SOO LONG OVERDUE that it is horrendous. School+work happened, which meant that a lot of my spare time went to studying+homework, and the corresponding trashy TV watching that goes with that (to relieve stress and reset my brain).
Tacoma: Yup...we went all the way to Tacoma (around 30-40 minutes away from Bellevue) one fun Sunday, just so that we could go to...
This place is delicious. It was featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Dive-ins and Dives and is about half an hour away from where I live in Bellevue. This was my meal of the day for that day, because my kitchen was broken for pretty much the entire time I was at home (a week and a half), which was sad, because I wanted to cook badly. In any case, southern/soul food is just so satisfying.
Fried Green Tomatoes which were coated with cornmeal, salt and pepper and came out fresh from the fryer. And yes, I guess you can still consider these as vegetables.
Every entree was served with a corncake, which was pretty much like a cornbread-tasting pancake and had the rough, mealy texture of the cornmeal and the slight fluffiness of the pancake. This was delicious with some syrup and butter. They were also good leftovers, even when cold from the fridge, because it was like eating flat cornbread.
My Fried Chicken dinner, with sides of collard greens, fried okra and cornbread stuffing was delicious, even though the collard greens were a bit on the salty side. The chicken skin was crisp and flavorful, and you can't really ask for any more than that, right? I love my fried chicken.
Oregon in a day--Went to Oregon to buy a laptop for my cousin (as well as other stuff of course), because Oregon, with it's no sales-tax policy, is a pretty fun place to shop. It's nice to know that the sticker price on your stuff is what you will actually be paying. Also, Oregon, particularly Portland, has the largest amount of food carts in the US (I think), which I only found out while I was there. I shall have to take a food cart trip sometime and avail of all the delicious, cheap and mobile food. Yumyum. :)
In any case, this is where we went to, in between going to a lot of electronics shops...
This place has 3 different branches, and the one that we went to was the bright pink Voodoo Donuts chapel, which you can actually get married in, for around $25 (they have special wedding packages; like weddings+donuts for reception also), which is a lot cheaper than your actual wedding.
In any case, these were our donuts. If you look at their website, they list the donuts with pretty crazy names, for very interesting flavor combinations. We had the Voodoo Doll (with the stake down the middle, and jelly filling=blood inside), the Old Dirty Bastard (with Oreos, chocolate frosting and peanut butter), the Bacon Maple bar (I wish it had more bacon though) and the Portland Creme (with bavarian filling inside).
I can't really say much about these donuts, given that I'm not a big donut person and I really dislike eating sweet, sugary things when I'm pretty hungry, but I will have to applaud the minds behind Voodoo Donut for their creativity, which made their store a Portland landmark (and was also featured on the Amazing Race apparently).
Got extremely excited when I found this online the night before, and went around going "YAY WE ARE GOING TO A WINDOW. THAT SELLS WAFFLES!" to the amusement of...myself and the rest of my family. I have a...yen (craving) for waffles from time to time, because waffles are just so delicious and fun. The Waffle Window was quite cool. It was literally a window, where people lined up in front of to order their savory or sweet waffles, which were very reasonably priced at around $4-5. We ordered only the savory ones (since we just came from Voodoo donuts)--but next time I will have to try the sweet ones, since they look delicious. In particular, we ordered the Ham and Cheese waffle, the 3 B's (bacon, brie and basil), and the Farm Fusion. I thought the waffles were quite good, but my favorite one was the 3 B's, since I thought it balanced out the sweet/salty combination the best, since the waffles themselves were on the sweet side. My only comment on these waffles though was that they were sweet in themselves, which was a little bit weird when you would eat them with the savory things on top, and it just didn't go particularly well together. But yes...still good, still worth going to, and next time, I want the dessert waffles. MMM. :) Cuban restaurant in Oregon right across the street from Dove Vivi (has pizza with cornmealy crust--delicious). I've been here before, and really liked it, went here again and really liked it also. Their food makes me full and happy. Croquetas were really crisp and freshly fried--they were the ham croquetas, and their crust was so deliciously cornmeal-y which gave the entire thing a nice bite. Mindy was also very happy that they had banana ketchup in this restaurant, which is very normal and common in the Philippines but rare to find elsewhere. I like banana ketchup too, with its bright red consistency and its sweet but slightly spicy taste, which doesn't have the acidity of regular ketchup.
Lengua en Salsa I honestly think that I will order anything with the word "lengua" in it, and this was no exception, even if it was not the normal lengua (ox tongue) that I would have supposed it to be. Regardless, I was satisfied with my lengua--which was pork simmered in a red, tomato-based sauce for a long time, making it extremely tender and flavorful. The addition of almonds to top the lengua added a nice toasty/crunchy texture to the richness of the sauce and the pork. It was so good that I ate everything on my plate (doesn't happen that often--but I was hungry, and thought it was so good).
