The bacon fest :)

Hoy va otra vez de comida rapida!! El domingo pasado fuimos a "la fiesta del bacon" :) uno de los 20 eventos que habia en Chicago ese dia. El plan era pasar por este festival que estaba de camino a un fetival cubano. Al final solo fuimos a este porque el cubano estaba mucho mas lejos de lo que parecia en el mapa, jeje!

Cuando lei sobre este festival "Edge Fest", como siempre, crei que seria algo mas gastronomico y cultural: diferentes tipos de bacon, como cocinarlos, como curarlos, ahumarlos, etc. Al final, resulto ser lo de siempre, un pequeño mercadillo y un par de puestos de comida rapida. Eso si, aun me puedo sorprender por lo que se sirve en estos sitios, desde luego no apto para nuestro estilo de vida de dieta sana y deporte (nuestro nuevo entrenamiento deportivo en proximos posts!), pero siempre se puede hacer una excepcion y vivir el momento, jeje!

I'll talk about fast food again today!! Last Sunday we went to the "bacon fest" ;) one of the 20 events happening in Chicago during that day. The plan was stop by this festival on our way to a Cuban festival. We finally didn't make the Cuban one because it was pretty far and it took almost two hours by train.

I read some stuff about the festival and to be honest, it looked more gastronomical and culinary than what it really was. Once we arrived there we found the same story again, a small street market with a couple of fast food tents. However, I was still surprised by the kind of food seved there, not really for our life style based on healthy diet and sports, but we can make some exceptions and carpe diem! (btw, our new workouts will be coming on next posts).

Llegamos al lugar en cuestion y en la entrada nos pidieron amablemente un donativo de 5$ por entrar :), todo voluntario claro...Habia un escenario de musica country a la entrada del festival, no tenian mucho ritmo y hacia mas de 30 grados, con lo que no tuvieron mucho exito...

We arrived to the festival and we were asked for 5$ "voluntary" donation to enter there :) There was a stage with a country music band. The rythm wasn't too good and it was more than 30C so I don't think they were very successful...

Escenario de musica country. Country music stage.

Continuamos explorando el lugar, que solo era una calle, jeje! Habia varios puestos de artesania mas o menos interesantes y algunos puestos de bisuteria y complementos. Todo normal hasta llegar a la parte central del festival, el bacon!!

Uno de los primeros puestos vendia "donuts de bacon" y todo tipo de frutas cubiertas en chocolate y con trocitos de bacon, asi como suena.

We started exploring the place, something easy considering it was located in only one street :) There were tents of art and paintings and other ones of cheap jewelry and accesories. Everything seemed normal until we reached the center of the festival, bacon!!

One of the first tents served "bacon donuts" and chocolate covered fruit with pieces of chocolate. I'm really NOT used to this, hehehe!

Carta de comidas :) Menu cart.

Fruta con chocolate y trozos de bacon. Chocolate covered fruit with pieces of bacon.

En el otro extremo de la calle habia otro escenario, por suerte este grupo sonaba mucho mejor. Thomas y yo nos quedamos un ratito a escucharlos mientras nos tomabamos nuestra "Coronita light", si chicos, la "Coronita" aqui es "Corona" y la gente la toma light. No sabe a nada y ademas, no tiene ningun sentido si la acompañas con comida con millones de calorias :) pero bueno, estaba fresquita, jaja!

At the other end of the street there was another stage and luckily the band playing sounded a lot better. Thomas and I stayed there listening to them while we drank our "Corona light". Corona is called "Coronita" in Spain because there is a brand of tobacco called "Corona" there, so I guess they couldn't name the beer Corona. I don't know why people drink light beer constantly, it does not have any taste and people drink it while eating food with millions of calories...Anyway, it was cold!!



Segundo escenario del festival. Second stage of the festival.

Thomas and I with our Corona light. Thomas y yo con "Coronita light"

A continuacion os muestro algunas fotos de los puestos, el tipo de comida y lo que alli se servia. Lo que mas me llamo la atencion fueron las patatas fritas. Hacian unos platos gigantes de patatas fritas tipo "chip" y luego les ponian queso por encima y bacon, claro. Demasiado, jeje!

You can see here some pictures of the tents, the food and what was served there. The most surprising thing for me was the plates of potato chips. They were huge and they had cheese on top and bacon. It was just too much!!

