After our South Africa Reunion on Saturday, several people headed over to Pequods for late-night Pizza. I had really good intentions of continuing to hang out with the gang so Ernie and I walked over with the group. We sat down for just a moment, looked at the menu full of pizza, smelled the bread baking in the oven and decided to leave.
Sometimes when I smell extremely yeasty-breads baking, I feel sick and slightly nauseaus. It's like I now have a bad association with that smell becuase I know it's going to really hurt my muscles and joints if I eat something with so much wheat. When I was younger, I used to LOVE the fragrance of bread baking in the oven (not that my Chinese mom ever baked bread).
Now, the smell gives me a headache and my body sets off some survival signal that I shouldn't be eating whatever's nearby. Maybe it will be contaminated with Gluten. I'm not usually THAT sensitive to gluten but sometimes I just get this way.
Ernie and I headed back towards my place. When we were close, we decided on a nearby Taco shop. Some creepy man seemed to be talking to himself but Ernie actually thought he was talking to me. "What are you doing with that guy," he mumbled under his breath. "This is just so weird, this is so weird..." he continued. Wait? You think Ernie and I are weird? Shouldn't we be the ones thinking you are weird and cracked out? The man next do you donned in full-on leather-straped pants seemed much more normal than you, sir. Oh the joys of living in Wrigleyville.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Southern Africa: South Africa, Zambia & Botswana
Two years ago today, I returned from a two week jaunt around Southern Africa. I went with a Kellogg class called Global Initiatives in Management where you study a country and have a field visit to research your project of choice. My team chose a project focused on cause marketing and had the opportunity to work with wonderful companies like P&G, Kraft, SABMiller, Newell Rubbermaid, Sho Sho La Za Marketing, CIDA, TransUnion and DRAFT FCB. Other teams picked things like the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Corporate Social Responsibility and Black Economic Empowerment. The group of students grew to be great friends and gathered together this past Saturday to reunite.
I loved my trip to southern Africa. In 2008, 36 Kellogg Students, 2 Spouses, our Dean and his wife traveled to southern Africa for our 2 week field visit. Prior to our trip, we spent ten weeks learning about South Africa, Apartheid, the BEE, South African businesses and got a taste of its culture. This included various speakers, a visit to the South African consulate and a group dinner to a local South African Restaurant, Harambee. This was honestly is still the most rewarding global travel I’ve competed to date. I learned a tremendous amount of information and came to appreciate the culture and lifestyle of its local people.
Here are highlights of our trip:
Jo’Berg, South Africa
We stayed in the Garden Court Hotel in Sandton by Nelson Mandela Square with nice clean rooms, although we spent the majority of our time at the hotel bar. The breakfast spread was huge with a mix of western and local foods and the pool (from what I hear) was nice for a hot afternoon. The gym is a bit small with two treadmills. It was here that I watched the fall of Bear Stearns on CNBC while running sprints one morning.
On our first free afternoon, a group of us went to Sterkfontein Caves also called “the cradle of humanity” where they believe the first human was found. A few of us took a private bus out to the caves. It was really interesting, kind of creepy but a nice little museum of how they believed the first humans came to be. Plus, our tour guide was really adorable.
We took a walking tour of Soweto Shanty Village – incredible. How can so many people live in such small huts built of corrugated metals? And have nice appliances and mobile phones? The whole village had one water source that was just a hose. Port-a-potties were located in the center of the village. One of the little boys running around stole my umbrella… he probably needed it more than me anyway.
The whole Kellogg group took a field trip to the Apartheid Museum. This is where we experienced load shedding at the museum and weren’t able to watch the short movie. Eskom, South Africa’s power supplier, had to enforce load shedding back in 2007 and expected to last for about 5 years. Load shedding occurs when there is insufficient power capacity to supply the demand. To avoid a national black-out, Eskom must increase the supply (running all power stations at max capacity) and reduce demand (electricity is reduced/interrupted for specific times). So, we walked the museum hallways in darkness with only the little light coming in from windows. Needless to say, we finished the museum much earlier than expected.
