The Chicago Visit

A few months ago, while H was in her newly pregnant days, I paid her and Snoop a visit at their new apartment in Chicago. On most days, H would wake up, go straight to the bathroom and puke, then wander into the living room area with a face of general distaste towards life, and somehow gulp down some tea and eat krackjack biscuits. At some point during the day she would muster enough energy to wander out. And when that happened, this is what followed:

H got me my 1st bar of Ghirardelli back in 2011 (I think) when I was still struggling to figure out how to get my life on any kind of track. While I had noble intentions of saving a few pieces for my dad, I couldn't. I did get him some during my trip back home last time though. Anyhow, the presence of a Ghirardelli shop meant we had to pay a visit. They gave us free chocolates when we entered, which is the sort of thing that makes me go all oooh aaaah and proceeded to order this shake, which we shared. We checked out other people's shakes as we waited and I think we made a smart choice. It was ridiculously heavy and thick and awesome.

           

Then H took me to someplace which she said had these must try Korean wings. We ordered some other kind of wings as well and they were both good. I alternated between the two. But we had ordered too much and couldn't really finish up the whole thing in one go. But we did over the rest of the week. Naturally, we made mallu meals. We made rice, pulisherri, naadan chicken curry, beetroot thoran and potato mezhukuperatti. We sat in front of the tv, mashing the rice and turning them into undas, all much like home. Which reminds me, during my visit, H was secretly watching some show on her phone and when I caught her, she wouldn't tell me what it was. Turned out, it was this Kerala version of big boss and it was kind of fun to hate on some of the characters, but it wears out fast. She also watched this mallu movie all on her own while I was there. She said I would have ruined it for her because I am critical of mallu movies and while shes got a point, I wish I had shared that experience with her. 

     

Chicago has a lot of brunch places and we went to this one called Yolk. It smelled so good when we entered, I wanted to order everything on the menu, but we settled for these three between the two of us. I've never had Eggs Benedict and well, yes, they make good eggs and everything else. Except the crepes, they were pretty ordinary.

And finally, we made this. H is really keen on caramel custard pudding, so I made a trip to the grocery, bought the needful and we created this. There was way more caramel than was necessary, but the pudding turned out really well, with the underside getting a nice layer of caramel onto it. I felt pretty proud afterwards.

Also, while Snoop was around we checked out John Hancock tower, had drinks there and I don't know if it was on the same day, but we also had my favorite pork buns and a bunch of other stuff at some Chinese place. But all the pics are with those two. We also went to this jazz club, where H let loose and enjoyed herself with some dancing, while I tried to follow her moves in a mostly constipated fashion as I kept watching out for accidental rub-ups against strangers. However, highlight, highlight, I was asked for age id proof. Hoo haa.