Trippin': Chicago - EYE

While in cab heading down State St toward downtown, we passed by Pritzker Park and right smack dab in the middle of the park was this HUGE sculpture of an eyeball. I said WOW and we MUST come back. After lunch, we walked around the shops in the area and made our way towards the eyeball. The sculpture is called EYE, by Tony Tasset. I love larger than life art! I would suggest that you stop by and give it a stare but this art installation supposedly only last until the end of October. My sister saw these EYE fotos on my laptop and said she saw this sculpture in St. Louis. I wonder where it will end up next? Houston?

Restaurant: Banana Leaf

9889 Bellaire Blvd, #311
Houston, TX 77036

We met up with mini and cooper at banana leaf one early afternoon. Big poppa and I arrived first and got a table at the back of the restaurant and stupidly decided to sit with our backs to the door. The sun was bright outside so I didn't want my fotos turning out all dark. Twenty minutes passed and there was still no sign of mini and cooper. It was really odd cos they're usually pretty punctual and would have texted or called if they were running late. I am super ANTI calling people and going WHERE U AT but it was getting to the point where that was necessary. I texted mini to let her know that we had gotten a table already. Two second later mini and cooper are standing at out table cos they had been sitting at another table this whole time! Haha. They hadn't noticed us cos we had our backs to the door. They figured that we would have been smart enough to sit facing the door. But. We weren't. Haha. We were both so hungry that each of us had ordered the roti canai. It was really good. I can't remember if Straits was better. It might have been. Everything we ordered was really good. Especially the tofu dish we had. Their tofu is made in house! Mini and cooper liked it so much that they went back that night for dinner or maybe it was the weekend after. Big poppa and I just went back again this past weekend.

Food in order of appearance:
malaysian ice coffee
roti canai
sizzling malaysian style bean curd
white rice and hainanese rice
young chow fried rice
stir-fried flat noodle
hainanese chicken

Trippin': Chicago - M Burger

One place prolly not worth trying would be M Burger. Big poppa and were walking along the magnificent mile and passed by this place that was packed with people. And all I think when I see a burger place is ooohh yuummmm I wanna try. On our last day there, we initially hoped to try out one of Rick Bayless's eateries before we left but both of his restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, are closed on Mondays, which also happened to be our last day in Chicago. Bah! Why couldn't they be like asians and close on TUESDAYS?!? Rick Bayless, btw, was the winner of Top Chef Masters, Season 1. As we thought about what to do next, I remembered M Burger and left no room for any other option. Not remembering exactly where is was located, we trolled around town until we finally found with the help of kind Chicagoans. The place was really busy but the lines moved quick and the people at the counter were super duper nice. We made small talk. I can't remember if they gave us anything free or not. Maybe not. Sometimes my charming chatter will result in something free. Haha. The food was okay. I guess when you think about places like Shake Shack in NYC, this place really didn't stand a chance. At least my chicken was all natural.

Musik Mundi: Goldfrapp

I've got my most likely one and only snowboard trip booked for the season! Another year, another mountain. So excited but trying not to be cos we all know what happens to me when I become excited about going boarding. Anyways. So what song comes to mind as I think about waking up with the fresh mountain air and the anticipation of falling flat on my face in the snow? That would Alive by Goldfrapp. Goldfrapp is one of the first trip-pop (now referred to as electro-pop) artists I started listening to way back in college so it's awesome that they're still making musik that I actually want to put on my playlist. Okay dokay. Back to studying trail maps.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Goldfrapp
Album: Head First (2010)
Song: Alive