We were most adventurous on food in Johannesburg. The “Butcher Shop” serves lots of African meats. I tried Springbok which is a deer-like meat. On the menu was also ostrich and other gamey meats. In Nelson Mandela Square, we also ate at “8 at the Tower” which is Asian fusion and “Montego Bay” serving mostly seafood dishes. “Moyo” is very traditional African food, witha fantastic atmosphere. They painted our faces during dinner! “Wandies Restaurant” is famous but the food is terrible. I wouldn't suggest eating there unless you have no other options.
Livingstone, Zambia
We only spent 1.5 days here which was actually enough if you want to cram everything into your visit. We had one really full day of extreme sports including canoeing, zip lining, gorge swinging, rappelling and of course bungee jumping!
The Zambezi Sun was where we stayed. It was a large complex with an outdoor bar and pool area. There are also a couple of restaurants on site – but beware of the monkeys! They will steal your food right off your plate! The grounds keepers carry sling shots and try to shoo away the monkeys.
On our first night, we walked over to Victoria Falls. There’s a bridge that goes into Zimbabwe that you can cross if you’re brave. Victoria Falls is massive though we only got to view a small section of the full falls from our vantage point. You can hear the loud roar of water with the mist rising in the sunlight to create rainbows.
If you have a chance, check out the craft market behind the hotel. You can trade pencils for jewelry - they'll take anything. Their kids don’t have pencils to write at schools and the merchants will literally take any writing utensil and trade it for things. I bartered for two elephant hair bracelets for the pens from our hotel.
The next day started with a canoe trip on the Zambezi. It was supposed to be a leisurely trip for about 4 hours… however, about halfway through we ran into a very angry hippo! The hippo had just fought the leader of the hippo school and apparently lost. The hippo was very mad jumping straight-up out of the water and rearing his enormous head. We stayed on the side of the river for 15-20 minutes waiting for him to calm down, which never happened. In the end, we picked up our canoes on the Zimbabwe side of the river and walked our canoes past the hippo to re-submerge into the river.
Four of us were brave enough to bungee jump over Vic falls. The plunge was about the length of 3 1/3 football fields – the tenth largest jump in the world. I wasn’t altogether scared of jumping; however, it can cause some major anxiety! The jump itself hurts your ankles where the towels are wrapped tightly around to secure the ropes. The view from the jump is unimaginable. The misty falls created a rainbow that appears as a circle parallel to the earth. When you’re bouncing from the jump, you head in and out of the circular rainbow and are amazed by the depth of the river’s valley. My arm got caught in the bungee cord during one of the bounces so it sent me spinning round-n-round. No videos or pictures can truly capture the undeniably beautiful site.
The afternoon was filled with adrenalin activities of zip lining, gorge swinging and rappelling. You have to check out the video of gorge swinging. Even after the bungee jump, the gorge swing was still scarier than a 1000 ft drop on a bungee cord. Plus, after the gorge swing you had to climb all the way back out of the ravine to the top of the cliff.
Chobe, Botswana
Our hotel was the Mowana Safari Lodge. We had a nice pool where we stayed during the daytime, and a great buffet restaurant that overlooks the water into Namibia. You can catch the sunset into the west here where you’ll see the largest African sunsets. The lodge also arranged all of our safari trips. In total, we went on three land tours and one booze cruise. Our safari guide, Simon, was the best guide and took us to see just about all of the animals we could. Chobe is known for Elephants – and boy did we see a lot of elephants! We also caught a glimpse of lions but no cheetahs. The whole experience of a safari is unforgettable. The best way to describe our experience is through some pictures.
