Homestyle Taste

This is the first place where we had our regular dinner gathering with Candace, and we thought the food here was great. We have very fond memories of the stewed beef iron pot, but also remember that the dish was served a bit cold. However, to be fair, they were very packed the last time we were here, so we decided to go back again and see if the food is as good as we remembered.

This time, Yeva joined us for the dinner - she is from Zhejiang, China. This restaurant served food from this region, and Candace wanted her opinion on the authenticity. Yeva was very impressed by the food at Homestyle Taste - which is a confirmation of our great taste as well!

We ordered some of what I think was the best Chinese food I ever had :

Cold Appetizer

Colorful Wide Cold Noodle

Preserved Egg Tofu

Main Dishes

Stir Fried Cumin Flavor Beef

Stir Fried Sweet and Sour Pork

Stir Fried Eggplant with Brown Sauce

Stewed Beef, Beef Tendons, Potato with Spicy Sauce

** There may be more dishes which I have forgotten! All in all, there were lots of food that seven of us couldn't even finish it all! At the end of the night, Hannah and I had six boxes of take-away from the left-overs (which became our lunch and dinner for the next two meals).

** Sorry for the lack of photos on many dishes. I was too busy eating and forgot all about this blog!

The price is VERY reasonable. For a tremendous amount of food for seven people, the cost for Hannah and I was $28 (total)!!!!!  I don't think you can get any cheaper, better deal in Chicago.

Homestyle Taste

3205 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60608

(312) 949-9328

https://goo.gl/maps/8B1YS2dRjrE2

Joella's Hot Chicken

On our way back from Mammoth Cave, Grace mentioned about Joella's Hot Chicken, and we just had to go because it sounded too good to be true - fried chicken plus hot sauce!?... such a brilliant idea!

Currently, there are only six restaurants in US (and in the World!) - four in Kentucky, one in Indiana and one in Ohio. There are six different spicy/hotness - ranging from Southern (no heat) to Fire-in-da-hole (Inferno), and according to Hannah, the WHOLE kitchen crew will shout at the top of their lungs if you order the Fire-in-da-hole! :D

Hannah had the Tweener (Medium heat), Grace had Ella's fave (Burst of flavor and lil' heat), and I had Hot (Spicy fire). I can tell you - I am happy that I did not get the Fire-in-da-hole! :) The chicken is definitely very hot! The best part of the meal was the piece of bread stacked below the chicken. It had soaked up all the spiciness and oiliness, and it is just pure HEAVEN...it is the last bit of deliciousness when you are done with the chicken and the sides. The restaurant do serve beer as well, but as I was driving back to Chicago, we did not order any.

Price was very reasonable - Quarter chicken was around $8.50 and sides were around $2.09 each. Therefore, it was about $10 per person, per meal (excluding drinks). We just had ice-water, which was free. Very nice, very spicy and crispy.. definitely worth a drive to Indiana again :)

You can find out everything about them on their website : https://joellashotchicken.com/

Mammoth Cave camping

Hannah, Grace and I had planned for this trip months ago after mom and Grace visited Mammoth Cave. Their stories just tempted Hannah and I to make the trip there, and we would have done so if not for my surprise to the ER :(

Anyway, there was no better time to go camping at Mammoth Cave than on my birthday! Grace picked Hannah up from her work on Friday evening. When I got home, we packed all the stuffs in the car, and we were ready to set off. The plan was to spend a night in a motel, so that we can beat the traffic in Chicago, and then start driving slowly down to Mammoth Cave on Saturday. It was an uneventful evening in the motel, and we were ready for bed after a 4-hour drive.

On Saturday morning, after a horrible cup of local-motel coffee, we decided that we needed to get another "breakfast" from McDonald's. I was waiting in the car when Hannah and Grace came back with what they described as "a crap ton of McDonald's breakfast burritos" because they were patient with the server when the credit card machine broke :) We were on our way after a quick breakfast. 

We stopped at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Indiana. It has the largest, naturally exposed fossil beds, and the "falls" were originally a series of rapids allowing the Ohio River to drop 26 feet over a distance of 2.5 miles. However, today, much of the original falls are behind the McAlpine Dam. We took the dogs for a quick dip in the river, and were back on the road to Mammoth Cave.

We arrived at Mammoth Cave, and it was around 4pm when we finished setting up our tents. Hannah did ALL the cooking on this trip, and her culinary skills kept us well-fed. Hannah and I are still in a ongoing process of setting up the ultimate "camping kit", so there are always things that we need but are not in the kit - and this time, we did not have a spatula to cook the burger patties. Luckily, Grace exhibited great VanLaanen "MacGyver" skills, and made Hannah a spatula from a fork and a cut-out from a beer can! We had dinner, went to bed at 9pm, and planned to go running tomorrow!

I woke up at 7am (Saturday), but Hannah was already gone! She had woken up even earlier than me, and went for a short run (~3miles). I was making coffee when she came back all happy with her run, gleaming with joy from the great run in the early hours of the morning. 

We had breakfast, rested for a bit, and off we went for our 10-mile run. We had to drive to the back-country of the park, and we had to cross a river to get there - we drove onto a small platform boat, and  just motored across the river slowly :) It was a really nice day for a long run, with sun peeking through the clouds, and the temperature wasn't too warm. The run was good, finished the day with more beer and burgers, and ready for Mammoth Cave adventure tomorrow!

We put the dogs in a special kennel at Mammoth Cave Hotel when we went on the cave tour. It is the cheapest kennel we ever been to! It was about $7.50 for about 5 hours for both the dogs. The tour was about 4 hours, and the tour guide warned everyone that it is going to be quite a long walk with lots of stairs, and people should seriously think about whether they are fit enough. No one dropped out before or during the tour, but along the way, we noticed that there were definitely some people who clearly should not be on this tour! The cave is huge, and is the longest cave system in the world, currently measuring 405 miles. There were some great features such as the gypsum flowers, stone formations etc. The experience was great, and definitely worth a visit - made Hannah and I wanting to go to Florida and Mexico for cave diving again! :P By the time we finished the tour, picked up the dogs, went to visit the other cave entrance etc, it was nearly 4pm, and we started our drive back to Chicago... until next time, caves...