#88 Eat in Chinatown

After one failed trip to Chinatown that ended in burgers and a birthday party, we finally made it southward and into Chinatown (after a short tour of the neighborhoods around White Sox Park).

Ed, Edric, and I took a leisurely stroll through the gate and down some Chinatown street, where I was shown the local architecture - like the community center that used to be full of Chinese gangsters - and culture - like the "We Call Police" signs. I saw where The Karate Kid was shot - meaning, Edric explained, where he was SHOT, not where the movie was shot. I learned that the Chinese traditionally walk... to their bikes. So much knowledge from my authentic tour guides.

We arrived at Evergreen restaurant and the waitstaff eagerly approached us, again and again, asking for our orders, though we insisted we were waiting for our fourth. We had a secret appetizer while waiting. We also finished a pot of tea and annoyed the waitstaff with wanting more. They then said the kitchen was closing, so we had to fudge it. I had to get Edric to quickly translate the menu for me so I didn't end up with shark's fin soup, not that I haven't heard it isn't tasty but I will NEVER eat my friends, the sharks. And if I see you do it, I'll threaten to punch you in the face.

We had Walnut Shrimp, some kind of Beef with Peking Sauce something something, and Chicken Fried Rice. And White Rice. Then Nader showed up with his friend Chad. The restaurant staff stared us down as we all ate.

Then they gave us the check.

Then they busted out the vaccuums.

So we hurried to leave and I had to go the long way around as the guy with the vaccuum was chasing Nader out down the direct route to the door.

Our fortunes were lovely though. Usually I hate fortune cookies because they don't give fortunes anymore. Claudio & I decided awhile ago they should just change the name to Pleasant Thought Cookies, and then everyone would be happy. But now when I get, "You have a lovely smile," I just get angry it isn't a fortune. Last night though, I got, "A new pair of shoes will do wonders for you." I have mixed feelings about this. I would love to get a new pair of shoes, especially if they will do me wonders, but I'm broke. I guess this is what it's like to know the future and have to make choices knowing it. So difficult. Chad stupidly gave his fortune cookie to Edric, who then got 2 fortunes, the second one being, "Your present ventures will be successful," or something close to that. I wish I had gotten that one.

Then I mailed a letter.

So then we walked to the square, "where the cool kids hang out," according to Ed, and had some bubble tea. I had some anxiety with all the choices. So many pictures. (Ed explained the menu to me this time and Edric to Nader. Chad seemed okay on his own.) And it was only my second bubble tea. We had a nice philosophical debate on whether or not to stick with what you know and like (Edric) or try new things in case you like something better (Nader & me). Deep.

I ended up with pomegranate peach. Lovely. Stupidly, Edric didn't get the 50 ouncer. What a sucker.

We were then rushed out of that place as it was closing. We took some photos by some animals and did some tai chi.

The end.

#9 Go to a State I've Never Been to

I went big for this one... or at least NIRSA did! This year's National - Intramural Recreational Sports Association Conference was in New Orleans, Louisiana, a state I have never been to.

I'm not sure I have more to say than "Wow, New Orleans is a really cool town." (But I'll try.)

Great food everywhere. I ate fried pickles, a crawfish po boy, crawfish etoufee, seared scallops with watermelon carpaccio, a BLT (at a Best Thing I Ever Ate Place where I was supposed to have boudin but didn't realize it until later), a fried soft-shell crab po boy & fries, bread pudding, fried shrimp salad, crawfish-cheese bread, steak sandwich, poached eggs with crawfish sauce, fried alligator, fried mushrooms, more fried pickles, Mother's breakfast with fried eggs, grits, housemade sausage, and a biscuit with housemade rasberry jam, 3 beignets, half a dozen oysters, red beans and rice, and a crawfish boil. Yes, I remember all of that. I may be forgetting one meal. Such good food. I must have gained at least 5 pounds. We did notice that the only people don't don't seem to be loving life there are the food service workers though. We did not figure out why.

Beautiful weather. We were told it was freakishly nice, that it's usually warmer and stickier, but the whole week it was just beautiful upper 70's or lower 80's. I even got a little "tan."

