Thursday, December 29, 2011

Chi Town

What's a Polish girl to do when she misses her native cuisine? Why, go to the second largest Polish community outside of Warsaw, Poland and get herself some pierogi, of course!
P.S. Note how I spelled "pierogi". There is no "s" at the end. It is because the word "pierogi" already is plural. Now, you learned something new today and you can show how clever you are at your next social gathering.

The first thing I did in the Polish Town is purchasing a real pickle and eating it right in front of the store. And I didn't even get weird looks.
Next we had lunch at the Red Apple Buffet, or Czerwone Jabluszko (I encourage you to try to pronounce those words. And good luck). I took some photos of our plates for you so that next time you visit you will know a bit about Polish cuisine. The mysterious meat in the middle is liver. One of two things in the world proclaimed by Jeff as uneatable.
This was my favorite plate. Clockwise from the left I present a crepe, bigos (cabbage and sausage hunter stew, a typical Christmas dish), sausage hidden behind a corn salad, potato pancake, apple fritter.
Well, OK, this was my favorite plate, too. All of them were, actually. From the left we have pierogi (I am proud of you remembering that there is no "s" at the end. Good job), some meat sauce, meat dumpling, corn salad again, bean salad (Polish people love their salads), and a sauteed spinach dish.
You may wonder why the pierogi look like a shapeless mass. This is what homemade pierogi look like. I bet you only had them frozen from the store and you didn't know that. Look at the things you learn from me!
The Museum of Science and Industry was pretty interesting due to their many displays, anything from the Dr Seuss room to the Smart Home exhibit full of gadgets and other ways to live green and healthy!
We watched the chicks hatch. I didn't know standing around and looking at an egg for 30 minutes could lure so many people in. There was literally no place to squeeze in and pushing away little children was not a good idea as their protective parents were right behind them. Finally, I found a good spot after a little girl fainted from lack of oxygen created by the large crowd. Just kidding, just kidding!
Jeffrey surer enjoyed the Farm Tech display. He wants to be a farmer now.
The Shedd Aquarium was my favorite. I mean, look at the friends I made.
After all the excitement we decided that deep dish pizza would be a wonderful way to replenish all the calories we lost while walking to the Cheesecake Factory every night for their dessert. Here I am pretending I ate the whole dish. In reality I could only eat one piece of this huuuuuge pizza.