Wicker Park

A calm, breezy Saturday brings to me adventure in Wicker Park by myself, getting some personal time. Nevertheless, I've found my fair share of interesting shops to showcase and here goes.

I stumbled upon this great catering/cafe place. They've a selection of wine and some fine eats. The most interesting thing is that they have one day catering classes that teach you how to make cocktails, grilling, basic knife skills and more. A mini-culinary school. It's kinda costly - $50+ a class ... so when I make just a little bit more money, I might consider.





Sick wisk.



Wisk away.





Butternut squash and mozzarella quesadilla. Quite delicious.



2007 Bottle of Tilia Chardonnay.

Next up. Penelope. An urban outfitters designed for professional, artistic working people. Pair of canvas shoes I got. Loving the mint colored skin and purple laces. SO many people have been giving me compliments at work. Holla.





They have a lot of stationary geared towards agendas and materials to support the ambitious working class.







Love the aluminum cans. Clean tasting water is in.

Taste of Chicago

Hmm so the infamous Taste of Chicago rolls around with 50+ restaurants and big bands playing throughout a week. So this was on 6/27 and the day begins with an adventure into this bazaar of food with fellow MAIPers.



Holla. 12 tickets for $8 ... meh a bit pricy, but it is the city.



First stop, this char grilled chicken kabob with mango & mint chutney really caught my eye for 9 tickets. It was at this Latin Indian Fusion Restaurant called Vettel Tribune. Well the name wasn't important. The size was small. BUT the sauce was sick. Made everything worth it. Now I'm scouring the internet for a mango mint chutney recipe. Get a hop on that.



So the only thing left for 3 tickets was this gazpacho - a soup made with chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, peppers, herbs served chilled. It was refreshing as bottled water was ridiculously expensive. Not really used to the taste, so I wasn't too fond of it.

NO MORE TICKETS!?!?! WHAT A PATHETIC EXPERIENCE!



Bah. So I saw a friend of mine getting this HUGE slab of rib for 12 tickets. So I WENT FOR ROUND 2 AND GOT THAT TOO.


Smothered with:



Mmmm. So this was from Sweet Baby Ray's Stand. You're probably all familiar with the bbq sauce, but I guess they have a restaurant too.



Finally, finishing it off with a mango Italian ice. I actually didn't get this, but I would strongly endorse this.

Revive

So I was Boulevardier-ing my neighboring town Birmingham and I stumbled upon this little hole in the wall streetwear shop called Revive. They have a pricy, but sick selection of kicks from LA, NY, and Tokyo.






Really wanted these Questlove AF1s.



Same with these Raging bull kicks. After watching the Bulls-Celtics series, I became a Bulls fan. haha

T.O.

An adventure with the family brought me to Toronto on the weekend after school got out. Took a stop at a pho place with my cousin, see below and ordered some legitimate pho.





I always love the side dishes, especially them Thai basil leaves.



Also, the Vietnamese egg rolls are made with a thin layer or rice paper as a good alternative to a deep fried skin. Delicious.



Next, took my first trip up to the CN Tower.





Breathtaking.