Credit to a Toyota billboard, seen along the highway to O'Hare airport, for today's post title, and because in real life, this filet mignon with shrimp from Chicago Cut Steakhouse was much tastier than I can make it look or sound on this blog:

Also, I almost forgot to take a photo of it, and it's already half gone...

This was by far the best steak I had while in Chicago this week. The server was very enthusiastic about how well the meat was aged, and I'm pretty sure they said 30 days... Or was it 28?



Regardless of how long the meat's been aged or treated, it was very juicy. They somehow trapped all of that juice in the meat, while cooking it to a perfect medium rare, the way I prefer it. I mean, look how dry that plate in the photo above looks.

My favourite part about this dish was that even though the menu said 8oz filet mignon with shrimp, the server agreed to get me a 6oz instead, seeing as I didn't want to waste any of it. Not that I would've been able to tell whether it'a 6 or 8, because if it was more than 6, I still would've eaten it all. It was all in the way the order was taken, and how the service made the meal a completely different experience.

We had a few sides to share, and they kindly plated it for us - brussel sprouts, mac and cheese,  and I think it was scalloped potatoes. I don't think I would've remembered to try the sides, if they did not put it on a side plate for me, because we were all busy chatting and catching up.

Finally, dessert to really make it difficult for us to fit into our trade show pants the next day. Key lime pie was on the menu again, and unlike the one from the night before at Joe's, this one was just the right firmness! You'll also catch a glimpse of the mint gelato in the background, which N ordered, and we all stole a bite. The server slipped us a piece of the carrot cake as well, because he really wanted us to try their house special carrot cake. No complaints.

Hands down, best steakhouse in my life so far. Don't be intimidated by the side entrance, which might be a bit secluded and difficult to get to right now; for whatever reason, they have some strange fences that surround the entry way.

Chicago Steakhouse Tour 2019:
1. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab
2. Chicago Cut Steakhouse
3. Shula's

On one of the last days of Automate, it was P and I left in Chicago from our team, and we had no choice but to finish off the trip with steak. Out of convenience, we stepped into Shula's, right at the entrance of the Sheraton Grand, where we were staying: 

This time, I had the 8oz filet mignon, and added a side of sauteed spinach (you can see the plate of greens, right next to the glass of red wine in the photo above).



Honestly, this place didn't really stand out, neither good nor bad. The server did not go over how many days their beef is aged, so just with this tiny detail, it was clear that this place was not as high end as the previous two steakhouses. The prices were still exorbitantly high, being that it's part of the Sheraton. I don't usually expect too much from hotel restaurants, although there was one place in Burlington that was a good find (maybe I'll write more about this in the future)... Hotels are a place for sleeping, not really for eating!

Bonus for the stiff drinks that they serve here though.

Final note to close off this series of Chicago steakhouse posts is to remember to eat vegetables, because health is wealth. Many reminders of this have popped up throughout this month, with a few trips to the hospital (not for me), and a few stiff knees/leg cramps post standing for long periods of time. I was also very tired of digesting all the red meat during this week, and came back to Vancouver craving a fresh smoothie. Anybody care for a walk to Whole Foods with me?

Chicago Steakhouse Tour 2019:
1. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab
2. Chicago Cut Steakhouse
3. Shula's

Last week, I left on a red eye to visit Disney World in Florida for P’s bachelorette, part 1.

We flew with United, who does not have the best reputation for customer service (referring to man who got dragged off the flight a couple of months back), so I was not surprised when one of the staff on the ground checking us in gave us more attitude than an angsty teenage girl who just got dumped. Our layover in Chicago was only about an hour, and the flight was delayed by just over 15 minutes. Considering that we had to go through customs on the Chicago side, United wanted to put us on a later flight for our 2nd flight from Chicago to Orlando. Of course we said no, because we already had tickets to go to the Magic Kingdom right after landing in the morning, and we made the unanimous decision to run from the first gate to our second boarding gate at Chicago. One of the ground crew checking us in was kind enough to offer swapping our seats to the extra leg room seats, right up front, for no extra charge, but when we got to the actual gate and asked about it, another rude United woman bluntly said that it would cost us $60 to upgrade, and that it didn’t matter if those seats stayed empty, the flight attendants might pull out a POS machine and charge us for the seat change. We tried to explain the whole situation to her, of having the short layover, and that it wasn’t our fault the flight was delayed, which might cause us to not make it on the 2nd plane. She would not budge though on the charges. When H tried to ask for her name, she rudely said, with a snide smile, “You don’t need to know my name.”

Luckily, when we went back to the gate a few minutes later, to verify the gate of the 2nd flight, another ground crew member empathized with us enough to switch our seats at no cost, and we arrived at Orlando in time to make our Magic Express bus seat reservation and enter Magic Kingdom by 11AM.

