Taste of Chicago

I love Chicago (or at least, the touristy areas I visited)! My fellow students and I went to Chicago for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Conference (which was
fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE!! MY
!!!!!EXCITEMENT!!!!!
BY THE SUNDRY EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!)
and we had a couple of free days to lounge around and explore Chicago. So of course, I drank it all in and spent more time wandering around the city than in my comfortable half of the hotel bed.


Our trip coincided with the Taste of Chicago Festival near Millenium Park. This reminded me of the BBQ Festival in NYC I stumbled upon many years ago (I didn't try anything there that time, though), except that it was more diverse. Apart from the plain-cheese deep dish pizza, there was also lots of cliche Asian fare, African goat + plantain stew things, and frozen bananas on sticks (wrapped in opaque plastic packaging, so they probably didn't hand dip them an hour prior...).

For $8, one could obtain 12 tickets. Food samples/servings were about 4 to 12 tickets. Bottled water was 6 (or was it 8?) tickets, and there were no water fountains. There were free samples of juice and tea that certain companies were distributing, and I did have my reusable water bottle, so I was not entirely dehydrated. The hand-washing stations outside the portable toilets stated "Water is not potable".

Coincidentally, everything I got had chicken in it.

I did not get anything from here, but the slogan is pretty Good (see what I did there?). 

Classic Chicago-style hot dog, lacking ketchup.

I got a tamale here but I didn't get to eat it until I returned to the hotel. It was just ok. The chicken was kind of stringy, dry, and tough. Is that how it's supposed to be in tamales? In 粽子(zong4 zi3), the meat is usually pretty overcooked and stringy, and I don't find that texture very enjoyable. The corn part was good though! 4 tickets.

I found schnitzel! I've wanted to try schnitzel ever since Chowder (the TV show)! I was pretty disappointed. It just tasted like a crunchy-coated chicken chunk that was kind of tough and bland. What happened to thin slices? Pummelled with a hammer? Tender? So maybe this was mediocre schnitzel, or maybe I find schnitzel banal. 4 tickets.

Finally...chicken etouffee with rice! I've never had etouffee before. The broth was extremely flavourful! It was simultaneously mellow, smooth, and a crazy explosion. The chicken was just ok though; slightly tough. I will try crawfish etouffee at the next opportunity!

Never Again.

Never again.
Never again would I consent to be part of the insolent crowd, among the wasteland of promised plenty. Never again do I want to see a girl in knee-high green cowboy boots saunter across the street while the humid air flaunts its brutal 38 degrees Celcius. Sure, those boots were made for walking, but my fists were made for punching. We lost our civility and our grace, and we didn't even win.

"Would you deny me of MY TROPHY?!?"
TJ screams at the security guards. I pause in my steps, sweat from the last three hours caking on my arms, unsure of whether I should shuffle out the exit gate, or save TJ's trophy - seventeen layers of thirsty enthusiasm - by grabbing it and sprinting away. No one was allowed to steal. There was no time to choose. The security guard opened his mouth. I stared at him. He fished for words. TJ clutched her seventeen vessels of joy. Three milliseconds and -
"I checked. They're empty."

"YESSS!" TJ bounds out the exit, jumping with ecstasy, her insulin levels pumping, her duodenum soaking up multifarious molecules. Yet minutes later, the trophy lay in a trash can, ready for the landfill. No one won. Not even leukemia.



I had run all the way to Penn's Landing - 40 streets - and for what? I shelled over seven dollars just to "Lick for Leukemia". Seven dollars can buy me lunch for a week. They'll spend that money on advertising, training, "general fees", holiday parties, toner, and - how-could-I-forget - the last cent will be used to manufacture bracelets that are for "Pediatric Leukemia Awareness". Perhaps that's not true at all, but it's what I would like to think, because when the contrary happens, I would be pleasantly surprised.

Lick for Leukemia, and you're donating towards your own risk of diabetes. Never again.

Predictably, all the companies that we "hate" were there to enslave us. No bathrooms. Two dollars for water. We were in a cage, fed like snails. We WERE snails: oblivious, slow, and leaving a slimy trail of melted ice cream and putrid cups behind us. The working class (who usually raise their fists in anger at those deceiving, lying, bad-customer-service, you-spat-in-my-drink businesses) slopped down their rainbow water ice. The mothers (who make petitions and write angry letters to these companies concerning their advertising tactics) shoved full-fat chocolate ice cream down their kids' throats. I was there, remarking that each glob vanilla ice cream that slid down my throat melted into a creamy imprint in my adipose tissue. There aren't enough medics to save us all, because none of us think that we need help.




