It pains me to write this post right now, because I’m at the tail end of my first day of a two day juice cleanse resulting from all of the delicious foods below. Just looking at them makes me want to drool all over myself, despite the fact that they’re all crappy cell phone pictures. If you follow me on Instagram, some of these are going to be a rehash, but everything was so good that I can’t help but share again.
I thought it would be creepy to photograph the bedroom, so here’s the living room!
First up, not food! We rented an apartment from airbnb and I thought the living room was just darling, so I’m sharing it. We do something similar every time we’re in Chicago and I highly recommend the experience. This particular apartment is one that someone lives in but rent out because he is often away on business. The advantage to this that you stay in a more residential area and therefore feel a little more like a local, plus you have someone from the city to give you advice on places nearby. Plus it was cheaper than a hotel and our money went to someone who put it towards his crazy high rent and not just thrown at big hotel chain. The downside is obviously that it’s not a hotel, so you don’t have housekeeping and have to clean up by yourself. For me, the trade off is worth it, especially because I like having a fridge, stove, and microwave.
Don’t worry, I went in for one last bite of that delicious egg.
We got in late on Thursday, so we went right to bed. In the morning, we went out to breakfast at Kanela Breakfast Club. I don’t think I’ve ever had eggs benedict, and this version with mushrooms and asparagus was insanely delicious. The potatoes on the side were jamming, too. Even though I didn’t order any, I really appreciated that they had vegetarian breakfast sausage on the menu, too. To drink I got a glass of banana +strawberry + orange + honey juice, which I’m sure I didn’t need but was very tasty. My favorite part of this place was the staff, though. They were crazy friendly, my waiter’s ipod was on shuffle (And it was just the perfect mix of Call Me Maybe and music from Aladdin), and everyone raved about my nautilus necklace — have to love them, right?
When in Chicago, eat Chicago pizza, right? We went to Giordano’s for a late lunch after the Field Museum on Friday and each got a personal size (which was still 2 meals) pizza. Mine was just cheese (Josh got pepperoni) and while it was pretty good, it wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had (please don’t throw things at me!). I actually much, much prefer the nine grain thick crust from Uno’s. Yes, the Chicago style pizza chain restaurant that’s 15 minutes from my house. Didn’t stop me from spooning the pizza box in bed after a late night at Headquarter’s Beercade. Because we hate lunch so late, I just had beer for dinner when we met new friends for dinner at Paddy Long’s and Josh had French fries with 2 dippy eggs on top. After that, we headed over to HQ’s Beercade where we met with even more new friends and my BFF Tom came to say hi. The Beercade was pretty awesome — think a free arcade with lots of pinball machines and a huge drink selection. I actually also stopped at Delilah’s with Tom on the way back to my apartment because HQ’s was too loud. When I googled for the URL, I realized this was a punk rock n roll bar — ironic that this was quieter than an arcade? Yes. But I liked it there and wish I would’ve known at the time that it has 400 – 600 different whiskeys, maybe I wouldn’t have drank Labatts 😉
Triple Truffle (Shuffle) fries
There’s bananas here, so it’s healthy. Let me have this one, guys.
Saturday morning we slept in a wee bit later than intended (read: Kelly couldn’t get out of bed). And then headed over to The Peasantry for brunch TRIPLE TRUFFLE FRIES. Triple Truffle, you read that right. These fries seriously rock my face off. I also got banana bread French toast with banana mousse, chocolate ganache, and peanut brittle. You know, health food. They had mimosas on special 5 for $21 and to say I regret not getting them would be the understatement of the year.
Matt and Kim. Note the sweet free foam visor the girl in front of me was rocking. I had one on too #sorrynotsorry
The main reason we were in Chicago was for a music festival. And the main band I was excited to see was Matt and Kim. They were easily the best band I’ve ever seen live, and I’ve seen a LOT of live music. But this festival was great for people watching, making friends and seeing old ones, and food. I also saw a guy crowd surf in his wheel chair — I love it! I was a little concerned when I saw there was no reentry and I couldn’t bring food in, because concerts and festivals usually have nothing but hot dogs and French fries for food, I was really blown away by what I found. There were lots of vegetarian and even VEGAN options, and the food was really reasonably priced for how delicious it was. I had a vegetarian chile relleno tamale (I’ve never found a vegetarian tamale and have been craving them for yeeeaaaaars), a vegetarian Chicago style hot dog, and Josh and I also split some cheese fries. Did I mention that were here alllll day? I promise. We were also sequestered for a short time in Soldier Field for some serious thunderstorm/hail action that was rolling through.
Just let me live inside of a tamale.
Really wish I would’ve known the crazy people of Chicago ruin their veggie hot dogs with celery salt.
After the festival, we trekked back to our apartment on the train, which is really one of my favorite things in the world. Josh will insist that I briefly got us lost by getting on a bus going in the wrong direction, but he’s totally making that up ;-). Then I met Tom (at Delilah’s again, go figure) while Josh went out with some of his friends. In the morning, we slept in way too late and because it was World Pride Day, the street was chock full of people, roads were closed all over for the parade, and I didn’t get to go to the Chicago Diner because it was just too hard to navigate and park. It actually took us an hour to leave the city, yikes. But overall I had a fantastic time and ate fantastic foods and I can’t wait to make it out that way again!
Maybe next time my path will cross with Becky’s since I missed her this time around. Since it’s Tuesday and I definitely have been treating myself, I’m linking up with her Treat Yourself Tuesday for the first time!
Tagged with: Chicago • Travel • Vegetarian
That’s such a cool idea renting someone’s apartment! I’m definitely going to have to remember that next time we travel.
[…] me and that mushroom eggs benedict I had in Chicago, it was love at first bite. I went to bed on Friday night dreaming about it, thinking I would […]
I’m glad you had a good time! I think I’m going to recreate that eggs benedict! I bet it would be delicious with a grilled portobello – instead of the english muffin.
When I was eating it, I was actually thinking that it almost didn’t need the english muffin. Almost — I was on vacation after all, need to eat ALL of the bread 😉 This is definitely something I need to make at home.
Oh my gosh, everything looks so good. Love Eggs Benedict and I wish I could reach through the screen and grab that one!
I feel so deprived that I’d never tried it before! Definitely something I’d get again (and again and again x 10,000).
I really want to shove my face with those waffle fries right this second. They look so good! The veggie dog sounds delicious too!!
I seriously can’t stop thinking about those fries. Best fries of muh life.