The totally nice, totally pricey hotel we stayed in was the Victoria Junction. We heard Gwyneth Paltrow was there while we were, but no one got a visual confirmation. Capetown is one of my favorite cities around the world. It’s a mix of Barcelona, San Francisco, wine-country Napa and still has a small town vibe. Here are some highlights from our visit to Capetown:
The Green Craft market is a fun bargaining adventure. You can definitely get products down 50-75%. Get as many $1 earrings as you can! I wish I had bought more since they are nice hard metals like gold/silver/bronze and designs that aren’t very common in other parts of the world.
Take the Cape Point Tour, but do NOT wear a dress/skirt. The whole tour is very windy and it will blow your skirt up! Trust me, I think I flashed the entire class when we were taking a picture by the merging of Atlantic and Pacific oceans. (See the pictures below to get a sense of the wind!) I also loved the penguin beach. All these little jackass penguins (really, they are called that!) run around and play. I could watch penguins for hours! They are so cute, kissing and chasing each other. Plus, the scenery by the beach is breathtaking.
Camp’s Bay is a great place with tons of restaurants and clubs. We ate at a local seafood restaurant after watching the sun set from the beach. Some of the girls were doing cartwheels in the sand. We went to one of the clubs called Karma– be sure to dress cute, but you will still feel like the only girl that is not a gorgeous model. We heard there was probably a swimsuit photo shoot on the beach earlier that day. This turned into a very late night for me and several other Kelloggers that ended in bad decision making.
We took busses to go to Stellenbosch for some wine tasting. Our group stopped for lunch at Volkskombuis (one person ended up with food poisoning) then went on to the wineries. Here are three recommendations: Rust en Vrede (highly recommended), Bergkelder and Morgenhof. All of them have excellent wine selections and I even carted back some honey desert wine for a special occasion. Rust en Vrede was my favorite of the three and has a nice back courtyard for the wine tasting. You can buy their wine at the local Binny’s.
The Fisherman’s Warf is a fun shopping area with a huge indoor craft market. We had good fun with the “teabag” art – I’m left with a coaster set souvenir just because we thought it was really funny to buy used teabags. The rest of the Warf area is not very unique to Africa with a Nike store and other main name brand chains. However, it’s something to do if you want to kill some time.
Two things I regret not having time for and/or planning better for are Table Mountain and Robbin Island. I wanted to hike Table Mountain but we just didn’t make enough time in our schedule. Several of our mornings were taken up with meetings for the class project. Sometimes, they close the top if it’s too foggy so I feel I really missed out. The other major miss was Robbin Island. It was closed while we were there because the one ferry was broken. We’ll know to book this far in advance since tickets sell out several weeks ahead of time.
As far as eating is concerned, “Savoy Cabbage” was hands down the best restaurant of the entire trip. They are famous for the tomato tarte which is quite delicious. However, if you don’t eat gluten, you will unfortunately have to pass on this treat. The prices were really reasonable as well. Each of us spent $30 for the meal inclusive of appetizers, main dish, deserts and lots of wine.
There’s an entire street with a bunch of bars. We spent most of our time at the Dubliner, unfortunately where our group ended up every night. You know it’s a very western bar when you run into a group of students from University of Chicago there too. One night, a group of us went over to Mama Africa for some genuine African music. We had a great time – Kristen and I even ended up meeting some German guys whom we later stiffed on our lunch date. On the very last night, the whole group went back to Mama Africa where Danny and Kristen had a little dance off.
All-in-all, Southern Africa is amazing. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be but we probably made smart choices and traveled as a group well. I wish there were more experiences where you had traditional tourism paired with service opportunities. I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to visit CIDA and the orphanage, create a project on cause and charitable marketing, and really immerse in the cultures of the lands we visited.
I loved my trip to southern Africa. In 2008, 36 Kellogg Students, 2 Spouses, our Dean and his wife traveled to southern Africa for our 2 week field visit. Prior to our trip, we spent ten weeks learning about South Africa, Apartheid, the BEE, South African businesses and got a taste of its culture. This included various speakers, a visit to the South African consulate and a group dinner to a local South African Restaurant, Harambee. This was honestly is still the most rewarding global travel I’ve competed to date. I learned a tremendous amount of information and came to appreciate the culture and lifestyle of its local people.