Our schedule was jam packed with rides, seeing shows, and meeting Disney characters. There was some time for snacking:

Mickey pretzel with cheese dip: VERY salty, but once started eating, cannot stop stuffing face with soft pretzel dipped in (VERY SALTY) creamy cheese sauce. Would try to purchase cheese dip separately to take home for mac and cheese.

Dole whip: Refreshing pineapple flavored soft serve, found at all 4 parks (I think). Watch each of the servers at different stands dispense this from their Dole whip machine. Some servers make bigger swirls.

Turkey leg: Flavorful turkey meat, tastes smokey and very tender, falls off the bone. Carrying this around may cause caveman-like behavior. I wanted a 2nd one, but could not find it at the Hollywood park. Apparently only Magic Kingdom and Epcot serve this massive leg of meat now.



Pasta at Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar: We tried to get into Tutto Italia at Epcot, but the hostess told me they were all booked up and that reservations were always required. Not sure if true that they’re all booked, maybe it was because I was dressed in ratty shorts and a tank top, and they had a dress code. We went next door to the more relaxed Tutto Gusto, where luckily, we were seated right away. The server was very friendly and congratulated P on her upcoming marriage. We had the lasagna and the spaghetti and meatballs, shared between the 4 of us. This normally would not have been enough food for me, I admit I’m gluttonous, but after tasting the snacks at each of the different countries around the park all day, I had enough of eating. Despite having very little appetite though, the pasta here was amazing, and we cleaned the plates off.



We also had a bunch of other foods at Disney, but these were some of the most memorable. The Disney standard applies even to their food!

Click here to read about P’s bachelorette, part 2.

This week will probably be the longest of 2019. I'll try to remember only the happy moments, which on this trip in Chicago revolved around steakhouses. Starting with the first night at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab:

I had the 8z filet mignon, medium rare, as I usually like. For sides, we had the sauteed spinach, broccolini, and the Lyonnaise potatoes (seen above the steak in the photo to the top). For dessert, we had to order the key lime pie, in honor of D, who could not make it for his own legitimate reasons:

Everything was just good enough, but not spectacular. The server came by and was very good at introducing the menu, told us about how their beef is prepared, and I should note the number of days that the meat is aged next time, but if my memory is correct, I believe she mentioned that it was between 30 and 40 days.  My medium rare steak was closer to medium rare plus, which is a term that I was reminded of on this trip, referring to steak that is just slightly more cooked than medium rare, but just below medium (it's all in the temperature control). 

Not only that, it was a tad dry and chewy, but hey, I was still able to eat the whole chunk of meat.

The sides were fair. Being the first time that I tried Lyonnaise potatoes, I didn't really know what to expect, but basically, they were large pieces of hashbrown with onions and gravy on top. Not sure if I'd order this again for dinner, because hashbrowns are a breakfast food in my mind.

The key lime pie was not too impressive, based on the ones that I've had before. I prefer a firmer texture and this one was already melting on the plate.

Walking around the windy city reminded me of how fortunate I am to be here, living in a 1st world country and doing the job that I have. Although it was a difficult week, we're blessed with an abundance of food and drink, and I'm grateful for the opportunities around me. I hope to be able to hire a robot to do everything that I don't want to do, like putting together trade show demos.

Chicago Steakhouse Tour 2019:
1. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab
2. Chicago Cut Steakhouse
3. Shula's

Today’s Negative Juju (in RED) vs Positive Vibes Brought to Me By:

1. Noticed 2 charges to my credit card on my online statement that I didn’t make - $500 at BestBuy, $200 at Newegg. WTF?! Somebody stole my info!

2. Spent what felt like hours trying to figure out the automated system for RBC.

3. RBC Customer Service is pretty awesome! I’ll be getting a new card before I leave for Chicago, and the charges will be waived!

4. Found the new rose gold necklace that I lost yesterday. Woot woot!

5. It was like a party in the hot room before we started class – there were 2 girls who would not stop chatting, not even whispering, and they were so loud the whole room echoed. We don’t want to hear about all the hikes you plan on doing. So rude. After they stopped, another pair of girls started whispering and somebody SHHHH-ed them. They kindly stopped. I guess the 1st pair of girls would’ve been too loud to hear the SHHHH, if anybody even tried.

6. Class was great. I released all my inner angst while warrior posing and falling over my balancing poses.

7. Came home, cooked, baked, and ate. Researched sunscreen. Don’t get anything with oxybenzone, and Neutrogena ain’t so great. Source: EWG

8. Decided to try Juice Beauty (wyneth Paltrow is the creative director of Makeup for this brand), and they sell it at Whole Foods around Vancouver. H sent me a 15% discount code to purchase over the web instead <3

9. I don’t have my credit card so cannot purchase online right away… My face needs SPF protection NOW!

5 Positives and 4 Negatives.All these first world problems. I think it’s still a good “me” day overall, and I’m almost ready for the upcoming week. 

