will power. That is, of course, a joke, as I have on two occasions, stuck a bar in my coat pocket and whipped it out: 1) During an excruciating shopping trip and 2) During an excruciatingly long 15-minute-walk home.

These things have gotten me through some fairly tough (shopping) and extremely tough (walking) times. Thank you, Alex :)

Bobtail Ice Cream Company

I'm having a really hard time putting pictures up today for some reason, but today's 68 degree weather inspired me to share some (unfortunately, not all) of the pictures from our post-Crisp expedition to Bobtail Ice Cream Company. Embarrassingly enough, it was not 68 degrees when we went to get this ice cream. In fact, it was probably 30 degrees and snowing. Although my other pictures won't upload right now, I personally was comforted by the fact that there were many other people getting their ice cream fix in. Not that one ever needs to justify ice cream.

I ordered the Espresso-flavored one. Coffee ice cream is my favorite when done right. For some reason though, I'm a little bit picky about it. As in Saad-level picky. And Saad is the master of being weirdly picky about seemingly menial things. That's a post all its own. I didn't love the flavor, although the ice cream itself was very creamy and obviously very high quality. I did enjoy Saad's Cookie Dough ice cream. I can't quite remember what he said about it (Note to self: start recording Saad's hilariously strange commentary on food). I can't say that I know what Nitin ordered either, since he quietly/sneakily ordered a good five minutes before Saad or I even realized what sizes were available. This is what I'm saying about our pickiness. Perhaps Nitin has gotten used to our slowness (and we often wonder why it takes us three times as long as it should to accomplish any task). 

I thought this shop was adorable and would be so much fun to visit in the summer. It exudes carefree summertime that can be felt year-round. The ice cream had an amazing texture and weight to it. I'll be back.

Crisp- Korean

About a month ago, my friends Saad and Nitin and I visited Devon Avenue. I love that street. The tacky shiny nightlights remind me of Asia. It's perfect. Although I forgot to blog about it, I did take some pictures that I had forgotten about. We decided that night that we would try new cuisines of all different cultures. Shortly thereafter, Saad and I started a Google document to keep track of all the different countries' foods we wanted to try. The thing I love about Google Docs is that it is totally live and you can see as the other person is typing comments. This led to Saad and I commenting back and forth about different ideas (mostly unproductive ideas about how we should find a person of the same ethnicity as the food to take with us and explain to us what was going on- via Craigslist, obviously). But also to Yelp links of different possibilities. Nitin had been keeping his Gmail account a secret from me but eventually I was able to share the document with him and he thought that Saad and my comments must have been those of at least four people. That's pretty much accurate. He has been fixating over the idea of Vietnamese Pho. "Pho sho," he says.

Right after our Anatomy exams last Wednesday and too tired to research which Pho restaurant to try, Saad and I decide that we should try Crisp, a restaurant that we had frequently driven past in the Lakeview neighborhood. It's Korean food and absolutely delicious. We actually became a little suspicious of its absolute authenticity, but as we had no Korean counterpart to give us the 411, we went with it. The sauces and flavors for both the chicken bowl (chicken and sticky-ish rice) and barbeque chicken were amazing.

You can split wings half and half with different sauces- we decided to do that with the 10 wing set and got both the Seoul Sassy and Crisp BBQ flavorings. Although they both hold a dear place in my heart, I preferred the Seoul Sassy just a little bit to the Crisp BBQ and Nitin felt the opposite. Saad had a picky, nuanced opinion in his weird Saad ways that would take too long to explain here, as per most of Saad's thoughts and ideas.

We had a really good time here and accidentally stayed past closing. Nitin is using our cultural experience to search out good future date spots. I would be very impressed with any guy attempting to woo me if he knew of such delicious and unique places. Likewise, I would be very impressed with any guy I took to places serving food that he has possibly never tried before who keeps an open mind about it all. Very important.

Vienna Summer Black Tea

I went tea-shopping with my mom a few days ago and going through the tea shop and smelling all the jars of tea was amazingly fun. Note: going to a tea shop that has jars you can open yourself is infinitely better than one with jars behind a counter that you need to get someone to open for you. I believe this is because your sense of how annoying you are being overrides the sense of fun derived from smelling tea leaves.

I'm a coffee kind of person born of a family of obsessive tea drinkers, but I also love tea and on (very) rare instances, will order it over coffee. Like when I want to be able to sleep. Once. And this behavior can be explained thus: the tea's name was Iron Goddess of Mercy. But when I'm at home, I almost always make tea for myself, due to the fact that I may have ruined my coffeemaker and anyway it was making somewhat weird coffee before that.

My parents are tea purists- especially my dad- but I like blending in a few things occasionally (like mint, rosehips, or chamomile) with your typical black, white, or green tea.

Vienna Summer Black Tea
My ingredients for this blend is approximately a ratio of the following:
4 tbsp black tea
1 tbsp rosehip
1 tbsp mint

Directions: Add an unknown amount to a teapot (I feel that I always disregard the package instructions that say to add 1 tsp or so for an 8 oz cup... I feel like I add 3-4 tsp, perhaps because I enjoy existin at the peripheries of life... joke). Boil water at an unknown temperature (although I do think I can admit I know black tea is supposed to be steeped at about 202-212 degrees-is this pretentious knowledge?).

Very simple and very delicious. I like the touch of mint, whereas I know my friend Ashley likes drinking mint tea straight up. That much mint flavor totally overwhelms me though. I think a bit of it is perfect. And no more. Unless you're trying to not only clear your sinuses but also your entire brain of every cobweb that has ever occupied it.

I'm not sure what effect the rosehips has in terms of taste, to be honest. But they photograph really beautifully.

Next Door Cafe

I recently discovered this coffeeshop, Next Door, presumably whilst wasting time on Yelp. People (including myself) seem confused about this place because it is owned by State Farm and is in a large space, yet seems to give off a small, community feel. Multiple vibes leading to confusion=fair enough. I'm not here to end the confusion, only to suggest that they make delicious lattes (depending on who's making it, one of the best I've had) and chili caliente. They attempt to build a sense of community by offering free classes (mostly financial- and yoga-based), as well as things like Super Bowl viewings. These things are all displayed prominently on a huge chalkboard. In my eyes, such a chalkboard is getting pretty close to living the dream.

Also, these huge moving cubicles are awesome if you need a private space. Overall, the vibe isn't my favorite because there is so much white. But I like that it is airy and spacious. And did I mention the amazing coffee? It is really good. As in, impossible that it is from State Farm unless they hired some sort of coffee expert to handle this, good.

We are, however, not a huge fan of the hot chocolate. Saad, whose caffeine of choice is in the form of energy drinks, usually tries hot chocolate wherever we go. We have a running list of good hot chocolate places. Unfortunately, Next Door probably is at the bottom of the list.

The above is Saad's political statement. He was a very good sport in letting me take this picture when I noticed the bottom of the mugs.

My favorite moment was when the barista asked how the grilled cheese was. When we (truthfully) answered that they were amazing (at times, I'm prone to hyperbole; this is not), he responded totally deadpan "Oh, that's because I put crack in them." So smooth Saad didn't even hear what he actually said and, following my cue, pretended to laugh and only when the barista was out of earshot did he say, "Wait, what did he say?"

Conclusion: go here to study and enjoy delicious food and drink. Not the coziest place, but definitely a nice spot, especially to go meet people who are interested in exchanging ideas.