When I look at my 12 layered "trophy", should I be pleased? After the third or fifth cup of ice cream, all my body's dopamine had been exhausted. Ice cream was nothing more than an obligation. I inhaled it all down. I needed the Calories, because we want to believe that seven dollars is worth more than merely a thousand empty Calories. Why not make it worth two thousand five hundred? 12 cups of ice cream, one of which I shared. 2 fruit bars. 1 fake grape ice. Each cup had half an American scoop of ice cream. 200 Calories, each, at least (on the minimum side). Each fruit bar was about 120 Calories. The grape thing was about 100. Over 2500 Calories of sugar and fat and occasional self-loathing. Never again.

TJ and I felt completely fine. We're both gluttons. Pick your most disgusting meaning of that word, and we're no doubt worse. I didn't feel full (well, of course! There was no fiber). I felt like I could eat pizza or celery or even cheesecake. I could run and sprint. I did sprint. No nausea. Apparently both TJ and I have become accustomed to being unhealthy.

There was no sense of satisfaction. No feeling of reward. I didn't earn this. It's like buying love. I don't deserve it. It's not special. They'll take anyone who pays. Non-nutritional. Void of meaning. When I was younger, my parents let me eat two glorious ice pops in a row once, and I promptly got sick (not sure if it was related to the ice pops). That was vivid. Another time (of relative economic hardship), my mum bought me and my brother a legitimate soft serve ice cream, garnished with a whole Flake chocolate. That was meaning. Once, my friends and I got gelato and it was the first time I had tried it. A small scoop of powerful fun. All that tasted like love.

This was faceless, selfish, and shameful. No thanks. Never again.

1. Vanilla, Bassetts

2. Cherry, Edys

3. Late Night Snack, Ben & Jerry's

4. Late Night Snack, Ben & Jerry's

5. Vanilla and chocolate bits, Haagen-Dazs

6. Strawberry, Haagen-Dazs

7. Coconut, FrutStix

8. Coffee, Turkey Hill(?)

9. Mangoish, didn't really eat it

10. Grape ice, Minute Maid

11. Mango, Philadelphia Water Ice

12. Coffee, Turkey Hill? Edys?

13. Pineapple, FrutStiX. Apparently the banana and strawberry ones are terrible.

14. Mint: Bassetts

15. Mint, Bassetts

TJ, KB, me, HS, CL [HS and CL threw away some of their cups]

Today! - Fall Fest

I'm finally updating about something that happened today. I still have heaps to write about concerning the past two weeks, but for today, I will blabber on about the blubber today. And yes, that is the line for Coup de Taco about an hour and a half into Fall fest.

Fall fest is overrated. I'm not kidding. Sure, you get free stuff, but the cool stuff actually costs money. The first 750-1000 people get a taco and cupcake for free, but that's if you stand in line.

For at least half an hour.

With a wristband, that you had to stand in line to obtain, as well.

Luckily, I had gone to the library from 12-2, so I was basically right inside the door [outside the door? I wasn't "outside" the door, though, since Fall fest was OUTSIDE the library. Anyway. I was right next to Fall fest], so I went, stood in line for a few minutes, realised I needed a wrist band, then went allllllll the way to the LOVE statue to get a wrist band, and jumped back in line. By this time, the line for Coup de Taco had doubled, although it wasn't as bad as it was 10 minutes later, where it had quadrupled. Oh exponential equations...

[Indoor photography pales - I mean, yellows - in comparison to sunlight photography]

I'm not actually sure why I bothered to stand in line for half an hour [ish?]. I do have a meal plan that guarantees that I get food and don't starve. I also have many kilos of adipose tissue that can sustain me for a while. However, I suppose it was just the fact that I didn't want to outline more for Comparative Med. Anyway, halfway through, two guys who were behind me in line were contemplating getting out of line, and then I told them that they didn't have wristbands... and I asked if they wanted mine. They said no, and went to get wristbands, and came back. Later, two girls [their friends?] dropped by, and they decided to beat the system by just cutting to the front. This meant they cut off ... at least thirty of us. Okay, maybe twenty. Which is still plenty [that wasn't meant to rhyme]. Pretty douche-bag thing to do, in my opinion, especially as there were another zillion people standing behind us [quadrupled, remember?] waiting patiently. The guys behind me, however, said "oh, we got honour... we're not going to cut", which is nice to know.

