Sushi, Sushi, SU-SHI!

If I leave my modesty at the door, then I can tell you-- good God! Tom, Ashley, Andrew and I are good cooks!

In addition to Thai, Vietnamese and over-the-top crab bakes, we can also add homemade sushi to our repertoire.

Last weekend we started with a bowl of miso soup. Complete with silky tofu, green onion and seaweed.

Miso soup.

We sliced mangoes, avocados and cucumbers for filling, before mixing up a batch of spicy salmon poke. We also made a spicy tuna poke, not featured in pictures, to be combined into our rolls.

Spicy salmon poke.

For refreshments, we whipped up a container of Bobby Flay's Coconut Ice Tea, an iced concoction of Jasmine green tea, coconut milk and a dash of lime juice.

Coconut Ice Tea.

Tom decorated our wasabi with a flower of pickled ginger...

Wasabi and pickled ginger.

And voila! The final products! Mango salmon rolls, spicy tuna and mango rolls, avocado and spicy salmon rolls... Basically any combination you could imagine with our ingredients.

And when our rice started to run out, we finished of the plate with same tuna and salmon sashimi.

It was DELICIOUS!

Chicago: Part 2

Where did I leave off?

Ah yes! Navy Pier.

I'm not really sure I "get" what Navy Pier is. I *think* it's an amusement park? There was a Ferris wheel, there were rides, and there were food stalls, but not a lot of them were open yet. I assume that is because we weren't visiting during peak tourist season. Also, Navy Pier is currently undergoing a face-lift, or a "re-imaging", as the signs said.

What Navy Pier did boast was a lovely view of a slightly dilapidated lighthouse, and some sweeping views of the city.

A lighthouse.

Chicago Cityscape.

Walking back to our hotel after Navy Pier felt long the longest walk imaginable. By that point, we had probably walked somewhere around 15km total for the day. We rested for a little while back at our hotel before heading out for dinner. And after that? Well, we walked around some more.

We headed back to Millenium Park to take a second look at some of the public art displays. We went back to see the Cloud Gate at night, and were able to capture some of my favourite photos from the trip.

We finally managed to locate the Crown Fountain. This fountain is an interactive piece of public art by Juame Plensa. It has been in Chicago since July 2004, meaning it is coming up on it's ten year anniversary in the park. Although my photo is of the wrong side, the reverse side shows images of faces smiling, laughing, and occasionally blowing water out into the fountain.

Crown Fountain.

 Juame Plensa is also responsible for a public art installation closer to home-- what we fondly refer to as, "The Big Head" at the Bow.

On our last day in Chicago, we took (another) long walk to the Field Museum. We spent the day at the museum wandering from exhibit to exhibit. It was an excellent museum with lots to see.

On our way home, we passed some vibrant daffodils!

For our last night, we decided to try the highly, highly recommended Purple Pig, for dinner. Purple Pig is a known for cheese, swine and wine. We ate cornbread with a Mediterranean twist, marinated olives, a charcuterie platter, a mixed cheese platter, and finally... Tom convinced me to try roasted bone marrow with herbs.

Am I interested in trying bone marrow again? Sadly, no. Not at all. But I'm glad I tried it.

Before flying home the following afternoon, we made one last stroll past the bean before we boarded the train to head to the airport. Then we waited in the airport for an additional two hours while our flight was delayed... But overall, it was a great trip!

Thanks, Chicago!

Chicago: Part 1

There are so many places in the world that I'd like to see, sometimes we forget about the places that are closer to home in North America.

Chicago is just over three hours away, so Tom and I caught a flight on Thursday afternoon to the windy city. We landed, and it was windy. And rainy. Go figure!

Surprisingly, we have several inadvertent connections to Chicago. Two family friends grew up in Chicago, and they were both able to offer us plenty of suggestions for sights to see and places to eat.

We started with a Chicago classic-- deep dish pizza at Giordano's. We waited over 45 minutes for our tables, and after a day of flying and public transportation, I was basically ready to gnaw my hand off.

Artichoke, sausage and black olive pizza.

Since we new it was going to be rainy on our first full day, we decided to head to the Museum of Science and Industry so we could spend most of the day inside.

All I can say is... You know you're in America when the Museum of Science and Industry has this kind of signage!

Charming signage.

I think both of us were a bit disappointed by this museum. The place was HUGE, and there were plenty of exhibits, but it was very kid-oriented. Moreso than we had expected! The exhibits had a lot of hands-on aspects to them, but they didn't have a lot of substance to them. 

Here was a cool "tornado" making machine.

Day 2 in the city. I can only think of a handful of times when I have walked so much in one day. We started the day with a trip through Millennium Park. Millennium Park is perhaps most well known for it's piece of public art, the Cloud Gate. I don't think a single tourist leaves Chicago without a picture of the "bean." It was a beautiful sunny day, and the square was crawling with tourists like ourselves.

Cloud Gate

Great Lawn.

Our next stop was near the river, where we hopped onboard a Wendella architectural boat tour of the city/ Chicago has a unique skyline, interesting stories, and plenty of former record-breaking towers. For example, the Aon Tower (in the background of the Great Lawn photo above). It has 83 floors, and was originally constructed with slabs of white Italian marble. About 12 years after construction, numerous cracks and bowing was found in the marble, and it was ultimately completely refaced with white granite. Although the cost of the refacing was never made public, rumours suggest that it cost nearly half the amount it cost to build the building in the first place!

We were told that Portillos is an institution in town for hot dogs. When we walked inside, we  were both a little dumbstruck. Flashing lights, hordes of people, lines everywhere! After some wide-eyed staring, we figured out where we wanted to go and ordered some fully loaded hot dogs and onion rings.

Our next stop was Navy Pier. Stayed tuned until next time!