Coffee in the city...

Oh my where have you been!!?? Ok it is me not you... I have been:
A) busy graduating and writing papers
2) Having technical issues with blogger... (2 blog posts lost :( )

but enough with this non-edible mumbo jumbo!

With all this studying Coffee had been my best friend as of late.
Ice coffee and regular Starbucks lattes can get monotonous and bland... So if you are as bored as I was here are a few fun suggestions to keep you burning the midnight oil (or the morning oil for that matter)without burning out your tastebuds.

Tired of coffee all together but still want a little jolt?
Try Star Coffee Bar's maté Latte.
Yerba maté is a plant grown in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It has less of a kick than coffee for me but does the trick when I need to stay up to meet a deadline. I prefer my maté late with soy :)
Star Coffee bar also has free Internet (yea!!) and if you still want your cafe au lait you are in luck, because they roast there own beans with care, you will get a perfect cuppa joe(soo much better than Starbucks).
Click here for more Star info

If you are looking for some espresso to kick your butt back into gear I recommend going to the new and AWESOME Wormhole Cafe in Wicker park.
They have amazing Vanilla lattes BUT I had the most amazing coffee based drink of my life there and it included Cayenne pepper. It was called 2 different things when i went the last 2 times but it included a shot of espresso, a bit o milk, agave syrup and cayenne pepper... Perfectly spicy and sweet :).
They also have unique teas. I had one that was made of the husks of Coffee Cherries... I was awake for 2 days after that!! wooo...
Click here for more info on Wormhole Ps. They also have free Internet annnnd they are open til midnight!!!

Ok Ta ta for now I still have a tad bit of work to do. But let me know where you get your cuppa joe....!

Oooo I want this...

Beer good, Chocolate good, Pretzels good.... Put them altogether and BAM! that sounds amazing.
As I was flipping through the June issue of Food and wine I ran across an article named Brew mastery in which everything featured had to do in one way or another with , you guessed it, beer. The article consisted of several Beery Beauties, but the one that caught my eye was the Beer and pretzel Brittle.. OH MAN! It sounds so good... It is made with Rouge Chocolate stout and I am super excited to try it... Lucky for me it is Chicago made!! now to get my hands on some :) sounds like it will go good with a Cubs Game :)

You can find more info here Truffle Truffle

Ode to Bleeding Heart Bakery

I am a total Bleeding Heart Bakery Fan girl. This is not a new thing at all. I know they are all famous now,and one of the best bakeries in the country and Michelle and Vinny are practically TV stars, but when I first fell in love with the place it was over a mocha and a Oaxaca Brownie on Chicago avenue :). Spicy brownies oh HELL YES! I wasn't even about their now highly acclaimed cupcakes ( btw they are amazing!!) ... If they existed back then, I didn't even know it. I was all about that brownie and the lemon bar. It was true love until one day when I found out they were moving.... They where staying in the city but not by my house. It was a sad day indeed.

Well it was only sad until I started making the easy peasy trek to Belmont and Damen to their much bigger and prettier location. The quality is the same if not better and the crazy awesome flavor combos are the cats pajamas (did you say chocolate mole and corn cupcakes ooohh I can have curry on a cup cake too! yum!!!).

Some of my favorite things so far have been:
Mole Cupcake (made to honor Rick Bayless the Mole king and My b day cupcakes last year)
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (DJ Intel's fave)
Sweet potato Doughnuts
Oaxaca Brownies
Lemon bars (omg)
goat Cheese croissant
Strawberry basil orange cake ball
Oh by the way Cake balls are kinda awesome. They are NOT doughnut holes they are the pieces of cake that have to be trimmed off when they make their sculpted masterpieces mixed with delicious frosting-----ooohh ahhhh---- a must try.

Oh and did I mention that I just ordered a birthday cake for DJ Intel? well I did! And they did a wonderful job. I wanted to Zombiefy him on a Carrot Cake and it came out perfect!!
I would expect nothing less for the Challenge champs! Here is a pic:


ohhh here are some cake balls and cupcakes!!:


Now they are doing special Lemonades which and I am completely excited about! They always seem to have something new and amazing. To keep up to date you can follow them on twitter @bleeding_Heart Or go to the site www.thebleedingheartbakery.com or better yet just go to the shop and get your pastry on... :) (my preferred method)
PS they carry vegan and gluten free options!
PPS for my west suburban buddies they have a great location in Oak Park as well. fun times!!!! yey Pastries!

Who's your Papa?

What is not to like about Cream puffs.Good stuff stuffed with more equally good if not better stuff. Annnd welllll if you don't like them ... your soul is probably gone. :) And if you didn't know One of the best places to get Cream Puffs, in my humble opinion, is Beard Papa's.
My Beard Papa's Journey began in the summer of last year when I went to San Fran to visit my gal pal and fellow blogger Miss Dorothea. Several people had told me to hit up Beard Papa's for some world class cream puffs. Alas, I never had time to venture their way and the only other locations at the time were in Asia, DRATS! I was never gonna get one!!
Well, that all ended one fateful day when I was downtown for, get this, A dentist appointment. *** begin dream sequence*** I saw a sign on State and Washington that a Beard Papa's had opened in The new block 37 mall. I had to have one right then and there. It was me versus my newly numbed mouth and tongue and freshly filled cavities. Needless to say I won, well,kinda..I sat in the new mall, still smelling of fresh paint and full of realtors trying to fill the still many vacancies of the mall and adjacent private residences, drooling on myself gnawing on a delicious Beard Papa's cream puff with powdered sugar all over my hoodie looking like a fool and not caring... I will always remember that day sigh!!!... ***end dream sequence***
Since then I have gone back and eaten several with full feeling and function of my mouth parts and they are just as good as I remember. I usually stick with the original puff ( they have an eclair as well as several other varieties) and vanilla custard :) mmm classic! They can also fill them with Ice Cream :)
I recommend this place if you are in the loop and looking for a sweet treat or a dozen sweet treats for that matter.

