Mundane:
I went to work today, still feeling a bit under the weather, but today was a low-key day - we were out of the office at a retreat in downtown Chicago. Lunch was at Food Life in the Water Tower Place, one of my favorite places to grab lunch in downtown Chicago. After we were done, I hopped a bus and landed at home in 15 minutes, whereupon Christmas came early, as two of my dearest friends sent unexpected Christmas gifts our way. Afterward, our weekly dinner date, at Thai Binh.

Thai Binh is definitely one of our favorite restaurants on Argyle - and not necessarily because of the food, but because of the atmosphere. It’s an awkwardly decorated restaurant, with posters of Vietnamese singers (including one who looks like a mix between Lionel Ritchie and Eriq LaSalle in Coming to America) and the Chicago Bulls, with a huge wide-screen TV propped up on three milk crates in the corner. We have been to the restaurant about three or four times, spaced out fairly evenly throughout the last year and a half, and the pre-teen daughter who comes and takes our order and chats animatedly with us keeps on growing and changing. The last time we went to Thai Binh, she pulled up a chair and asked us to help her edit a contest essay sponsored by the local Rotary. She asked us because she remembered the last time we were there, she saw my school ID card and talked about how excited she was to do a campus tour of my school. We found out today that she now has braces and also won that contest, plus a $25 prize. Her little brother, under 10, seated us, handed us our menus brusquely, and served us tea, all with grunting minimally. Their father (presumably the chef) came and gave us our bill at the end of our meal.

This type of family effort and camaraderie is just not something you find in Chili’s. Days like today, when it’s cold as hell outside and all you want to do is curl up with comfort food, are days when I feel grateful to live near family, even if they’re not mine.

***

Good things for today:
- A huge baked potato with the works from Food Life;
- A wild berry smoothie from Food Life as well;
- Christmas a week early from my friends. I am now well stocked in Hello Kitty goods!
- I have fresh bananas and grapes and apples to last me snack-wise throughout the rest of the next five days
- A quick bus ride (15 minutes! Yay!)
- Josh got a raise today at his 3 month review. Woo!
- Josh also got straight As for his first semester at grad school. I am so proud of him.

Crappy things for today:
- I chipped my front tooth today.

That’s that!

Friday night, Josh made spaghetti squash with red clam sauce. Back in 2003 when I was diagnosed with diabetes for the first time, he set about discovering different meals that would be tasty, filling, and healthy for me. In his search, he discovered spaghetti squash. It’s a miracle melon - in the winter, we eat it all the time. This time, he made a red clam sauce, with sauteed green bell peppers (which was marvelous). Other times we make it, I brown some hot italian sausage in with some tomato sauce or crushed red tomatoes. Yummy, yummy.

Saturday for lunch, we visited Tank Noodle, our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Their menu is wide and varied, and what we like the most, cheap. We got an appetizer, two drinks, huge entrees, and spent $20. Rock on. I got pho with all of the fixings Josh is squeamish about - tripe, tendon - and Josh got a fried noodle with eggroll and shrimp dish. Yum.

Later on for dinner, in a fit of mediocre experimentation, I browned about a pound of beef with taco seasoning (well, as much of it as we could find - we bought a packet at the grocery but can’t find it anymore so I improvised with a 1/4 packet we had left over and some extra seasoning from our spice shelf) and stuffed them into hollowed out green bell peppers, and sprinkled with cheese. The results were tasty, but awkward and the tastes were just there - they didn’t seem to compliment each other, nor were they hideous. So, mediocre.

Today, our lunch was at the movies, where we watched the Chronicles of Narnia movie. I had nachos and gross cheese; Josh popcorn. So healthy. Dinner was black bean soup - with quadruple the recommended garlic and dried red chili pepper. What’s great is that it’ll be even tastier tomorrow. I can’t wait.

I love to eat, in case you didn’t notice. When we plan our vacations, we plan a sensible order of dining establishments, as much as possible, so we can make sure we satisfy every tastebud in a reasonable order. When we planned our honeymoon, we marked in our guidebook the restaurants we wanted to hit, and carefully orchestrated our digestive vacation. Yummy.

In chatting with Cyn, I searched for the name of the restaurant Josh took me to for my birthday dinner, and found this link to the most highly rated sushi joints in Chicago. I see this as less of a “best of” list and more of a “to do” list, if this gives you any idea as to how very much I like sushi.

The other day at work, we talked about what kinds of foods we liked and I thought to myself, “Man, there is very little in the way of food that I don’t like.” I love Japanese, Chinese (picky here - only love my grandma’s food because all else is horrifically unauthentic, except for dim sum. Love dim sum!), Korean, Italian, French, Greek, Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai, German - you name it, I’ll probably like it. One of the things I love most about living in Chicago is that I have yet to want for good food. If I have a yearning for chorizo, there’s a great place right down the street from us that serves a mean breakfast with ground chorizo. If I want some fresh and tender fatty salmon, raw, there are at least three places in the vicinity that can calm that urge.

Social scenes for us revolve around food. When we plan vacations, we plan out what to do around what restaurants we can go visit. When we invite people over, it’s for dinner or a potluck or out to eat at a new restaurant where we can gnosh and catch up on each others’ lives.

Mmm. Food.