The day right after the Last Fling Before the Ring was my 6AM flight to Austin, Texas. Yay, work travel (not.) It was my first time down to that Southern tip of the US, and I expected it to be huge, but apparently, this was the "small" part of the state. With less than 1 million citizens, the city is still growing and sprawling over the hills. 

I landed at 2PM, was at the customer's door by 3PM, and after that, I was starving. Good thing III Forks was just around the corner from where we were staying.

I had enough of steak houses, but P was into it, so we went to a restaurant that specializes in beef, and I had seafood. This was the halibut on a bed of risotto, one of their specials that day. A server also came by with a large platter of tomatoes, (by large, I mean probably the size of a small coffee table) and asked if we wanted a few slices to go with our meal. I needed vegetables, and so that's why there are 3 slices of tomatoes behind the little hill of food. 

Bread is a defining part of the meal. This was crispy on the outside, sweet chewy bread on the side. Give us more butter please!

P had a Prime New York steak, which came in a healthy serving size of 16 oz. I think the server mentioned it was 28 days wet aged? Not what I'm used to hearing, after all the dry aged beef back in Chicago just a month ago. 

Really though, it was the promise of chocolate cake for dessert that I agreed to come to this steakhouse. They had a chocolate cake with coconut flakes just along the back of the cake. Not too into coconut, so P ate that part for me. It was just what was needed to round off my day. 

There were a couple of other places that might be worth a mention from this trip to Silicon Hills, so I might hop in with another post in the near future. The tech industry seems to be booming (er... echoing?) in the gentle hills of this neighborhood. Not a bad place to set up shop for a little while, but there's no place like home. I also did not have enough time to find a good coffee shop in Texas, but next time... I'll be back for you, hipster coffee shops in Austin!

Pizza during the COVID-19 pandemic: 

We were close to Papa John's, and picked this up for lunch at home. There's an online ordering system to create your own pizza, which seems pretty standard these days for most pizza joints. Choose your toppings, and here's a large pizza for $15! 

There's a fair selection of toppings, crusts, and sauces to go through, and all of them are pretty standard, like the ham and sausage that we added to our pizza. It's not deep dish pizza from Chicago, but add on the extra sauce, and it'll do for now. Also, I didn't expect too much, and it was easy for them to go above and beyond. 

For future reference, they carry Pepsi products, so if you've got a hankering for a diet Coke, it's not happening.

I was going to call it a "quick" lunch, but there's more time now to slow down since there aren't as many places to go to, appointments to keep, people to see. Just removing commute time (e.g. 45 minutes to get to work, and another same chunk of time to get back) has saved so many hours for all the things I've wanted to do for so long. Also, social distancing has released my inner introvert that I've tried to bury for so long. Really having the time of my life right now.

Also also, I'M HAVING A BABY SOON. Construction in progress...

What better way to wind down on a Friday evening than drinks at home?


Some people might disapprove of drinking alone, but I did open this with my family near me and poured them a little bit before coming back into my room to put this together.

Cracked open this Chocolate Milk Stout from Hearthstone Brewery (brewery in North Vancouver! Support the locals!), and slapped on a mask. AQ got me the Origins Bests – Mask Trio for Christmas, and I just got a chance to use the Clear Improvement mask:

Dries pretty fast. Feels nice, skin was smooth after. I might get this again, if there’s a sale. It’s only $31, but I’d rather try out some other masks (Glamglow???)


Here’s a bonus from the week. Popbar at Metrotown opened! I tried the matcha bar with dark chocolate dipped in hazelnuts:

Almost $6 for this little bit of sugar. Wouldn’t purchase again, even though it tasted good, it’s just not worth it.

I'm starting to feel more comfortable about the recent changes at the company. This week has been quite hectic, Traveling again in a month – Chicago! Any suggestions for places to visit/avoid?

Visited the London Heritage Farm for tea right after brunch at OEB with mum and the bridesmaids, with the excuse of checking out the venue, but mostly for the pastries. It was also Mother's Day weekend, so the tea room was quite busy, and we were lucky to be able to get a table. This is not a place for those who are in a rush to eat and get out, but it's a cozy spot to enjoy the heritage decor and chat.

We ordered the Afternoon Tea, which included the scones on the bottom layer of the tier, a bite size cheese cake, a shortbread cookie, and a very sweet brownie. The scones were warm and served with cream, butter, and strawberry jam, which was delicious. My favourite was the cheesecake, and I passed on the brownie (too sweet). I'm not a tea connoisseur, so I can only guess that they served us Orange Pekoe or English Breakfast. 