Anyway. I finally got a vegetarian taco.

Then I went to get a cupcake from Call Me Cupcakes, which was extremely fast since all the dude had to do was hand out a cupcake. No toasting or cooking needed.

I'll review the cupcake first because it sucked.

It's just a generic, bland, un-moist, unflavourful, NONchocolately, dry, small-air-holes, cupcake-shaped cupcake. It did not taste chocolatey, which is always an issue for me, especially when something is labelled CHOCOLATE. I tried to be unbiased about the icing. It was too fatty and oily for my liking. It was also quite tasteless [no chocolatey flavour, at all. It was just chocolate coloured]. Oh, it's pretty alright, but most cupcakes these days ARE pretty.

The taco, however, was quite amazing. It was crunchy, due to sliced tortilla chips INSIDE the taco!! The outer shell was a soft flour tortilla. I'm actually confused as to the difference between a burrito and a taco. Apart from the fact that the taco is open, I can't really see a difference. I guess it's like asking what's the difference between a sandwich and an open-top sandwich. Anyway, about the tortilla strips - I was amazed at this piece of ingenuity. It actually reminds me of the time I had a tortilla chip sandwich. It was amazing, too, although this surely beats it. The Cuban rice and beans were full of chunky flavour; the salsa companion was spicy, but not overwhelming. The cheesy-sour-creamy-cilantro thingy was actually pretty good, because I couldn't really taste the cilantro [I don't particularly like cilantro, so it's a plus for me, but maybe a minus for other people].

I also got an apple from the Penn Environmental Group, although it was just a generic fat GMO apple. The International Students Association [I think that was the group name?] gave out some candy and stuff too, so that was cool. Apart from that, I ended up falling asleep at the library again.

[Note the boxes of cupcakes at the back of the truck. I could've totally taken a box of them.]

I did, however, have a delicious Greek salad with a lot of creamy feta cheese this evening, which reminded me of AK. I miss her.

Tea Mooncakes.

Since I'm leaving to college, my grandpa is returning back home, and my dad is going on a business trip by the time the Moon Festival comes around this year, we decided to celebrate it early. We had this huge family conversation thing, which actually sounded very laudatory and respectful, and, I suppose, was truthfully a "family" moment. We sat there talking for 40 minutes. Well, actually, my grandpa did most of the talking, and for someone from a completely different generation, he actually has similar values and beliefs as I do, concerning health, family, and being social. He literally said that there are friends, and then there are fake friends, which I find to be one of the most important pieces of advice ever. My sister didn't listen though... as soon as my grandpa started speaking, she ran away from the table, turned up moments later with neon green earplugs in her ears, and then ran off to mope about how we weren't paying her any attention.

So, my mum had bought these tea mooncakes at a hitched up price just for this, but they were really awesome since they were TEA flavoured! There were 6 different flavours, and they all ranged from sweet to bitter-sweet. They were extremely flavourful, and some were even textured with lotus seed pieces. My sister cut them all up into quarters :) The pastry was normal mooncake pastry, except that the flavours were stamped on top instead of a proverb or a company name. Unfortunately, my Chinese reading skills are quite terrible.

Oh, this is embarrassing. I forgot the name of this one... li[4] zhi[1]? It was mainly sweet, with a nice crunch from the lotus seeds [I think?] It actually tasted quite authentic.

Oolong tea; this one had a nice bitter note to it, and was, in my opinion, the most "tea"-like mooncake in the box.

Jujube berry. I'm not really sure if there is a jujube berry tea, but this one basically tasted like mashed jujube berries with lotus paste. It was very textured, and reminded me of the cherry Larabar, although this had no nuts and had no aftertaste. It was also very rich.

Jasmine tea; mild flavour, easily mixed up with the green tea. Actually, it tasted very similar to the green tea one, but that may just be confirmation bias since they are both green.

Pomelo flavoured; again, I'm not sure if this was supposed to be pomelo "tea" flavoured. This one had a nice texture due to the fact that there were chopped up lotus seeds inside. I couldn't really taste any pomelo though; it was basically a regular mooncake, in my opinion.

Green tea. I was a bit disappointed with this one since I love green tea, but this was way too sweet to be legitimate green tea. Actually, maybe the green tea flavour just didn't pull through, due to the sugar in the lotus paste...