Last Meals in Chi, First Meals in Phi
We’ve moved! Finally!
Goodbye forever, beautiful rooftop view.
Well, we’re here, but the move is still… ongoing. Our things were delayed by unforeseen circumstances. So we’re without real furniture or essentials for one more week. Luckily we’re super used to that air mattress life at this point, and it’s kind of fun to have a large open space to call home. It’ll soon be cluttered with too much crap, so it’s nice to take in the spaciousness, I guess.
Obviously this means I am unable to cook, so we’ve been taking this time to explore our new city. Using this whole stressful ordeal as an excuse to try new restaurants has been the one little ray of light in our lives. There’s a ton of fun places to try, and all within a short walk/drive since Philly is such a densely packed city. Next on the agenda… to scout out all the nice Asian markets because the nearest HMart is in New Jersey. Heh. Cool cool cool.
So what have we been eating? For our last real meal in Chicago, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate dinner than a huge spread of Aroy followed by watching Top Chef live with fellow super fans. We’re Team Shota in this house tonight :D
Our last couple of weeks in Chicago post move-out were a bit of a whirlwind, but I did still cook a few times. Most of the time I was incepted by a passing thought, like always, but no longer bogged down by the stress of moving. Our host asked if I cooked like this all the time lol… I wish.
I can’t remember how I was reminded of the Tiktok baked feta pasta, but now that it was no longer cool, I finally decided to give it a go. It has no right being as good as it was. And so freaking easy, too. I’m into it. Would make again unironically 100%.
Poke night! I made fun of a tiny tiny package of rice in our host’s fridge, and she said it was for poke bowls that she never made. So after thinking about it for like literally 24 hours straight we decided to go to a local fish market and buy some sushi grade fish and TJ’s for some toppings and recreate my usual poke order but with like 3 times the fish. Super fun and easy and refreshing for summer!
Alison Roman’s shallot pasta. Because my coworker mentioned it and it looked freaking amazing. It ate a little sweet because of the sheer amount of shallots in the dish, but it was nevertheless extremely umami and addictive. I would honestly consider making this for guests because it tastes a lot more impressive than the effort required, and it’s easy to prep ahead of time.
Lasagna. For our host’s freezer. I have made this recipe dozens of times, but this was the first time I got to slice into it and look at the cross section!
And chocolate chip cookies (not pictured).
Before we left, we also finally ate at Yoshi’s Cafe and went back to Moody Tongue for the bar menu. Yoshi’s was a lot more fusiony than I expected. And it felt a little overpriced/out of date. But the food was still good. As for Moody Tongue, I would rather go back and have the tasting menu again than eat at the bar. The bar was super delicious, but the tasting menu was such a unique and unforgettable experience.
In Philly we’ve been sort of trying whatever looked good. No real list because I assume I’ll be eating a lot of this stuff for lunch delivery. It is really nice to live within 2-5 min walk of a bunch of choices. Not a ton of pics because mostly wolfing down food out of hunger.
Loco Pez! A friend who just moved away right before we came recommended this place to us. I was so hungry and it was the only thing I could think of. Will have to return to actually taste the food, hah.
Nan Zhou Hand Pulled Noodles! not nearly as good for take out eaten out of a deli. Would have been much better fresh. Maybe next time!
Porcos Porchetta - very very satisfying. The cracklins are everything!
It’s hard to live in a row home where there’s no additional layer of security in the form of a lobby. I feel weird that strangers can walk by and see me enter my home. And the noises of the street feel so much closer and immediate when not separated by 26 floors of concrete. I feel… exposed? in my own home. It takes some getting used to.
Ro is finally learning to poop on the concrete after a couple of days of adjusting. She is such a trooper who has been through so many life changes along with us. We’ve been letting her on the air mattress even though she wouldn’t be allowed on our real bed.
Actually it sounds like this will be our lives for the next forseeable future. The couch we had our hearts set on is on back order until late JANUARY. Apparently wood is in short supply, so we’ll be sitting on our air mattress and our pull out trundle as beds in the next several months :’) but we decided to wait for a couch we love and splurged on rather than settle for a couch and wish we had the one we loved.
(Not a picture of Philly)