I'm Not Dead, THE TASTE.

Sorry for not writing for a very long time... again.
Miki even warned me too. She said... never look back(I'm kidding, "kat-tun joke"), what she really said was "careful Tess, people might think you're dead from not writing." Well! I am very much alive. See! I AM NOT DEAD!!! I'm still very busy with lots of stuff you know, I don't have all the time I want anymore.

Ha! Like it matters, no one would notice if I died. I'm too quiet to begin with... wouldn't be noticed at all.

With that out of the way, what is "The Taste?"

Well, it's short for "The Taste of Chicago." It's the largest outdoor food fair we have every summer in Chicago. Restaurants from all over Chicago gather and set up tents and sell their best dishes for tickets.

Dominick's Grocery sponsors the festival every year and like I said earlier, you need tickets to purchase food. It's $8 for 12 tickets, which equals about a strip. There's rides, free concerts, raffles, food, and test samples for drinks or products that haven't been released yet.

I went with Miki by train. It was so scary because we were the only ones waiting for the train.

Chi-an wanted to meet up... so after we got off the train, we wandered around(we were lost for a while) until we made our way to the "John Marshall Law School."

Right on the corner of the street... there was this giant eyeball that just stared off towards the lake(Lake Michigan). It was still being assembled... I wonder what it's for???

We looked around and we didn't see Chi-an. We called her and all of the information we could give her was... "we're next to the giant eyeball, in the corner of "State" and "Van Buren." What I didn't realize was that Chi-an was right next to us when we called her. We didn't notice until we walked apart.

Every year, I always buy crawfish from the same place, but this year they withdrew from the vendor's list. But my other favorites were there, like homemade potato chips, giant bbq turkey leg, and fried okra.

The place that sold these chips was nearby the "Buckingham Fountain."

There it is, all the way in back.
I tried a few new things too because there were also some new restaurants selling food at "The Taste." There was this one Afrian cuisine place called "Iyanze," that had the most spectacular Hibiscus sorbet. They also had a very interesting stewed goat which I regret not taking pictures of.

Later we met up with Santi, Chi-an's husband. Santi is awesome! He made a great list of places he wanted to sample food from. We did save him some goat, but because he was a little late, we kept teasing him about the goat getting tough because it had taken him so long to find us. But yeah, he recommended a mustard fried catfish... and the aroma... the herbs... seasoning.. texture... they all complemented each other so well. So mustardy, the catfish smelled fishy... seeing as it's one of the most smelliest fishes you'll ever find, in my opinion... the batter would work on tilapia very nicely. Sorry, no pictures of it.

For dessert we chose to try out "Churro Factory." The line was really long, the churros must've been really good. That's why we waited in line. They piped filling into the churros... melt in your mouth deliciousness. Freshly made churros are unbeatable.


On the way back to the main side of the fair we saw something interesting being sold at another restaurant. The "Abbey Pub"(it's actually near my house) had a stall at "The Taste" and one of their items was "Irish Curry w/fries." We all had a "lol...what?" moment,,, it was great. But out of curiosity we wondered, "what on earth is Irish Curry?!" Santi, who was laughing behind me said, "HA! No such thing, curry isn't Irish! It must be 'Japanese curry' or something." Chi-an and Miki were super curious and asked one of the workers what exactly was the Irish Curry and what was in it. The guy had no clue, he just sold the food. Out of fear, he ran to the back and got their chef to talk to us. He was laughing and said we were the first ones who actually asked about the curry in detail. Out of refusal to reveal anything, the chef just started lying his way through all of our questions like a joke. In a rather good Irish accent he said, "ah... the herbs picked from the highest peaks to season tis fine curry... made by laughing leprechauns with pinch of shamrock under a rainbow..." What a load of bull, now that we're suspicious, we ordered a taste portion. I tried the the curry... I recognized the scent and taste and I yelled, "you were right Santi!" The restaurant workers and their chef giggled as they had no idea about our secret conversation. Miki and I then screamed "IT'S JAPANESE CURRY!!!" Their chef was shocked and said, "now now, what's tis about? Hush down, tis Irish Curry, no no no, just fine Irish Curry." After we walked off, the chef had a grumpy look... Sorry... but you can't fool me, you can't call it Irish when it's clearly Japanese curry. Though he could easily fool people who have aged/dulled taste buds. Hehehe... Irish curry wasn't worth a photo, sorry again.

As my first day at "The Taste" grew closer to an end, we made another round back to Iyanze for some more Hibiscus sorbet. After that we all parted ways.

NOW! Day two!!!
Yeah I went back for a second day, this time with my parents. I did try more food today though. I had a plantain pork dumpling, more churros, chorizo w/yuca fries, hibiscus sorbet, rainbow ice cream, and bananas topped with mayonnaise(which was really an accident on Miki's part). Oh man... Miki... the bananas with mayonnaise were foul... don't ever do that again.

Speaking of bananas, Chiquita Bananas had their own tent. I got myself a banana hat and it was awesome! They were giving them out for free, but they were cool! I had so much fun wearing it.

I'm wearing it over my Tanaka Koki hat and it still looks ok.

While we were waling around in the back area, we could see all the grills they were using for "Robinson's Ribs." They were smoking and grilling a lot of meat. There was so much smoke everywhere.


It was so nice, we had a little picnic in the shade. Almost the perfect picnic.
My parents fell asleep after eating...


After the festival, we went into Chinatown because it was nearby. We were by New Chinatown.

My mom needed groceries... I wanted to take some pictures near zodiac square because they had all the cool statues, but it was a bit far(not really, it was a 2 minute walk) and we didn't have time. I did get a quick picture of the entrance of zodiac square.


As we left I also got a quick picture of the pagoda located in the center of the area.

And that was what happened recently. If I have more time again, I actually have some really interesting stuff to post.

Until next time, bye again.