Here are highlights of our trip:
Jo’Berg, South Africa
We stayed in the Garden Court Hotel in Sandton by Nelson Mandela Square with nice clean rooms, although we spent the majority of our time at the hotel bar. The breakfast spread was huge with a mix of western and local foods and the pool (from what I hear) was nice for a hot afternoon. The gym is a bit small with two treadmills. It was here that I watched the fall of Bear Stearns on CNBC while running sprints one morning.
On our first free afternoon, a group of us went to Sterkfontein Caves also called “the cradle of humanity” where they believe the first human was found. A few of us took a private bus out to the caves. It was really interesting, kind of creepy but a nice little museum of how they believed the first humans came to be. Plus, our tour guide was really adorable.
We took a walking tour of Soweto Shanty Village – incredible. How can so many people live in such small huts built of corrugated metals? And have nice appliances and mobile phones? The whole village had one water source that was just a hose. Port-a-potties were located in the center of the village. One of the little boys running around stole my umbrella… he probably needed it more than me anyway.
We were most adventurous on food in Johannesburg. The “Butcher Shop” serves lots of African meats. I tried Springbok which is a deer-like meat. On the menu was also ostrich and other gamey meats. In Nelson Mandela Square, we also ate at “8 at the Tower” which is Asian fusion and “Montego Bay” serving mostly seafood dishes. “Moyo” is very traditional African food, witha fantastic atmosphere. They painted our faces during dinner! “Wandies Restaurant” is famous but the food is terrible. I wouldn't suggest eating there unless you have no other options.
During our trip, my project team visited CIDA, the world's first completely free university. Taddy Blecher, the founder and president is one of the most inspirational men I've ever met in my whole life. If you’re planning a trip to South Africa, I highly suggest a visit to this unique university. I’ve got Taddy’s contact info if you have time to catch up with him.
Livingstone, Zambia
We only spent 1.5 days here which was actually enough if you want to cram everything into your visit. We had one really full day of extreme sports including canoeing, zip lining, gorge swinging, rappelling and of course bungee jumping!
The Zambezi Sun was where we stayed. It was a large complex with an outdoor bar and pool area. There are also a couple of restaurants on site – but beware of the monkeys! They will steal your food right off your plate! The grounds keepers carry sling shots and try to shoo away the monkeys.
Right as we arrived, we visited the Ebenezer Orphanage and School. It was so exciting to see all of the kids singing and dancing to welcome us to their school. We brought candy, t-shirts, pens, pencils and paper for their school supplies. Just about anything and everything is appreciated. These kids don't even have shoes and are all orphans due to AIDS. The couple that started the orphanage immigrated from India or Nepal, I can’t quite remember. They came for a visit and saw all of the children in need so they left their home country to do something that really impacts the world. I admire that and wish I was brave enough to make that type of decision.
If you have a chance, check out the craft market behind the hotel. You can trade pencils for jewelry - they'll take anything. Their kids don’t have pencils to write at schools and the merchants will literally take any writing utensil and trade it for things. I bartered for two elephant hair bracelets for the pens from our hotel.
Four of us were brave enough to bungee jump over Vic falls. The plunge was about the length of 3 1/3 football fields – the tenth largest jump in the world. I wasn’t altogether scared of jumping; however, it can cause some major anxiety! The jump itself hurts your ankles where the towels are wrapped tightly around to secure the ropes. The view from the jump is unimaginable. The misty falls created a rainbow that appears as a circle parallel to the earth. When you’re bouncing from the jump, you head in and out of the circular rainbow and are amazed by the depth of the river’s valley. My arm got caught in the bungee cord during one of the bounces so it sent me spinning round-n-round. No videos or pictures can truly capture the undeniably beautiful site. 
