The Halloweekend That Wasn't

Halloweekend 2016 wasn’t very Halloweeny, but it sure was fun!

Roshni and Samir’s flight was delayed by about an hour on Friday night, so Vishnu and I watched the Cubs game until it was time to head to the airport. After picking them up and dropping their bags off at home, the four of us headed to Duck Duck Goat for a very late dinner that was worth every delicious bite. We shared six different things between the four of us, including green beans topped with crispy shallot and cashews, gyozas, veggie fried rice, spicy tofu, a pineapple dessert, and a few other things. In my opinion, the fried rice and pineapple cake stole the show!

Our friend Rohit, who also stayed with us this weekend (his brother rented out their place on Airbnb for the Cubs games this weekend), met us at the restaurant. The five of us sat around and chatted for a while before heading home to talk some more and finally fall asleep around 2 am.

Needless to say, the next morning started much later than any of us anticipated. By the time we left the house, it was 3:00 pm! Our first stop was Oven Grinder for a late lunch. A late lunch that turned into dinner because of a 3.5 hour wait.

We didn’t wait around the restaurant for 3.5 hours though. We grabbed a bit at Del Seoul and then walked around Lincoln Park for a bit. Our main objective was to find Halloween costumes for me, Rosh, and Samir. Vishnu figured his out late last week. We finally settled on a Dr. Seuss theme for the three of us (Dr. Seuss himself + two cats). Not too shabby for a very last minute costume search.

So after all that, we headed back to Oven Grinder for dinner. *A word of caution to those who haven’t eaten here yet – try to go at an odd time (apparently the best time is 9 pm on a Sunday). The wait is ridiculous. Not always over 3 hours, but you’ll almost never walk in and be seated immediately. Be ready for that!

Dinner was awesome. I’m not a huge deep dish pizza fan, but I love the saucy Oven Grinder pie. With the exception of Vishnu who went for the meat sauce, the rest of us got 1/2 pounders with light cheese, veggie sauce, and a white crust. YUM!

So this is where our plans veer off track. We were supposed to go home, get ready, and meet Rohit and a few of our other friends for a fun Halloween night out. Instead, we got home, sat down [for a supposed minute], turned on the Cubs game, and passed out! OOPS!!! In a roundabout way, it all worked out because Roshni had a cold that took a turn for the worse, and it probably wasn’t a great idea for her to be out until the wee hours of the morning. In all honesty, it worked out for me too. Due to some lingering stomach cramps, I wasn’t feeling too hot either. Such is life!

The next morning started fairly early since we all got 13200948730 hours of sleep! We ate breakfast and watched football until everyone was hungry again for some Seoul Taco (not to be confused with Del Seoul!). So good!

Then, before we knew it, it was time to drop Samir and Roshni off at the airport. 🙁 But not before we took a picture (the only non-food pic of the weekend)…