Puesto de comida polaca. Polish food tent.

Platito de patatas. Small plate of potato chips :)

Otra cosa llamativa fue el "Elvis sandwich", muy light :)

The "Elvis sandwich" was also surprising, very light too :)

Thomas se pidio un perrito caliente con la salchicha envuelta en bacon y yo me tome una hamburguesa pequeñita de bacon, que la verdad no estaba buena.

Thomas had a bacon wrapped hot dog and I ordered a bacon burger, but it wasn't very tasty.

 Esto fue todo lo que hicimos por alli, tampoco fue grandioso, pero lo pasamos bien. Terminamos la tarde yendo al centro de Chicago y disfrutar del ambiente. El fin de semana pasado fue el festival de musica "Loolapalooza", mas de 90.000 personas vinieron a Chicago, asi que se notaba el ambiente festivalero por la calle.

Aun tengo pendiente hacer un post de lo que se ve desde el tren cuando se va desde Evanston a Chicago, hay zonas que son de pelicula, entre ellas, la que veis en la foto, casas justo rozando la via del tren...Chicago tiene cosas impresionantes en todos los sentidos!! Adios!!

Eating was the last thing we did there. It wasn't really great but we had a good time. We ended up the evening going downtown and enjoying the nice environmente there. Last weekend it was the "Loolapalooza" festiva and more than 90.000 people came to Chicago to join the festival. The environmente was young and lively.

I still  need to write a post about what can be seen from the train when going from Evanston to Chicago. There are many different areas and some of them are just surprising, as for example the one on the picture where the houses are just freaking close to the railway. Chicago is amazing in every single sense!! Byee!!

Preparandome para la boda de Almudena. Getting ready for Almudena's wedding!!

El jueves por la noche cojo un avion con destino a Madrid y posterior llegada a Ciudad Real en tren para asistir a la boda de mi amiga Almudena!! Yuhuu!! Solo van a ser 3 dias en España, pero no queria que el estar lejos me hiciese perderme todos los momentos importantes, que bastantes me he perdido ya. Es una paliza, el año pasado ya lo hicimos para ir a la boda de mi prima, jeje! Pero lo vuelvo a hacer porque no me lo perderia por nada del mundo y siento en el alma haberme perdido otras bodas, cumpleaños y otros buenos y malos momentos por la distancia.

De momento, para irnos preparando, esperamos poder bailar o al menos mover los brazos cuando empiece el baile en la boda, jeje! La cancion, pues una de las mas animadas de los ultimos meses "Party Rock Anthem" de LMFAO :) Aqui me teneis practicando, jajaja!

I'm taking a plane on Thursday night to go to Spain!! I'll fly to Madrid and then take a train to Ciudad Real to go to the wedding of one of my best friends, Almudena!! Yuhuuu!! I'll be in Spain only for 3 days, but I didn't want to miss such an important moment. I have already missed many other nice events and being with people I love in important moments, so I decided not to miss absolutely everything. We already made a fast trip last year to go to my cousin's wedding :) and I'm doing it again because it was definetely worth it.

To warm up for the wedding I'm practicing a dance we are planning to do during the wedding dance :) if not all, at least we'll try to move our arms, hehe! For the moment you can see how I practice one of the most danced songs of the last months, "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO. Don't laugh at me! hehe!



Llevaba mi ropa de deporte porque he grabado el video despues de nuestro entrenamiento de "Asylum", todo ello en proximos posts :)

I was wearing my sports clothes because I recorded the movie just after our "Asylum" training. Everything in next posts :)

4 de julio en agosto... 4th of July in August

Aunque llevo tres veranos en Chicago, nunca habia estado aqui el 4 de julio!! El dia de la independencia de los USA!! OMG!! La verdad es que siempre estoy en España por esas fechas disfrutando de unas cortas vacaciones, pero este año justo llegue a Chicago el dia 3 con lo que pude disfrutar del ambiente de ese dia. La verdad es que tenia un jet lag importante, pero por la noche subi a la piscina que esta en la planta 24 para ver los fuegos artificiales. Tambien fui al gimnasio que tiene un gran ventanal y desde donde se veian los fuegos artificiales que habia en la playa de Evanston.