Chicago--Went here a few weeks before my school started just so that I could help my sister move in/get her stuff together for college, and so that I could foodventure away with my mom and sister, which was really enjoyable.
This place, which is not really in the main part of the city (kind of outskirts/ruralish-subarbany area actually) is known for their apple products (kind of obvious, given the name).
Their Apple Strudel had a nice crisp sugary layer (probably rock sugar) on the top, and a pretty solid (as opposed to flaky) crust, and was not bad, although I thought it was a little bit too sweet for my taste.
Their Brown Bag Apple Pie (which they're famous for), on the other hand, was more interesting. The method that they used was to bake the apple pie in a brown bag, which supposedly helps absorb any extra moisture in the pie and regulate its temperature--allowing it to stay crisp, but not burnt on top. I liked this pie's crust--even while it was a bit more dense than normal pie crust, it had a texture and flavor which reminded me of apple crisps, since it was flavorful instead of just being doughy. In addition, you could tell that the filling was made out of real apples, since they held up and were not mushy (which is what you sometimes get with canned pie filling).
D&D Dogs Went here on our public transportation adventure (on the CTA+Metra) because it was conveniently located right where the Noyes CTA station was, where we drove to and parked our car in. They had your usual selection of hot dogs, burgers, gyros, Italian beef, that type of thing. We ordered the Chicago dog (Mindy), the Italian beef (me), the Chili dog (mom), and the tamales (shared, but mom ordered it). It was actually my first encounter with Italian beef, and it was a positive one. I liked how the beef was soaked in its broth and the bread was nice and chewy, even though it had absorbed the "soup" from the beef. Needless to say, I will try my best to go to Mr. Beef soon, given that my mom spoke highly of it and its Italian beef.
It’s very easy to oversimpify fRedhots, as well as all other stores like it in the suburbs as Hot Doug’s copycats, given the prevalence of “different” or “more unique” kinds of items/hot dogs on their menu, notably bison and lamb hot dogs, like this buffalo dog that we had that had a nice smokyish flavor. 
However, what I liked most about this place, and found most unique about them was their fries. The fries in themselves are delicious. They’re Belgian fries, which this website defines as being freshly cut, irregularly shaped, fried twice, fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside, with a distinct potato taste...and of course, served in a paper cone. Well, whether or not they are Belgian fries (I believe they are), these fries were sooo good. The dipping sauces that they had on the side were pretty interesting too, as there were so many different varieties that Fred makes himself (he also takes orders and talks to his customers), which include things like wasabi, Filipino banana red peppers (a twist on banana ketchup), garlic, etc. We got the classic garlic aioli and the lemon-dill dips, both of which were delicious--and I'm not even a big fry person AND I don't even like mayonnaise normally. 
Probably what will make me visit my sister (who's all the way up north in Evanston) more often, because their hot wings are so delicious--crisp on the outside with their sauce that has a nice kick to it, the spiciness of which is balanced out nicely by the ranch dressing and celery they have on the side. Their waffle fries are good too. MMM. I want to try their suicide wings next time. REALLY.
Birrieria Zaragoza is a relatively small, family-run restaurant, which was nice--the owner was very present throughout our entire meal, and talked to us about things like onion and garlic tea with lime and honey (which is supposed to be good for your bronchials), and that the cinnamon sticks that they sell in the stores is not really cinnamon (it's cassia, which is cheaper and less flavorful/fragrant than regular cinnamon). They also had an open kitchen, which was nice since you could see your food being prepared, as well as your corn tortillas being made by hand. 
I'm really not a big coffee person, despite being from Seattle, arguably the coffee capital of the US, but I decided to try their Cafe Casero (cinnamon-laced Mexican coffee), and was not disappointed. According to the owner, what they do is blend 3 types of coffee beans from Starbucks (yay Seattle!) to make the coffee, to which they add some cinnamon tea (from real Mexican cinnamon, not the cassia which people usually think is cinnamon--apparently, real cinnamon breaks very easily while the cassia cinnamon does not). Their coffee was very smooth with a strong, yet not overpowering cinnamon flavor...and since refills were free, I had 2 cups of coffee and brought back another cup to take home. 
I'm really not a big coffee person, despite being from Seattle, arguably the coffee capital of the US, but I decided to try their Cafe Casero (cinnamon-laced Mexican coffee), and was not disappointed. According to the owner, what they do is blend 3 types of coffee beans from Starbucks (yay Seattle!) to make the coffee, to which they add some cinnamon tea (from real Mexican cinnamon, not the cassia which people usually think is cinnamon--apparently, real cinnamon breaks very easily while the cassia cinnamon does not). Their coffee was very smooth with a strong, yet not overpowering cinnamon flavor...and since refills were free, I had 2 cups of coffee and brought back another cup to take home. 