The afternoon was filled with adrenalin activities of zip lining, gorge swinging and rappelling. You have to check out the video of gorge swinging. Even after the bungee jump, the gorge swing was still scarier than a 1000 ft drop on a bungee cord. Plus, after the gorge swing you had to climb all the way back out of the ravine to the top of the cliff.There’s a new hotel, The Royal Livingstone, that we hear has a beautiful sunset and is just down the street from the Zambezi Sun. Go early if you want to eat dinner and watch the sunset – or even stay there if you can! If you’re not tired after all of the adrenaline activities, stay out past midnight. That's when giraffes come out for a midnight snack and they'll get up really close to you!
Chobe, Botswana
Capetown, South Africa
The Green Craft market is a fun bargaining adventure. You can definitely get products down 50-75%. Get as many $1 earrings as you can! I wish I had bought more since they are nice hard metals like gold/silver/bronze and designs that aren’t very common in other parts of the world.
Take the Cape Point Tour, but do NOT wear a dress/skirt. The whole tour is very windy and it will blow your skirt up! Trust me, I think I flashed the entire class when we were taking a picture by the merging of Atlantic and Pacific oceans. (See the pictures below to get a sense of the wind!) I also loved the penguin beach. All these little jackass penguins (really, they are called that!) run around and play. I could watch penguins for hours! They are so cute, kissing and chasing each other. Plus, the scenery by the beach is breathtaking.
Camp’s Bay is a great place with tons of restaurants and clubs. We ate at a local seafood restaurant after watching the sun set from the beach. Some of the girls were doing cartwheels in the sand. We went to one of the clubs called Karma– be sure to dress cute, but you will still feel like the only girl that is not a gorgeous model. We heard there was probably a swimsuit photo shoot on the beach earlier that day. This turned into a very late night for me and several other Kelloggers that ended in bad decision making. 
The Fisherman’s Warf is a fun shopping area with a huge indoor craft market. We had good fun with the “teabag” art – I’m left with a coaster set souvenir just because we thought it was really funny to buy used teabags. The rest of the Warf area is not very unique to Africa with a Nike store and other main name brand chains. However, it’s something to do if you want to kill some time.
Two things I regret not having time for and/or planning better for are Table Mountain and Robbin Island. I wanted to hike Table Mountain but we just didn’t make enough time in our schedule. Several of our mornings were taken up with meetings for the class project. Sometimes, they close the top if it’s too foggy so I feel I really missed out. The other major miss was Robbin Island. It was closed while we were there because the one ferry was broken. We’ll know to book this far in advance since tickets sell out several weeks ahead of time.
As far as eating is concerned, “Savoy Cabbage” was hands down the best restaurant of the entire trip. They are famous for the tomato tarte which is quite delicious. However, if you don’t eat gluten, you will unfortunately have to pass on this treat. The prices were really reasonable as well. Each of us spent $30 for the meal inclusive of appetizers, main dish, deserts and lots of wine.
All-in-all, Southern Africa is amazing. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be but we probably made smart choices and traveled as a group well. I wish there were more experiences where you had traditional tourism paired with service opportunities. I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to visit CIDA and the orphanage, create a project on cause and charitable marketing, and really immerse in the cultures of the lands we visited.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Cake Mix
To celebrate my completion of course requirements for Kellogg, Ernie baked me a gluten free cake with the help of Betty Crocker’s new Gluten Free Cake Mixes. Because I like chocolate, he made a devil’s food cake with a homemade mint icing – similar to the grasshopper cupcake at Swirlz. Check out the picture of the final product:
The cake tasted very much like what I remember gluten cake mixes to taste like! The texture was moist and fluffy and didn’t at all taste gritty or crumbly like other mixes can. The mint frosting was an exceptional addition to the chocolate flavor, but you’ll have to ask Ernie for his recipe. You couldn’t tell that the cake was completely gluten-free and it was really worth the effort to make and ice. I ate just about the entire cake with the exception of the 2-3 slices I saved for Ernie.
It’s very exciting to see that traditional food manufacturers are starting to understand the challenges of living gluten-free and are providing solutions to make our lives easier. With the spreading awareness for our glutoid lifestyle, we’re finding more alternatives to the foods we’ve longed for.
