March 31st-Day 13

7:26 PM 


Pad Thai, Rice, Chicken, Dumplings, Beef 

Everybody got dressed up for the MAASU Banquet. Since there were 800 of us, it was really difficult to get food. It was buffet style and the lines were VERY long! 
It took us about an hour to wait for our food because we were in the back. My cousins were guest performers so they were able to get their food first, I was so jealous. I made about 5 trips back and forth to bug them for 
a little and I STILL didn't get my food :( 
But in the end I ended up getting it. Sad thing was that since we were at the end of the line we got smaller portions compared to everyone else. On the bright side though, the vegetarian line was short so I was able to snag some more food because I knew the people who were serving them ;) 

At the banquet, my cousins performed and did a fantastic job! All the girls were asking to take photos with them and I had to take at least 15 photos for the Two Bored Dorks and their fans, but it was nice to see them happy and taking pictures! :) 

March 30th-Day 12

6:08 PM


Casa Blanca-Curry


Every year, there is a big event called, MAASU which stands for Midwest Asian American Student Union. This program makes its way around all the Midwest states and has a conference. Luckily enough, for my first year, U of I was hosting it this year. About 800 students register for this conference. I volunteered to be a small group leader so I was in charge of about 15 students. We are in charge of our group and having reflections and small group talk, eating together, walking to the different conferences, etc. Most of the workshops were either hosted in DKH or Greg Hall. Anyways, Saturday is the big day with most of the workshops and on Friday there was a big variety show. My cousins that live in Hoffman were special performers for MAASU, they are the Two Bored Dorks. 
Before the show, I went to eat out with some of my co-workers (I work at Cocomero, the yogurt shop on Wright St.).
We went to Casablanca, it was my first time! As a Catholic, we are not allowed to eat meat on Friday's until Easter. To be honest, I was kind of bummed out because I love meat, but i felt guilty and selfish if I chose to eat meat on that day because I usually don't. For $10.99 to buy a dish that doesn't have meat, I was a bit skeptical about that; however, to my surprise, it was delicious! It's main base was mashed potatoes, and it was spicy. They handed out nyan bread to dip the curry in and it was SOOOOO good! I can't usually handle spicy foods, but it was really good, I loved it. I ate this right before heading off to the Variety Show. The show started at 7 so I had about an hour to eat it and get to the ARC. Needless to say, it was a great meal and a great show! :) 


I heard that their performance was phenomenal and I was bummed out that I couldn't see it because I had to work at 8PM. Other performers included Kelly Tsai, a spoken word poet, and Afterskool special, a rap group.  

March 28th-Day 11

5:38 PM 
Dorm Food-Asian Night at ISR 


Pork Dumplings, Beef & Broccoli, and Chop Chae 


Every Wednesday, ISR hosts an Asian night where they make asian food. They have Bing Su which is shaved ice, green tea ice cream, all different kinds of fruits, and red bean. Also, they have pho, which is a Vietnamese noodle dish. 
The korean version of dumpling is mandu, and it's my favorite food of all time! 


11:16 PM 
Late Night-Meatball Sub & Fries 



There was a craze about a show called, the Walking Dead. It's a show about zombies intertwined with drama. It's a great show, I just started watching it and it's pretty interesting. I will say though, it's not a good idea to eat and watch the show at the same time, it's absolutely disgusting! 

March 26th-Day 10

5:59 PM 


Dorm Food

This was my first time making a panini at ISR. I've always seen my friends make one, so I decided that I should make one for myself. I put turkey, sharp cheddar, tomato, and red peppers inside. I thought it was pretty good for my first time! My friend, Kim Mok, makes awesome panini's at ISR. 

March 25th-Day 9

10:11 PM 


Potbelly's - Tuna Sandwich 

After a good week of spring break, finally back on campus! However, I came back late, dorm food was not open, late night was closed, and most of the restaurants were closed at 10 PM. But my friends and I got lucky and luckily Potbelly's was open! 
Late-night dinner. My first time at Potbelly's, it's really good! 

March 24th-Day 8

12:06 PM 

Korean Food-Spicy Chicken & Beef 


One of my favorite dishes that my aunt makes really well is spicy chicken. This is one of the most popular authentic dishes in Korea. She has made this exact meal every time I have visited and really gives me a sense of being at home again. Spicy chicken is one of my favorites and makes me miss my mom's cooking all the time! Yum!! 




