Saturday, August 24, 2013
Slept in. Quick breakfast: one italian plum, corn flakes with lowfat milk. Brown Line to The Loop with Jaime and Matt. Had some difficulty finding Chicago Water Taxi. Took the water taxi to Chinatown, $10 each for an all-day pass. We arrived very late to lunch at Cai (312-326-6888, 2100 S. Archer, Chicaco, Illinois) with Paco, Anna, Gabby, Diana, Jaime, and Matt. We talked about Moodle, Drupal, Calatrava, Firefox OS. Service at Cai was mostly poor; twice I helped myself to a nearby stock of items like disposable chopsticks, napkins, etc. because servers ignored our table for long periods. Some interesting touches with the cuisine here: the potstickers are fried once on top and again on the bottom making them crispier than normal and I liked this; one dish I've never had before: a vegetarian egg roll rolled in rice noodle provided an interesting contrast of textures and I do not recall seeing this dish anywhere else; peanuts in the sticky rice with chinese sausage were perfectly roasted—very crisp. Recommended, but expect poor service. In this restaurant if you want a fortune cookie, pick it up from the large bowl at the cashier; it is not served to you. My fortune: Executive ability is prominent in your make up. Lucky # 7, 10, 25, 28, 53, 23. Afterwards some of us got dessert at a nearby bakery/cafe: a smoothie for Matt, custard tarts for Anna and Paco. We visited the Nine Dragons Wall, then returned to The Loop via water taxi along with Paco, Anna, and Diana. We walked to Trump Tower where we failed getting seated at The Terrace due to a 90-minute wait. Instead we walked to Holiday Inn Cityscape Bar for drinks, meeting Gabby (who drove) and Danny. Jaime, Matt, and I tried taking the Brown Line but failed due to no funds on Jaime's card and no way to reload it at the station at which we were. Walked to another station. Red Line to Belmont. Walked to Sidetrack in Boystown. I checked my backpack, and we had drinks, chatting with Chad and Ander, both from Michigan State. Dinner with Jaime and Matt at Pingpong: complimentary shrimp chips and cold hand towel, a Shanghai Jazz for Matt, sushi and summer roll for Jaime, tofu and vegetables for Matt, a different tofu and vegetables dish for me. For dessert we shared a Great Wall Brick. Complimentary chocolate-dipped fortune cookies. We were so full, but we ate them anyway. My fortune: "It is quality rather than quantity that matters. Do a good job." Service was very good, cuisine was excellent. I recommend it. $85.10 after a $12 tip. Back to Sidetrack so that I could retrieve my backpack. We rode a cab to Big Chicks where we got drinks and danced. We rode a cab back to Jaime and Matt's place. To bed very late. One of our possible plans today was an LGBT night at a Chicago White Sox game but we ended up not going.