Check back later for the review on Betty Crocker’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Oh, in case you missed it - I'M DONE WITH MY MBA! So now I'm down with yet another one of my New Year's Resolutions!
Sushi Wabi
Last night my girlfriends and I indulged in a little celebration of sorts at Randolph’s Sushi Wabi. It was Christy and Aliy’s belated birthday celebrations and we also congratulated Megan on her recent engagement! Several of the girls are likely to get married in the next two years so Mary Ellen, the only already married one, proposed a toast that we would make sure to schedule our weddings so none of us pick the same weekend.
Sushi Wabi is located on Randolph Street amidst several trendy, upscale eateries including their sister restaurants of De Cero and Veerasway. You’ll notice the similarities among the three restaurants particularly in the dim-lit lights, long rectangular rooms with tables lined against the walls and a small bar area in the rear. Definitely check out the restrooms, as they are very contemporary with modern sink fixtures. Not quite as unique or interesting as Publican, but still worth a visit.
Our drink of choice was the Sakerita which is one of Sushi Wabi’s specialty drinks recommended by our server. It’s made with Patron Citronage, Sour, Cucumbers and Bicyuwajo sake which made for a nice light drink with a hint of cucumber. By the end of the night, most of us had ordered one – or two – of these summery drinks. Another favorite was the Pineapple Hii made with Japanese vodka and pineapple juice, garnished with chunks of pineapple.
To start, we ordered the shrimp special and edamame for the table. I’ve also had the seaweed salad before which I recommend for those who like seaweed; it’s incredibly fresh and delicious.
For dinner, we ordered 11 maki rolls to share with a mix of larger rolls and smaller rolls. The first three that showed up were the Caterpillar, Hot Daisy and Fire (pictured below from left to right). After tasting each of the three rolls, we all selected our favorite and it was a clear split: Aliy and Abby liked the Caterpillar, Christy and Megan preferred the Hot Daisy and Mary Ellen and I selected the Fire. It was a tough choice as they were all extremely tasty with a complex mix of flavors in each roll.
Then, the rest of the rolls started arriving…Two more specialty rolls: Godzilla and Tarantula. The Godzilla is mainly tempura shrimp with a light mayo sauce. It was another favorite of the table with a very balanced blend of flavors. Not too bland and not too spicy. The Tarantula is made from soft-shell crab and fresh crab. While I usually enjoy soft shell crab, and this crab was very fresh, there were just so many other flavorful rolls that this one fell by the way-side. Also, if you’re not into seeing the crab legs coming out of the ends of this roll, you can pass on this.
It was also a little bonus when the Ecuador roll showed up when it was misdelivered to our table. We were attacking the sushi with such hunger that no one noticed we didn’t even order the Ecuador Roll! It was a lucky break, because this roll was very light and green-leafy with the cilantro adding a unique twist to traditional sushi flavors.
Three more traditional (well, traditional in American Sushi Restaurants) that we ordered were the Caterpillar, Dragon and Rainbow. While these were all extremely delicious and perfect for the not-so-adventurous sushi eater, the specialty rolls are just so decadent that these too can be de-prioritized in your choices.
Lastly, we also had three types of smaller rolls which were the Spicy Shrimp, Spicy Tuna and Veggie Tempura (we ordered two of these). My favorite of the three is the Veggie Tempura. It’s served with the sweet potato still slightly warm and accompanied the other elaborate rolls quite nicely.
I adored the artful designs of the sushi, the quick and pleasant service particularly for a sushi restaurant and the fantastic recommendations by our server on both sushi and drinks. Though the total bill was quite pricy, this is a great location for celebrations or a special evening out. Be sure to make reservations in advance.