9:38 PM 

Homemade Boba bought from Asia Super


During Thanksgiving break, I stayed at my cousin's house. We are a big fan of milk tea and staying in the dorms has gotten me to be a little more creative with my drinks and foods. My friend taught me that if you mix a tea base drink with some milk, you can create a "milk tea". When I went to my cousin's house, I bought a jug of sweet tea (my favorite drink) and put some milk inside. I gave some to my cousin, Andy, and he was brilliantly amazed by its mixture. He was shocked by its simplicity and began making his own milk tea ever since.
For this spring break, we decided to take it a step further and added tapioca balls to our drink to make "bubble tea" We made our own bubble tea for a lot cheaper.
To make tapioca, all you have to do is soak it in sugar water for 5 minutes, and voila, your own bubble tea. 

March 23rd-Day 7

12:12 AM 


Los Burritos Papa Tios-Horchata 


After getting off the train, I was sad that I couldn't watch the Hunger Games midnight preview with my friends. My cousin, Brian wanted to cheer me up and bought me Horchata for the first time! 
My friend, Marz always talked about that drink and saying it was his favorite so I thought it would be interesting to try it out. It definitely was, it had a very refreshing, sweet, and cinnamon-like flavor to it. It was 24 oz. of sweet deliciousness! 




2:21 PM


Korean Food-Homemade Kimchi Stew 

After a long day of being in Downtown Chicago, I decided to stay home and study. I had three exams the week I come back to school so I figured it would be good to just stay home. It was leftover lunch so I just made some kimchi stew and mixed it with rice. 

March 22nd-Day 6

4:02 PM


Gino's East 

This was by the far the most fun day of Spring break. It was my first time going downtown, and it was with the people that mean the most to me. I took the train for the first time and my friend, Vince rode it with me. We left around 12 and got there at 1. We waited for our friends till about 2 and didn't get to Gino's East till about 2:30. We waited for our food for about an hour because deep dish takes about 40 minutes to an hour to make. It was my first "real" deep dish pizza. We ordered an appetizer, Spinach sticks (kind of like mozzarella sticks but with spinach instead) and two medium pizzas-supreme and Chicago Fire. I always knew that deep dish was really good because I heard about it, and I was really excited to eat it for the first time. The difference is is that the pizza is A LOT thicker because of its sausage base. It was absolutely delicious.  


*Fun fact: Gino's East was featured on the Food Network for the show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" 






 8:39 PM 


St. Alps Teahouse

After a long day of going to Millenium Park and the Navy Pier, we made one more last stop for a food run in Chinatown. St. Alps is known to have really good milk tea! Went to St. Alps Teahouse and ordered Matcha Bread (which is green tea powder bread) and hot milk tea. It was a nice bread & warm drink kind of meal. A good way to end the day on a small meal. 

March 21st-Day 5

3:20 PM 


Soba 

That day was SO hot..I want to say it was almost about 80 degrees. But what was worse was that I was indoors, no air conditioning, so it was definitely much hotter.
What's better than eating something cool on a hot day?


My aunt prepared soba which consists of a cold sauce base. You put brown noodles, slices of seaweed, and chopped onions. You can also put in ice cubes to make it cooler.
Mmmmm :) 

March 20th-Day 4

12:26 AM

Denny's Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Hush Puppies (2 servings) 


According to my cousin, Brian, it is a weekly thing where the church Sunday School teachers go out every Monday to go bowling. They divide into teams and whoever wins, doesn't have to pay for games and the other people would chip in to pay for their games. I decided to join in because I wanted to see the church staff and they are fun to be around with. To be honest, I am actually a terrible bowler. My first score was in the 80s, but finally by the end of the night, I broke my average and got 101 points. 
We played till about midnight and headed over to Denny's for a late night meal. At that time, the phone game, "Draw Something" was very popular at that time. Of course, everybody that I ate with had a smart phone so we all played Draw Something as we were waiting for our food. It was a good time, laughing at people's drawings, and trying to figure out what people were drawing. 


4:08 PM 


Portillo's Tuna Sandwich & Cheese Fries 


My cousin's friend, Clint was on Spring break as well and slept over at my cousin's house. 
The next day, we decided to have a "lazy" day where we do absolutely nothing. That day, there was a power outage for 2 hours. The TV was not working, the internet was down, and there was no light. My cousin has a lot of instruments at his house and we play all the same ones, piano, cello, drums, and guitar. Brian and Clint are the praise band leaders at church so Clint knows how to play the guitar as well. For about 2 hours, we had a "jam session" together and just hung out. It was a great lazy day, I needed one of those after too much excitement from school work, I just needed a break. 
After our jam session, we went to Portillo's again and I ordered their tuna sandwich ( i'm a really big fan of tuna) and their cheese fries was a MUST have because I did not order that last time, it was awesome. 