No se aprecia bien en las fotos la cantidad de fuegos artificiales que habia en Chicago y que se veian desde la terraza. Habia celebraciones en cada barrio de la ciudad y al menos, pude divisar 30 fuegos artificiales distintos al mismo tiempo. Mi camara no es buena para captar este tipo de eventos, jeje! Yo tampoco soy muy buena fotografa :) pero al final os dejo un video de los fuegos artificiales de la playa de Evanston.

Even though this is my third summer in Evanston I had never been here the 4th of July! The independence day!! OMG!! The truth is I was in Spain in the last two years for the 4th of July enjoying my holidays at home, but this year I arrived here the 3rd of July so I could live the day here :) I had a huge jet lag but at night I went up to the swimming pool of our building, which is on the 24th floor, to see the fireworks in Chicago. I also went to the gym to look through the huge window and enjoy the fireworks of Evanston beach.

The pics are not very good, my camera is not the best to catch these kinds of things, but I could see at least 30 different spots in the city where there were fireworks. It was amazing! At the end of the post there is a video of the fireworks here in Evanston, at the beach.

Turkish dinner. Cena turca

Que noche tan estupenda la de ayer!! Nuestro compañero Taner, de Turquia, nos invito a cenar en su casa con motivo de haber aprobado un examen que le cualifica para continuar en su doctorado (qualifyer exam) y tambien con motivo del Ramadan. Al parecer, durante el mes del Ramadan se suele invitar a amigos a cenar y se preparan cosas tipicas. Eso si, se come una vez que se pone el sol. Pobre Taner, no se como aguanto todo el dia preparando comida y sin probar bocado!!

Habia muchisimas cosas, platos todos deliciosos, una especie de rollos fritos con carne dentro, pastelitos de queso, varias ensaladas, salsa de  yogur turco, pollo, ternera con especias, hojas de vid rellenas, pimientos rellenos de arroz, croquetas de lentejas blancas, en fin, una maravilla. Hubo risas, historias, fotos divertidas y una bonita explicacion de los platos preparados que podeis ver en un video al final del post :)

What a great night we had yesterday!! Our colleague Taner from Turquia invited us for dinner to celebrate he passed his qualifyer exam and also to celebrate Ramadan. Apparently, people normally invite friends for dinner during Ramadan, always starting the dinner after the sun sets. Poor Taner, he prepared so many things and he couldn't try anything until 8:21 p.m.!

There were all kind of delicious things, fried rolls with meat, cheese pastries, different kinds of salads, Turkish yogurt sauce, chicken, beef, grape leaves stuffed with veggies, stuffed peppers, small cakes made with lentils. It was great!! We laughed a lot, we told stories, we took funny pictures. A great night was had! At the end of the post there is a video of Taner explaining all the dishes he and his friend prepared :)

Taner finishing some preparations.

Taner terminando de preparar algunos platos.

Maravillosos platos turcos!!! Los primeros rollitos se llaman algo como "pachanga" :)

Wonderful Turkish dishes!!! The first rolls in the picture are called something like "pachanga" which means "fiesta" in Spanish!

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Mi plate. A bit of everything.

Mi plato con un poco de todo.

Te. Tea.

Taner preparando kunefe

Taner preparing kunefe

Postre! Dessert!! Baklava, kunefe and Thai pastries...uhhhhhmmmm

Baklava, kunefe y pastas tailandesas...uhmmmmmm

Tomando te turco. Drinking Turkish tea.

Baklava!!!

Turkish coffee. Cafe turco.

Foto de grupo. Group picture

Sorority picture. Foto de hermandad femenina americana

Foto de desafio a la gravedad y morros de pato. Duck face and increased gravity picture.

Girly picture of the boys :) Foto femenina de los machos de la manada :)

Tyson, Faifan and Yoshie

Jane, Roman and Adam

Madison and Mark

Jessica, Leonel and Thomas

Video of Taner explaining the dishes. Video de Taner explicando los platos que preparo.

La anecdota de la noche fue el quedarnos encerrados en el ascensor en la planta baja. Ibamos 11 personas montadas bajando del piso 16 al 1 y la puerta no se abria. Yo empece a sentir claustrofobia, fue horrible!! Menos mal que todo duro menos de 10 minutos. Finalmente Thomas forzo la puerta y pudimos salir, jeje! Que momento!!!!