Sushi Wabi
842 W. Randolph Chicago IL. 60607
TEL: (312) 563-1224
http://www.sushiwabi.com/
Sushi Wabi is located on Randolph Street amidst several trendy, upscale eateries including their sister restaurants of De Cero and Veerasway. You’ll notice the similarities among the three restaurants particularly in the dim-lit lights, long rectangular rooms with tables lined against the walls and a small bar area in the rear. Definitely check out the restrooms, as they are very contemporary with modern sink fixtures. Not quite as unique or interesting as Publican, but still worth a visit.
Our drink of choice was the Sakerita which is one of Sushi Wabi’s specialty drinks recommended by our server. It’s made with Patron Citronage, Sour, Cucumbers and Bicyuwajo sake which made for a nice light drink with a hint of cucumber. By the end of the night, most of us had ordered one – or two – of these summery drinks. Another favorite was the Pineapple Hii made with Japanese vodka and pineapple juice, garnished with chunks of pineapple.
To start, we ordered the shrimp special and edamame for the table. I’ve also had the seaweed salad before which I recommend for those who like seaweed; it’s incredibly fresh and delicious.
For dinner, we ordered 11 maki rolls to share with a mix of larger rolls and smaller rolls. The first three that showed up were the Caterpillar, Hot Daisy and Fire (pictured below from left to right). After tasting each of the three rolls, we all selected our favorite and it was a clear split: Aliy and Abby liked the Caterpillar, Christy and Megan preferred the Hot Daisy and Mary Ellen and I selected the Fire. It was a tough choice as they were all extremely tasty with a complex mix of flavors in each roll.
Then, the rest of the rolls started arriving…Two more specialty rolls: Godzilla and Tarantula. The Godzilla is mainly tempura shrimp with a light mayo sauce. It was another favorite of the table with a very balanced blend of flavors. Not too bland and not too spicy. The Tarantula is made from soft-shell crab and fresh crab. While I usually enjoy soft shell crab, and this crab was very fresh, there were just so many other flavorful rolls that this one fell by the way-side. Also, if you’re not into seeing the crab legs coming out of the ends of this roll, you can pass on this.
It was also a little bonus when the Ecuador roll showed up when it was misdelivered to our table. We were attacking the sushi with such hunger that no one noticed we didn’t even order the Ecuador Roll! It was a lucky break, because this roll was very light and green-leafy with the cilantro adding a unique twist to traditional sushi flavors.
Three more traditional (well, traditional in American Sushi Restaurants) that we ordered were the Caterpillar, Dragon and Rainbow. While these were all extremely delicious and perfect for the not-so-adventurous sushi eater, the specialty rolls are just so decadent that these too can be de-prioritized in your choices.
Lastly, we also had three types of smaller rolls which were the Spicy Shrimp, Spicy Tuna and Veggie Tempura (we ordered two of these). My favorite of the three is the Veggie Tempura. It’s served with the sweet potato still slightly warm and accompanied the other elaborate rolls quite nicely.
I adored the artful designs of the sushi, the quick and pleasant service particularly for a sushi restaurant and the fantastic recommendations by our server on both sushi and drinks. Though the total bill was quite pricy, this is a great location for celebrations or a special evening out. Be sure to make reservations in advance.
Sushi Wabi
842 W. Randolph Chicago IL. 60607
TEL: (312) 563-1224
http://www.sushiwabi.com/
Monday, March 22, 2010
Back on the Clean Program
Ernie and I made it about 3 weeks back on regular food after our three week cleanse. We feel like crap - fat has started to reappear on our tummies, mucus in our noses and general lethargy has re-entered our lives.
So, we're back on Clean, but with some modifications. We won't be as strict on the weekends when it's really tough to stick to the program (especially no drinking). I'm also going to be eating corn and potatoes. I'm not too sure why you can't eat those veggies on the program.
I guess this is a good testament that the Clean Program
actually can change your life. I highly recommend it.
So, we're back on Clean, but with some modifications. We won't be as strict on the weekends when it's really tough to stick to the program (especially no drinking). I'm also going to be eating corn and potatoes. I'm not too sure why you can't eat those veggies on the program.