Here is some info Beard Papa's

Quick Update!

I failed my original challenge. I really wanted juice the other day so I drank it. But I don't feel too bad about it. My water consumption has gone up 100%. I still Love my Bobble. I feel way more hydrated all time, less headaches and I even think my skin is looking nicer :) YEY water!!! I'll keep you posted on this as time goes on. How are you guys doing on your challenge?

Stay tuned for my Sweets and Treats profile on Bleeding Heart Bakery and A guest blogger will share some yummy secrets with you soon too!!! woo hoo

OH YEAH!! Happy Moms DAY all you moms and other women who fulfill that role in one way or another for someone!! :)

Water Bobble Challange

It takes a lot to get me to drink water... I never could do it... something so plain tasting ew... a waste of my taste-buds time. With the few exceptions, including gulps and gulps after gym class or a hard day at the park, to drink water when I was younger seemed like a severe punishment. No koolaid, no OJ, no Coke? Ewww I would rather die of thirst!
while I now try to stay away from things that are too sweetened, I do love Juices and naturally sweetened sodas (Reeds Ginger-ale, anyone?). But as far as water drinking goes, things pretty much remain the same. The only time I will drink copious amounts of water (and by copious I would mean 1 whole standard bottle of bottled water)is when I am in my Bikram class and sweat like a cute but still very sweaty pig.
A few days ago fellow blogger and Beau DJ Intel Found the coolest thing for water possibly ever. The Bobble!!! It filters your water for you with each sip! The Bobble comes complete with a colorful activated carbon filter that does all the magic and lasts 2 months(the bottle with filter is $9.99 plus S&H the replacement filters are $6.99 plus S&H) The savings is evident right away.
So here is my challenge!
I am giving up other non-alcoholic beverages ( no juice, no Izze, no Reed's etc..)Occasional Wine and beer is ok (i am a foodie) but NO mixed drinks with anything but SODA or water!
aaaannnnd I am going to try to drink the recommended amount of water every day (9 cups for ladies)
For 30 days!!
I, for one, think everyone else I know should do it with me...
No more wasted water bottles, wasting money, wasting water and killing the earth with plastic( I am the queen of leaving half empty water bottles around.)
Not only am I saving money and the planet I am also saving calories that I can use toward more NOMS!
Here is where you can get your Bobble Bobblicous

Let me know if you join in!!!

I LOVE HOT DOUG'S

As a preface to this letter, I know writing about Hot Doug's in Chicago is not original. Everyone loves it, including the king of the foodies Anthony Bourdain. But I cannot contain myself any longer and would like to indulge myself by singing their praises.
Dear Hot Doug's,
A love letter to you coming from a person whose only source of meat is fish may seem strange to many. It is well known across the foodie-dom that your love for encased meats is all encompassing. With this fact well known, a person who is ignorant to your ways may not be aware that you cater to people like myself and the stricter vegetarian crowd too.
I often drool reading about the "game of the week" and other sausages on your list. This is not at the sausages themselves, but the list of delectable and sometimes exotic toppings that you offer. Nothing is better on a perfectly charred veggie dog than Spicy Peanut sauce Snow White cheese and black sesame seeds or Garlicky Dijon mustard and Moody Blue Cheese... Nom!! And one cannot forget the classic Chicago dog!! hmmm its hard to just choose one!!
So in short thank you Hot Doug's, for making me usually bland veggie dog interesting and delish. You Rock my world!!
-Crystal
What I got on a veggie dog

and this one

ooof I'm Still FULL!!
PS: hows about a salmon sausage?

Ummm.. Wow ! Revenge of the Double Down !

So how do you start the second post on your blog after Gapers Block and Huffington Post write about your first article...... Well unless pizza-hut wraps a meat-lovers pizza around a kielbasa I don't think we can cook anything crazier.

I do promise foodie fun from around the Chicago area and abroad and would love to hear what others have eaten that was just fantastic (pescatarian, vegetarian, or chock full of meat).

We also have gotten a lot of funny/ angry responses on Huffington Post. Addressing that: I make no apologies for my diet I never said I was a vegetarian I do eat fish (just not cow, pig, chicken or any other land animal). I will continue to eat want just like I have my whole life. Also, lighten up!!! doesn't anyone else see the humor in recreating a Meat only sandwich without any meat??? Oh well!!!

I love that you guys are interested Keep checking back 'cause this is about to get super fun!!

Holy Double Down!!!!

This is the first official Snacks in the city Post! I have been toying with the Idea of this blog for a while but have never started an article. Well finally an event occurred in my snack-dom that has out done anything in previous memory.
Anyone on the net or well... anyone living knows about the meat monstrosity called the KFC "Double-Down". Well I am a Pescatarian ( mostly vegetarian but I include fishes in my diet) and this meat medley was not in the cards for me and really I had no desire for it. Well yesterday, Jason (my boyfriend and also pescatarian) was sneaking around the grocery store picking out peculiar items such as; 2 bricks of cheese, veggie chicken patties and fake bacon etc.... I think that you all are starting to get the picture. When I questioned him about this crazy idea.... he told me "Hey we deserve to dream too, don't we."
So this afternoon we had a super deeelish Vegetarian double down. OMG we both wanted another!

Here are some pics!