Why I'm not exactly a fan of dressing up on Halloween

I'll be the first to admit, I am a sucker for holidays and the hype that goes along with it. I love getting caught up in the holiday spirit, putting decorations up and planning parties and activities around the holiday. I guess you could say I constantly fall prey to the Hallmark commercialization of it all.

However, it must be noted that I am not exactly the hugest fan of Halloween.

When I was growing up, not many kids in Singapore celebrated Halloween. It was always more of an American holiday that us Singaporeans experienced via the Western media. However, I did grow up in a neighborhood that housed a handful of expats and I actually trick-or-treat-ed a couple of times in my younger days.

Despite the fact that I did get to experience a true Halloween per say, I never really took to dressing up. In fact, the last time I dressed up for Halloween was um... Sophomore year in HIGH SCHOOL?  *gasp* I went as a Catholic school girl for those of you who were wondering.

So if you are counting, that means that not once did I dress up for Halloween the whole time I was in college! *Gasp gasp gasp*

It's just that putting together a costume takes a lot of time, effort and money- 3 things I did not have in college. Furthermore, I truly hate that 99% of pre-made costumes for women are slutty! So yeah... that is my surface excuse for not taking a liking to costumes for Halloween.

Then there is the deeper issues of pretending to be someone I am not. I'm weird, I do not get a thrill out of transforming myself and embodying someone else. As pompous as this sounds, I like me just the way I am!

All this being said, I think this is the year that I might just give the dressing-up part of Halloween another chance to charm me.

I am not going all out, noooo, not by any means. But it might be fun to put on some angel wings or devils horns. And I might have fun if I allow myself to get dragged out to a Halloween party.

Who knows, I might start to feel a little inkling of like towards this aspect of the holiday? I'll report back next week.

Till then, what are your Halloween plans? Are you going to be a Debbie-downer and stay in? Or ham it up and don an elaborate costume?

Pictures were taken when I went trick-or-treating with my niece and nephew last year. 

HotChocolate

Picking up where I last left you- still in Chicago, still satiated by my Italian Beef Sandwich from Portillo's, and now wanting dessert- my friend and I decided that we would try out HotChocolate Restaurant & Dessert Bar.

Owned by chef Mindy Segal who has received multiple Best Pastry Chef nominations from the James Beard Foundation, this Wicker Park hot spot was bopping the night we patronized it. Filled to capacity and dimly lit, my one complaint about the space was that it needed sound absorbers! I could not even hear myself speak over the buzz of the restaurant.

Since we were at a dessert bar called HotChocolate, it only made sense to order its namesake.

After mulling over our choices, which included the Black and Tan (1/3 hot fudge and 2/3 medium hot chocolate), the Medium ( milk chocolate with a touch of dark chocolate and a hint of caramel) and the Half and Half (1/2 espresso and 1/2 dark chocolate); we settled on ordering the Dark Chocolate.

Made with 72% French Chocolate and served with house made marshmallows, the Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate was quite lovely- intense, deep and dark- definitely my kind of chocolate.

As much as I loved the Dark Hot Chocolate, my favorite thing from this drink was the house made marshmallow. Pillowly-soft and not too sweet, this is the stuff marshmallow dreams are made of.  While the sweetness of the marshmallow was the perfect balance to the bitter dark chocolate,  I must admit that I enjoyed the marshmallows much more on their own then in the hot chocolate.

On a side note, while we had ordered one hot chocolate to share, we were served a big cup each of the drink. Initially, we were upset as we thought that our server had put in two orders of Dark Chocolate for us. However, upon inspection of the bill, we were only charged for one and our server had split it in two for us. As such, I must note that at $6 a cup, this hot chocolate was quite worth it. In the realm of expensive fancy hot chocolate that is.

Besides the hot chocolate, we also split an order of their raspberry and ice cream sandwich made with la choulette framboise red velvet cake, preserved local raspberry and Zingerman's cream cheese ice cream, raspberry caramel and raspberry cream cheese buttercream.

With such a fancy name/description, you would think that this dessert would be divine, with complex levels of flavors. On the contrary, the plate offered lackluster cake that was mushy and tasteless. The ice cream while interesting, did not really add anything to the sandwich. Furthermore, the buttercream filling had a weird after taste. Bah!

Details:
Mindy's HotChocolate
1747 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
773-489-1747

Portillo's Hot Dogs

So here it is folks! This is the start of my "coverage" on all the crazy whirlwind travel extravaganza that has been my life for the past 2 months.

My first stop, Chicago, also known as the Windy City. After fulfilling my job responsibilities during the week,  I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with an old friend from Singapore. I got to meet her husband for the first time and better yet, I got to give her little pregnant belly a rub! (NOTE: Said friend has since given birth to a beautiful baby boy and I still cannot believe she is now a mama! Congrats Julieeee!)

But enough of that sentimental stuff, let's get down to business... what I ate!

One of the places my friends took me to dine at was Portillo's Hot Dogs. A Chicago dining chain, Portillo's is one of those places that as a tourist, you have to check out (or so I'm told). The interior of Portillo's looks and functions like a food court, where self-serve and self-seat are the name of the game. The plastic trays, styrofoam cups and self-pump ketchup dispensers only add to the loud and fun dining hall atmosphere.

Deciding what to eat at Portillo's proved to me much more of a challenge than I anticipated. A multitude of hot dogs, sandwiches and salads peppered the chalkboard menu that hung high above the counter. I started to get a little overwhelmed but my friends came to my rescue and recommended that I try the Italian beef sandwich.

Made with thinly sliced beef that is cooked in an oh-so-delicious gravy, the Italian beef sandwich is served on french bread (perfect for sopping up that gravy) and topped with gooey cheese (who doesn't love cheese?). Filling, meaty, messy, and satisfying. Mmmm.

To me, what made this sandwich a whole different beast was the addition of hot peppers. The sour and spicy element that the peppers added gave just the right amount of kick and excitement that this humble sandwich needed.

Details:
Portillo's Hot Dogs
Multiple Locations.

P.s. I do apologize for the blurry quality of the picture. My handy little camera died on me and I had to resort to my camera phone. 

Kind Over Matter

Hey hey hey! Guess who's back??

After a whirlwind month and a half of constant travel, I am finally back at home, sleeping in my own bed, eating some home-cooked food and getting back into my single gal routine.

While I had a lot of fun on each and every one of my trips, it sure is good to be home.

Anyway, since I've been gone so long, there has been a lot of blogging material that has backed up and I promise I will share all the juicy tidbits with you. However, it takes time to write my blog posts. So for the time being, I hope you will settle for this delightful freebie Compliments Poster from the awesome folks over at Kind Over Matter.

All you have to do is download and print these freebie posters on blank paper, cut along the dashed lines and hang the poster up around your neighborhood!


How utterly lovely is that? Go on folks, share the love!