Cup of Joe

In every part of town, there's always a hidden gem where the people make a work of art. They have learned their craft and execute it with beauty and warming the bellies and hearts of the fortunate ones who get to indulge in it. It's these type of places that make a particular neighborhood unique and one of a kind.

The Coffee House
I feel that the simply coffee house has been lost in many ways. As a ex-barista, I will say that the art of coffee making isn't being cherished as much as it should be. Yes, I never knew anything about coffee before or even after I worked at Starbucks in a Target. Coffee was simply some delicious bitter, sweet, and creamy liquid you would either get at Starbucks or Dounkin' Donuts. The turning of age liquid that was only for adults or the life saving elixir as you're craming in a few more hours of studying. Such a shame that for 4 years of my college life I never fully experienced coffee the way it should be.

Who knew that a simple mug filled with milk, espresso, and spices can brighten up anyone's day? (even if it's a sunny one already)

Ipsento

I was so delighted to have finally found a coffee house in my neighborhood that is a true gem and understands what a good cup of joe means. It's rare to find shops where you can order a simple cup or joe or a house speciality served in ceramic cups where not one looks the same. Where the barista makes a work of art as they create a beautiful design on top making the coffee even more enticing to drink.
I've tried making these fun designs when I work at Starbucks back in the day, it's not easy.

My Favs below:
Ipsento latte - a blend of coconut milk and milk with honey and cayenne.
The flavoring and slight kick from the cayenne is out of this world!

Nutella mocha - a mocha with a nutella twist
You had me at Nutella. 

To top it off, the sandwiches are delicious as well. A perfect accompaniment to your coffee.

Bucktown/Wicker Park Eats

Slowly making my way to various restaurants and eateries in around my new place in Bucktown and Wicker Park. As you can clearly see below, I do love breakfast. :)

Entrance to Bongo Room - Third attempt I was finally able to eat there!!

White chocolate and berries pancake - oooooh so good!

Omelet and Potatoes (can't quite remember what was in there... but it was good!)

Well this place is in Logan Square, but cutest presentation ever! Heart chicken in this delicious spicy tomato sauce accompanied with pesto mashed potatoes.

Francesca's Forno - Brunch

Who knew that they also had delicious brunch. This was quite an interesting breakfast, think it'd better as an appetizer, but man it sure was good.

Egg, melted cheese, spinach, in a nice creamy sauce topped on truffle oiled crusty bread -- mmm mmm good.

And to top it off with a mimosa. Good Sunday morning!

Brunch, what a beautiful thing.

So with my lovely senior corps family, we had our last SCM brunch this afternoon. Our year as the leaders of the corps at City Year has become stronger as we bonded a couple of time each month, typically the after we received our pay checks, over a nice plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast. This again shows my love for breakfast. It truly is the best type of food, ever!
We choose a nice place up north called, Glenn's diner, right off the Montrose Brown line stop. I loved the decor of the place, as it didn't represent the typical diner atmosphere. A fun large smiling mouth sign indicating the patio seating, large blackboards all over the place indicating house specialities, paintings from local art studios, a fun painting matching zodiac signs to at cereal, and the lovely cereal wall as a backdrop to top it off.
It's fun and crazy how simple decor can help bring you back to your childhood memories. As we waited for our food, seeing various cereals helped spark our memories of old kids shows. We reminisced about nickelodeon, tgif, abc saturday mornings. Of the shows that we remember waking up early to watch like doug, rugrats and others that were truly out of this world, goosebumps. We all were happy to be an 80's baby as we got grow up with the "coolest" tv shows, books, and fads.
Honestly the food was alright, minus the potatoes pancakes, those were delectable. But I've learned from plenty of times, it's the people you eat with that makes the meal even better.

Childhood Memories

It only makes sense to start first with breakfast and secondly with a childhood memory. I remember having sleep overs in elementary school where 8 girls crowd downstairs all snuggled with inside their sleeping bags after a fun filled day of giggling, watching disney movies, making up silly choreography to pop songs, and tease each other about our crushes in school. But the best part was waking up the next morning to the delicious smell of sugar and cinnamon. I love going to my friends house and goofing around but I will say one of the specialities was getting to eat Monkey Bread in the morning. Being a taiwanese girl, living with a taiwanese mom, you will never get to eat something like that. Sugar in the morning, WHAT?
My eyes would widen as I saw a large heaping mound of gooey goodness. What was even better was that you didn't need utencils. With 8 eager girls, all grabbing all small bites of biscuits, this could make any girl wake up early in the morning.

Sadly, my first attempt didn't live up to my fond memories of Monkey bread but it wasn't bad either. Practice round, and next time I'll learn to always set a timer. Something which I'm poor at... Next time!