We spent a good 2 hours at that little table, and then another hour afterwards wandering around the gardens outside. There are many wedding details to discuss, and an excessive amount of tasks remaining on the To Do list.

Where will the guests park?

Which direction will the bride come from?

What is the lighting situation once the sun sets?

Finally, how will Isabelle's Bridal learn that customer service is extremely important?

I picked up my wedding dress (still hard to believe it's actually in my closet right now) right before this tea break, and let me tell you, it was stressful. I had originally picked out this dress and paid the deposit at the beginning of August, more specifically Aug. 4th, 2018.

At that time, I was told the dress would arrive in 6 months, so I patiently waited for my phone to ring at the beginning of February 2019. February came and passed, and March was almost over when I gave up on waiting, and picked up the phone to follow up. When they answered the phone, the person who picked up had some difficulty finding the information for my dress and placed me on a brief hold. The person who continued the conversation was, I believe, one of the owners, as I recognized their voice from meeting them while visiting in August 2018. She told me that the dress was on its way, and that it usually takes about 6 to 8 months to arrive.

I was pretty sure she had originally mentioned 6 months, but no problem, perhaps I had misheard the lead time. There was still plenty of time, as the Isabelle's Bridal representative kindly reminded me, before my September wedding. I continued waiting, and life got busy in April with travelling and picking out caterers, bridesmaids dresses, decor, so I forgot about this whole ordeal.

I came back from Chicago, waited a week, and it was now the end of April, which would be 8 months from the original time of ordering. I called again.

This time, one of the owners picked up again (Basha or Kasha, I cannot recall their names now, but that was how she answered when she picked up the phone), and I asked once again for the status of my dress. The owner then curtly replied, "Please don't call us on a weekend, as we are very busy with fittings. We do not have time to check the status. Email us."

Click. She hung up.

I was quite surprised with this treatment. They seemed so sweet and polite and helpful in store, when I paid the first down payment, so this type of response came as a shock. I started assuming that perhaps they're going out of business, and that they would be running away with my $1000+ payment for the deposit, and that I would never receive the dress from them afterall! Why would they become so rude and defensive, when all I wanted to know was when the dress would actually arrive, so that I could plan accordingly for alterations and tailoring?

I refused to email them, and called back on a weekday at the end of April/beginning of May.

This time, another one of the owners picked up, and she told me that the dress had shipped and was on its way. She also said, "Please don't call us again, we'll let you know when it's here. You still have lots of time before your wedding in September. There's May, June, July, August, lots of time."

Well, they're not smart enough to figure out customer service, but at least they know the basics of counting and the months of the year.

Anyways, they finally called me a week after that, on the afternoon of May 8th, literally just as I was drafting an angry email to them to ask for another update. During this last phone call, I was told that I had 10 days to pay off the rest of the balance, and either I could book a time to come in, or give them my credit card information over the phone. I told them that I didn't have time to come in, the timing was just not the best, since I had travel plans coming up and other events on my calendar already.  She snidely remarked, "Oh, but you were so eager to get the dress and called us about it so many times."

I asked to speak with their Accountants directly to ask for an extension of the payment period, after the owner mentioned that their Accounting team would be the ones who would need the payment within 10 days for the invoicing, but I was told that the accountants are unavailable for a phone conversation. Lying about the existence of an accounting team?

Luckily, I was able to squeeze in an appointment that weekend, right in between the OEB event and London Heritage Farm. The dress arrived in good condition, but I would not strongly advise to setay away from them. For all the future brides out there, don't let their cheap dresses and fake kindness trick you into buying one of their dresses. Once you pay that deposit, you're not even worth a few minutes for a courtesy phone call to inform you of any delays, and they don't even want to provide an update if you put in the effort to dial their number.

Day 2:

It was raining and I was still full from Chipotle, so decided to have a juice and go to bed. Millennium Park is pretty cool.

Day 3: Drove a total of 6 hours to visit some customers in Wisconsin where FISH FRY and CHEESE would be the food highlights of the state. I wouldn’t move here, although people I met were AMAZINGLY friendly.

During the drive, got some good bonding time in with R. His lifestyle is a mix of redneck, hipster, and yuppie – fishing on a boat, truck driving, moonshine loving, travel addicted… Had dinner with his wife and baby the night before. His kid puts all other babies to shame and now I really don’t want children, just because of the competition.

Noodles and Company for lunch:

MAC & CHEESE – I LOVE YOU.

Trip has been a success. H was not happy because I left him alone for so many days and I’m spending all summer at the Vancouver Farmers Markets. We’ll work it out, but he does FPH (fat pay hey – Chinese for throw a fit) quite a lot.