Absolute gluttony

My uncle visited us in Chicago and we decided to take him to Burger Bar because he'd been thinking of opening his own burger joint in Manila. What better place than Burger Bar? It's craft burgers to the extreme. Their milkshakes deserve a post of their own.

The High Hog from Burger Bar

The High Hog burger is basically an artery-clogging success of a creation. It's BBQ pork, bacon, and ham, topped with an apple cabbage slaw. Is your mouth watering yet? Because I am salivating as I type this. Add a buck and you get truffle fries with this monstrosity. And that is exactly what we did. Oh, and we also got milkshakes.

You'll be hearing from me about this place again if I don't collapse from a coronary after submitting this entry.

xo,
k.

Kiwis in the Windy City

My good friend since childhood, Ben, decided to visit Chicago. This was our first time seeing each other in about 10 or 11 years. It was a long time but it seemed as though all that time passing had never happened.

This was the first friend I made as a new student in a new country. My family and I immigrated to New Zealand from the Philippines when I was 6. Assimilating into this brand new country in a brand new culture, learning a whole new language was daunting and I couldn't have made it through childhood mentally intact without Ben.

We were close because we had a similarity: we were both half Chinese. Our families would awkwardly run into each other in Chinese supermarkets in New Zealand (seeing as there were only like 2 in the city we lived in), and thus our friendship grew. Then I moved to Chicago when I was 13... and fast forward to 2011!

***

Of course, I took him to the Chicago staple, Lou Malnati's, just so he could savor some deep-dish pizza that was at least decent. I apologize now, but I hate deep-dish pizza.

I also told him to go to Al's Italian Beef... 'cause why would you not try it while you're in the Chi?

Then came our 'foodie' adventures, if you could even call them that. An afternoon in Wicker Park and Ben was in heaven. We went to Taxim and had some Mediterranean tapas. I had never been here before and actually wanted to go to People Lounge next door and accidentally walked in. I've been doing a lot of accidentally great things lately, so don't judge.

Taxim

We went to a zine store where Ben was lost in his own little world for about a good hour and a half. Then came iCream...

Science + dessert = my kind of party

The liquid nitrogen and the Kitchenaid stand mixers doing their thing at iCream

Basically you get to choose your type of ice cream (or frozen yogurt), your flavors, and your color (just so you can be creative). Then it all gets mixed up from its liquid nitrogen form into a delicious creamy dessert that resembles what you've known since you were a kid.

I couldn't have asked for a better place to relive my childhood with my longest friend.

xo,
k.