I guess this is a good testament that the Clean Program
actually can change your life. I highly recommend it.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Element Bars
I met the founder of Element Bars at a Kellogg School Event when he came to talk about his experience on the hit TV Show, Shark Tank. Jonathon Miller took me on a tour of his factory and over to his office where we sat down to discuss entrepreneurship, starting up his business, and what to do to grow my business. It was a great and productive conversation and he even put me in touch with a couple of other entrepreneurs from Kellogg including Matt from http://www.excelsisproducts.com/.
The meeting went mostly well until the last 30 seconds. Let me digress for a moment. Lately, I’ve been really clumsy and have been misjudging my special awareness. For example, a couple of weeks ago I ran right into a filing cabinet. I was fresh out of a meeting with my director that completely got derailed and I got no answers that I needed. Still distracted from the meeting, I ran right into the edge of this filing cabinet near my desk. I had skinned my wrist and had a bruise so large it looked like I had a baseball growing out of my bone but I didn’t even notice til several hours later. Three days later, I was chopping up some veggies and I sliced about a quarter inch right into my finger, through the nail! I had to wear a band-aid on this for a week because it kept bleeding. I’ve been walking into door frames, walls and the foot of my bed for about two weeks because my mind is so pre-occupied with what I’m going to do about my job situation. This all started when I placed an open 1 liter water bottle into my bag, after forgetting to close the top, which subsequently flooded my bag and broke my cell phone.
So now, back to the story – I’m sitting at the meeting table with Jonathan at his office. We’d just finished our discussion and I was packing up to leave. As I put my notebook into my bag I perched up on the edge of the leather rolling chair. All of a sudden – WHOOOOSH – the chair completely rolls out under me, flips forward so the legs face behind me and hits a bookshelf with the momentum of the fall. I, of course, land right on my ass on the concrete floor, hitting my head on the back of the chair and was completely dumfounded. Awesome way to end a meeting with someone you just met. I stood up, wiped off my butt and walked out like nothing happened. Then, I proceeded to laugh at myself the whole drive home and again when I recounted the story to Ernie.
Now, onto the product review. While in the factory for Element Bars, which are custom made energy bars, he shared with me a bar made of a datey core, chocolate chips, nuts and whey protein. I waited until later that weekend to try the bar and share it with Ernie. It was really tasty! Unlike normal energy bars, this one is custom made, hand molded and packaged in custom wrappers all right in Chicago. There aren’t any preservatives and doesn’t taste chalky, chewy and dusty like many other bars do. I’d highly recommend going onto the site to build your own custom 12 bars where you can start off with the core, add fruits, nuts, sweets and then a boost. Within a few days, the bars will arrive to your doorstep.
So now, back to the story – I’m sitting at the meeting table with Jonathan at his office. We’d just finished our discussion and I was packing up to leave. As I put my notebook into my bag I perched up on the edge of the leather rolling chair. All of a sudden – WHOOOOSH – the chair completely rolls out under me, flips forward so the legs face behind me and hits a bookshelf with the momentum of the fall. I, of course, land right on my ass on the concrete floor, hitting my head on the back of the chair and was completely dumfounded. Awesome way to end a meeting with someone you just met. I stood up, wiped off my butt and walked out like nothing happened. Then, I proceeded to laugh at myself the whole drive home and again when I recounted the story to Ernie.
Now, onto the product review. While in the factory for Element Bars, which are custom made energy bars, he shared with me a bar made of a datey core, chocolate chips, nuts and whey protein. I waited until later that weekend to try the bar and share it with Ernie. It was really tasty! Unlike normal energy bars, this one is custom made, hand molded and packaged in custom wrappers all right in Chicago. There aren’t any preservatives and doesn’t taste chalky, chewy and dusty like many other bars do. I’d highly recommend going onto the site to build your own custom 12 bars where you can start off with the core, add fruits, nuts, sweets and then a boost. Within a few days, the bars will arrive to your doorstep.
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