Live music all over the place. It reminded me of Austin, Texas, in that way, but it was jazz and blues everywhere. Just lovely.

The architecture. We stayed in the Warehosue District, which was kinda cool. The French Quarter was just beautiful, particularly the little streets with those ornate balconies. Just really cool.

The shopping. The French Quarter was filled with little shops. Really neat little shops.

The art. There were local artists and street artists everywhere. I love that about some cities. I don't know why why don't have it in Chicago. There were some boring paintings, just NO scenes, and then there were quirky pieces that had a touch of voodoo to them. Here is a guy who painted doors. Loved it.

Bourbon Street. That place went from zero to hot mess in about... well, the time it takes for the sun to set. What a good time. Just smiling people drinking and dancing in the streets. It made for a disastrous first night for me but the other nights were late and just fun. 4am there felt like 1am here. I wouldn't say there were any really crazy stories, but then again, I have a lot of mysterious cuts and bruises, so who knows. Once place I really enjoyed was the Blacksmith Shop, built in 1712. What a cool place.

Lovely people. Go to New Orleans. Yearly if possible. It is amazing how this city has recovered from Katrina. It's just full of life and grit. The people there just seem to love everything about the place (except maybe ALL the tourists) and will talk your ear off about everything... if you ask. It was weird to get used to having people greet me everywhere. Once a pair of chatty homeless guys stopped Claudio & I just to say hello. People there were so friendly but had that toughness they would have needed to survive there.

The pictures here are just of people I know but they all contributed to a great week as did many, many others!

UPDATE: I managed to hit a few more new states, mainly Colorado. When Nader Elmasri and I drove to San Diego, Dan Lynch was nice enough to host us in Denver. (David Frantom tried but we didn't quite time the trip back correctly.) Denver was nice but smaller than I anticipated. The 16th Street Mall was quirky and fun... and I swear I can play at least a few songs on a piano! It's just harder when it's not my main instrument and it's completely out of tune. Boulder was full of hippies, just as I anticipated. Nader got to slackline there for some fledgling hippies who had just moved to Boulder from Battle Creek. Also, western Colorado is BEAUTIFUL.

#16 Watch a French Movie without Subtitles

Last night I watched "Aux Revoir Les Enfants." Without subtitles. The whole thing. And I think I understood almost everything! Almost. I definitely missed a lot of dialogue, but I think I got enough that I understood the plot, characters, etc. I was even teared up at the end. Because I actually knew what was happening. I am going to watch it with subtitles to check, hopefully tonight. I'll report back to see if I actually understood it. But cross it off the list!

Some Fails

I thought it was only fair to mention my recent failures, if only to convince myself that I'm not running behind schedule... some stuff will just take some time and won't go well the first time! #88 Eat in Chinatown I had plans with Ed Cruz, Edric Cruz, and Nader Elmasri to head to Chinatown last Thursday. Edric & Norris Narsa wanted us to wait until later due to homework and work. Nader just wanted to watch the Bulls game somehow. Ed wanted to go early because he had "something else to do later." Now that I know what that something was, I should have just gone with Edric, Nader, & Norris. But alas, instead it's postponed. Hopefully we will attempt again on April 21 or 28. Edric won't commit though. He lives his life minute by minute. #80 Complete a Triathlon I was going to count the Red Bird Challenge at Illinois State University as my triathlon as it included a 2-mile canoe, 8-mile bike, and 3-mile run. I went with 3 students: Sarah Tyre, Matt Madia, and Davisson Benson. However, the morning of the race, the organizers annouced that the 25-mile-an-hour winds were going to eliminate the canoe portion. So instead, we portaged (carried canoes) for a MILE AND A HALF. It was ridiculous. Then we ran 3 miles with some "mystery challenges" - using ropes to get across mud, doing a cargo net climb (that was bunched up due to the lack of canoeing), army crawling through mud - and then biked 8 miles, with some "mystery challenges" - tying our bikes together in pairs, doing some weird orienteering / crossword event that took forever, and then a blindfolded Lego challenge that we dominated. We don't know yet what place we came in but we did beat one ROTC co-ed team. I'm not counting it as a triathlon since there was no water portion. Bummer. (Pictures to be added once Sarah posts them. We were a delightful, muddy mess.)