The anecdote of the night was getting stuck in the elevator with 10 more people. We were going down from the 16th to the 1st floor and when we arrived downstairs the doors didn't open. I felt very claustrophobic!! I'm happy it was only 10 minutes. Finally Thomas forced the door and we could go out, uffff!!

What a moment!!

THANKS TANER FOR HAVING US FOR DINNER!!!!!

GRACIAS TANER POR INVITARNOS A CENAR!!!!

The taste of Chicago

Despues de estas semanas con problemas en el blog (no era capaz de subir fotos!!!) por fin he encontrado la solucion. He cambiado de browser, ha sido la unica solucion, pero bueno! El caso es que justo se estropeo el blog cuando tenia mas cosas que contar :) Hace dos domingos se celebro "The taste of Chicago". Una feria culinaria con comida tipica de aqui, jeje! La verdad es que despues de tres veranos aqui, tenia ganas de ir, aunque Thomas ya habia estado y me advirtio sobre el tipo de comida que era. Por supuesto, nada de exquisiteces, pero si mucha comida rapida. Claro! Lo tipico!

I've been having problems with the blog already for two weeks. I wasn't able of uploading pictures and finally I tried using a different browser. It works like this, so I'm happy! Actually, the blog crashed when I had a lot of things to share :)

Two weeks ago we went to the "Taste of Chicago". A gastronomic festival celebrated every summer in Chicago. They offer all kind of typical American food :) Thomas went there in 2010 and he asked me not to have too high expectations since there were not many delicate things to eat, only fast food :) Of course, typical!!

La feria se celebra en Grant Park y consta de puestos de comida, estilo casetas de feria :) La verdad es que hubo pocas cosas que me llamasen la atencion, pensaba que habria barbacoas americanas que son distintas a lo que estamos acostumbrados a ver y quiza, algun tipo de plato mas elaborado, pero no, a parte de salchichas, perritos, sandwiches, algo de comida oriental, tarta de queso frita y algo de comida mejicana, no habia nada mas. Lo bueno es que estaba a reventar y da gusto ir al centro de Chicago con esa animacion.

It is celebrated in Grant Park and there are tons of food tents. There were not too many things that caught my attention. I thought there would be more American bbqs for smoking or some more elaborated dishes, but it was not like that. Apart from sausages, dogs, sandwiches and cheese cake there was not a lot more to choose. The good thing was as always the crowd, nice environment in the city center :) However, it is surprising that everything had such a high fat content...

Como con todas las experiencias se aprende algo, nosotros por fin descubrimos lo que era un "corn dog". Yo pensaba que era un perrito caliente hecho con carne de ternera alimentada con maiz, como suele ser la carne aqui, pero no! Es una salchicha hecha de carne de procedencia desconocida, rebozada y pinchada en un palo :) Ole ahi, la explicacion!!

There is always something to learn from every experience and this time we discovered what a "corn dog" was. I thought it was a sausage processed from corn-fed animals, as it normally is here, but it wasn't!! It is a sausage which procedence is unknown, battered and placed on a stick!! Nice explanation!!

Probamos algunas cosas que nos gustaron, como las salchichas a la barbacoa brasileña, sanwich de "pulled pork", el famoso corn dog y por supuesto, un perrito caliente al estilo Chicago :) De postre, un platano helado bañado en chocolate, que para ser sinceros, no nos gusto demasiado.

We tried several things we liked as for example Brazilian bbq sausages, pulled pork sandwiches, corn dog and of course, Chicago style dog :) We had frozen banana covered with chocolate, but to be honest we didn't like it that much.

A parte de la comida, lo mejor es ver la mezcolanza de gente que hay por alli, digamos que la mayoria no eran los mas finos de Chicago, pero segun mi modo de ver las cosas es lo mejor, viva la gente!! Me encanta ver de todo y conocer todo, incluso en el "Taste of Chicago" :) A continuacion algunas fotos del evento, yo me lo pase bomba a pesar de los 40 grados que habia. Estoy deseando que haya alguna cosita como esta pronto!!!

Apart from the food I love the mix of people we found. Let's say most of them were not the most refined of Chicago, but I love that, viva la gente!! I love seeing all kind of people in all kind of places :)

Here you can see some pictures we took. I had a great time despite the 100 F...I'm looking forward to go to one of these events again :)



Panoramica del festival y la ciudad de fondo.

