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!

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?