#90 Go to a Red Wings Home Game

Many friends couldn't believe I haven't done this before. I've been to countless Blackhawks games (thanks to Alicia, who is a lovely person), though only one against the Wings. Somehow I just haven't.

After my experience on Monday, I can't believe I waited this long! It was way fun! I can't seem to get the photos off my phone right now but when I do, I'll add them. Darbs and I drove out to the Joe Monday for the game against the Blackhawks. I loved the atmosphere for many reasons. 1) The wing nuts. 2) The creative music selections, including plenty of Eminem. 3) The pizza toss (where they just throw small boxes of pizza at people). 4) The respectful national anthem prefaced with "Please rise for the national anthem and we kindly suggest you remove your hats... Unless you are military personnel... And then you may keep your hat on but do the military salute." Very thorough and polite. No clapping and yelling like a bunch of jerks. 5) The funny story some randomly selected season-ticket holder got to tell during a period break on the video screen. 6) The appropriately volumed music that allowed for conversation 20 minutes before the game. 7) Everything.

I did not love them losing in overtime, but Joey MacDonald played reasonably well... He just didn't have his defense doing much good. Much love to Lindstrom, Datsyuk, MacDonald, Cleary, and all the other loveable Detroit characters. Chicago sucks!

#29 Go to an International Soccer Game

I wasn't so sure this one was going to happen and it was AWESOME! Thanks to some overlap with my dear friend Al, the inventor of the list's, list, he found us some tickets to the US - Argentina game at the Meadowlands! So not only did I get to go to an international soccer game, I got to see the US play against the current best player in the world: MESSI. It was so much fun to see all the boys I watched so religiously this summer in person. Clint Dempsey, I love you. Messi was riDICulous though. We nearly witnessed one of the best goals ever... if it hadn't been for the ref actually blowing his whistle and stopping the play once Messi broke away after dribbling through 5 or 6 US players.

The crowd was mixed and great. We were sitting by some friendly, fun US fans. I was particularly greatful for being from a country whose name is easy to chant. "U-S-A! U-S-A!" is much easier than "Ar-gen-tina! Ar-gen-tina!"

In the pics, that's Messi in the orange shoes... And Timmy Howard kicking some ass in the yellow!

It ended in a 1-1 draw but it was crazy cool to witness players of that caliber in person. (Again, I should say... I did say Man U - Barca in Philly six or so years ago, which is where my Man U fandom comes from. Those fans are CARAzy.)

Thanks, Al! Great weekend!

#20 Eat one of the foods featured on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"

This was a little half-assed... I had a whole list of "Best Thing" places in NYC to try last weekend during my trip, and Al & I just happened to stumble by Rice to Riches while searching for pizza (very specific pizza, obviously, as there is pizza EVERYWHERE in NYC, and I love it all and ate a ton). Rice to Riches is this funny, quirky place that only serves rice pudding, as if it's ice cream. I very much enjoyed their signage, such as "You're already fat, so eat some more." I went in and got the French Toast rice pudding. I didn't get any toppings (aka Jesus droppings). We left the place and I ate a few very delicious bites on the way. I still kind of crave it. But then I put my resealable container in my Rice to Riches bag and headed uptown to MOMA to meet Aaron and Melissa. During my laps around the impressionist wing, I noticed that I had not properly sealed the container and I was just carrying a bag of rice pudding. I considered eating it out of the bottom of the bag, but instead I reluctantly tossed it. What a sad ending to this list item. However, I do have plans to eat at some other "Best Thing" places in both Chicago and New Orleans, so maybe I will redeem myself then. Either way, I recommend Rice to Riches.

4-18-11

Update: I managed to hit a 2nd Best Thing I Ever Ate with Nicole Green-Valentine down in New Orleans. I had the Bread Pudding at Mother's. OMG. So good. I also had the deep-friend soft-shell crab po boy. Double OMG. And I went back for breakfast wtih Beth Spitelli later in the week for some fried eggs, grits, sausage (yum), and biscuits with rasberry jam. If you go to NOLA, eat at Mother's.