Panoramic picture of the festival and the city in the background.

Barbacoa americana para ahumar carne.

American bbq for smoking meat.

Intentando comerme la mitad del perrito con varias salsas, eso no hay quien lo coja...

Trying to eat the Chicago dog with several sauces, there's no way to bite it...

Puesto de tarta de queso. A la izquierda estoy con mi "platano cubierto de chocolate" jeje!

Cheese cake tent. To the left I'm holding my "chocolate covered banana", hehe!

Puesto de frutas cubiertas de chocolate.

Tent of chocolate covered fruit.

Thomas con las salchichas brasileña y yo con el "corn dog", una de mis fotos mas ridiculas :)

Thomas with the Brasilian sausages and me with the corn dog in one of my most ridiculous pictures :)

Puesto de perritos :)

Hot dogs tent

La multitud en busca de fast food!!!

The crowddddd!!!

Foto divertida. Toda la hilera de servicios portatiles con los rascacielos de fondo :)

Funny pic. The array of portable toilets with the skyline in the background :)

Despues del festival de comida, nunca mejor dicho, nos paramos a beber algo tranquilitos y sentaditos. Por lo visto, mi chiqui tenia hambre todavia y se pidio un trozo de tarta de queso con proporciones americanas :)

After the food festival we stopped by Benningans to get some drinks and apparently, Thomasito was still hungry. He ordered a piece of cheese cake with American proportions :)

Thomasito y su "trocito de tarta de queso". Thomasito and his "small piece of cheese cake".

Volviendo a casa con la tripa llena!! Going back home with super full belly!!

En casa por vacaciones y "La Roja". Home for holidays and "La Roja"

Por supuesto que tambien hemos estado en Ciudad Real durante nuestras vacaciones!! :) Aunque no hemos podido salir mucho por algunas circunstancias familiares, he podido disfrutar igualmente. Lo mejor de todo, ver a la familia, amigos y ver los partidos de la seleccion española en casa :) No es lo mismo verlos en Chicago, no es el mismo ambiente, jeje!

Solo hice algunas fotos en la Plaza Mayor, con el ayuntamiento de fondo y el reloj de Don Quijote :) y por supuesto, tomando una horchata, jeje!

We also went to Ciudad Real during our holidays, of course! :) We didn't do many things with my family, we just had familiar dinners at home, but I enjoyed it the same way. The best of all if being with the family and friends and also...watching the games of the Spanish team, "La Roja" :) It is a lot better than watching the games in Chicago, the environment is not the same, hehe!

I didn't take too many pictures only a couple at the main square of Ciudad real at the city hall and with the Don Quijote clock and of course, drinking horchata, the authentic!!

Thomasito bebiendo horchata

Thomasito drinking horchata

Plaza Mayor de Ciudad Real

Ciudad Real's Plaza Mayor

Reloj de Don Quijote

Don Quijote clock

Por fin pude ver a mi abuela, pense que no llegaba a verla con lo malita que estaba...

I could see my grandma finally! I thought I wouldn't see her because she was very sick before...

El dia de la final decidimos hacer una pequeña barbacoa en casa :) todo muy familiar. Nunca he sido muy fanatica de las barbacoas, pero esta merecia la pena. Ese dia si que hice fotos y lo mejor es tenerlas de recuerdo de gran noche! Lo pasamos genial, comimos en familia, lo pasamos genial viendo el partido y hubo incluso brindis. Una pena que pasase tan rapido...
The day of the final we made a bbq at home :) everything very familiar. I've never been a big fan of bbq but that one was special and I took many pictures to have them as a memory of a great day. We had a lot of fun eating and watching the game. We even toasted for the Spanish victory :) The worse part was that it went by too fast...

Preparacion de la barbacoa :)

Preparing the bbq :)

Brindando por la victoria :)

Toast on Spanish victory :)

This is what my mother does when other teams are threatening Spain :)

Esto es lo que hace mi madre cuando algun equipo amenaza la porteria de Iker :)

Con mi hermano y Elena antes del partido

With my brother and Elena before the game

Brindis familiar

Family toast

Por vosotros!!

Cheers!!