March 19th-Day 3

2:40 PM 

Korean Food-Rolls of eggs and vegetables together, Korean "pizza", Kimchi soup, Seaweed, and Rice. 

Being away from home, it's difficult to find authentic Korean food on campus. One thing that I miss the most is my mom's cooking. We didn't have Korean food everyday, but when we did, it was the best! Not being able to eat that here makes me really sad; however, my aunt's cooking is just as good too. Coming home to Hoffman, I can always count on my aunt to make delicious Korean food! Although I only get it every so often or whenever I visit, I still appreciate what she makes and get really excited because she knows how much I love her Korean food. I'm grateful for having my aunt make me these foods while I'm here.

These are just some basic Korean dishes. The literal translation is "egg rolls" but it's not the egg rolls that people may think. Inside of the egg, there are vegetables inside such as carrots and onions. Korean pizza is also a reference to dough that mixes in with onions as well and is "flat" like a pizza. Kimchi soup is a very popular dish in the Korean culture. It is very spicy and is made in a "hot stone" bowl which keeps the soup warm for a long period of time. 

March 18th-Day 2

3:22 AM

White Castle Crave Case (30 inside) 


I visited my cousin's family my junior year of high school. In California, we don't have a White Castle, only ones they sell in packages at the grocery market, which isn't the same experience. One night, I was really really hungry at 3 in the morning and my whole family was still awake. After a long night of playing family games, the only place that was open was White Castle. At 3 in the morning, we all decided to buy a crave case which consists of 30 burgers and we ate it all. Ever since then, it has been a tradition for us to eat White Castle late at night as a whole family for fun. Before my aunt and uncle were departing for Arizona, we bought one crave castle for the family to eat. White Castle tastes even better late at night! :) 




7:51 PM 


Weber Grill- New York Steak (16 oz) 

Going back to when I first visited Chicago my junior year of high school, my cousin took me around Champaign to visit the school. There, he introduced me to his friends, Nathan, Lee, Swetha & Dharani (they are twins). I thought it would be just a one time introduction because we just had lunch together once and I wasn't sure if I was going to go this school or not. Anyways, I had lunch with them at Flattop and just asked them a bunch of questions about this school. At that time, Swetha was AAA President, the club that I am now currently involved in. It was a pure coincidence that I now go to this school and am an active member in this club. After all these years, I still see Nathan whom I thought I would never see again. He lives in Chicago and during my spring break, he decided to visit me and my cousin and we ate at Weber Grill together. It was nice getting back together with both of them because they are best friends and are definitely a funny bunch together. We each ended up ordering the same thing, 16 oz of New York Steak, and we finished ALL of it :) 
We each ordered soup, their bread was absolutely delicious and soft, and their steak was even better. It was a nice catch-up dinner and had the biggest food baby for a long time. 

March 17th-Day 1

2:37 PM 

Portillo's Italian Beef 

It's the beginning of Spring Break!! After a long bus ride back to Hoffman Estates, I have finally reached my destination, my aunt's house. Since I live in California, and spring break is only a week, as much as I wanted to go home, the plane tickets were too expensive. However, it's okay because staying in Hoffman still gives me a chance to still see my friends and spend time with my cousins and aunt. My bus was very early so I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast. It was nice coming back and getting a fast to-go. This is actually my first time eating Portillo's. The sandwich was wet because it was soaked in au jus sauce, and there were peppers inside, with a side of fries, it was DELICIOUS!! 

When I came "home" my cousin's friends from church, Eddie and Clint were there so I got to say hi to them, and my aunt & uncle from Arizona flew into Chicago as well so I got a nice welcoming back home :) 

6:21 PM

Crazy Sushi-Dragon Roll, Hawaiian Roll, Spicy Tuna, Crunch Roll, and more!  

This dinner was absolutely epic. There were 6 of us, me, my two cousins, my two aunts, and uncle. We went to visit my uncle's grave before my aunt flew back to Arizona, her and her husband wanted to say bye one last time before they fly back. After we said our prayers, we headed out to my aunt's friend's all-you-can-eat sushi bar. My two cousins, Andy and Brian, as well as my Uncle Rick, and I uphold the reputation of eating the most in our family. We definitely took advantage of all-you-can-eat and had 27 rolls of sushi all together.