& A CHERRY ON TOP

Hello, @roseblight! I’m terrible, is anyone still reading this? ㅜㅜ I’m sorry for ghosting this Tumblr — I kept procrastinating on updating, and then I procrastinated on the procrastinating, and before I knew it half a year had passed.

I wish I could say real life swallowed me whole, but that’s both true and false; I traveled a lot in 2016, there’s been a lot of wedding planning, and work kept me busy, but I’ve also spent too much time on idle distractions and general unproductivity when I wanted to be more disciplined about blogging and documentation. I’m a little more active on Instagram @ cherrylet, and anyone can feel free to find me there! Drop me a line to let me know who you are. :) 

Recently in life:

Divas of Drag show @ House of Blues, where there was haute couture trash and enough glitter to make disco balls shy in comparison

Dim sum @ Cai in Chinatown

7 months here, and I still never tire of floor to ceiling windows

Met some friends for lunch @ LatiniCity in the Loop, which is like a Latin America version of Eataly. Their tortas will never beat XOCO's, but LatiniCity really wasn't bad when judged in context of the Loop's other lunch offerings

I promise not to turn my Tumblr into a wedding blog (end me if that happens), but I'm waist deep in vendor emails, price quotes, contract negotations, and portfolios. I told my parents I didn't need a wedding planner and am already sensing a faint wisp of doubt. I hear about the outrageous cost of weddings all the time, but that still doesn't soften the first few times I got pricing back for venues. What's also alarming is how fast I became desensitized to those numbers, because after scouting 10 vendors in the same price range, suddenly you start thinking of that range as "normal" and "expected". Save me.

Chinoiserie contemplations @ Owen & Engine in Logan Square.

assortment of scones with clotted cream and apple jam

a pot of strongly brewed earl grey

full English fry up with tinned beans, fried egg, bacon, blood sausage, boiled tomato, and toast

BX's favorite burger in the city with caramlized onions + frites

BX's parents flew in from DC over the weekend — partly to celebrate the engagement but mostly to check out our apartment in Chicago and then drive down to Indy to meet my parents (!). We got pastries and coffee @ Cafe Integral in the morning before heading out (never knew there was such a cute cafe so near me!) and arrived at my parents' house just in time for my mom to serve a beast of a lunch banquet. BX's family is from Nanjing, so my mom cooked a ton of seafood dishes: lobster, prawns over rice flour noodles, whole steamed fish, and squid. Of course, she still had to show off some classic Shaanxi dishes like braised pork belly and hand-pulled noodles.

There's not much to see around Indy, but we took them to the motor speedway, which is fun for any car enthusiast. Dinner was another feast of surf clams, pork aspic, dumplings, and a huge bowl of braised chicken feet. The Moutai free-flowed all day; I was able to maneuver out of obligations but BX ended up drinking two glasses (fragrant gasoline indeed). Our parents bonded after dinner by playing hours of cards, because you might as well leverage the common denominators of Chinese immigrant parents.

Weekend recap: engaged & chill ⭐

The day almost didn't happen, as BX woke up with a splitting migraine. :( I let him sleep in a bit longer and went out to pick up doughnuts (chocolate glazed, chestnut, and chocolate-covered orange marmalade) and coffee @ Doughnut Vault before we headed out to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which has been on my bucket list for years. I suspected something was going down, because 1) BX insisted on bringing a tripod and 2) I knew he already had the ring.

Weather was way colder than expected, to the point where we should've brought heating packs for our hands... BX kept trying to get me to take pictures by the lake even though it looked very underwhelming this time of year, but we eventually found a secluded path with some early blooming flowers. After a few shots with the tripod, BX said I should take an outfit picture, so he went to set up the camera... which is when he proposed. 💕 Later I found out he'd set up a video of the proposal, which no one else will ever see because it's super embarrassing (noooo).

For dinner he surprised me with reservations @ Balena, our first date spot 2 years ago! Squid ink tagliolini with crab, sea urchin, and mint; sardinian gnocchi with walnut pesto, chard, and ramps; clam, pancetta, and garlic pizza; and tiramisu with chocolate, coffee, and almond streusel. The gnocchi was our favorite; ramps season is sadly limited in Chicago, so at least we were able to catch it on the seasonal menu.

Some recent life updates since I feel I’ve been slacking on Tumblr:

View from an event hosted by All Stars to connect inner city youth with corporate mentorships; I started volunteering with All Stars a couple months ago and think they do important, impactful work — they’re in multiple cities, so if there’s an All Stars’ office near you, I highly recommend checking out their events!

BX has been very good about getting me fresh flowers every week ♡

St Patty’s day eggs & kegs brunch (I made the baked french toast)

I avoided Chik-Fil-A for years due to their antics and dang, their fried chicken sandwiches are still as bomb as I remember

Saw New Order in concert @ the Chicago Theater! I missed the ticket release and the show sold out immediately, so I had to pay 3x the usual price for a reseller (wince) but TOTALLY WORTH IT. You know how some movies need to be seen in theaters, like Mad Max: Fury Road? New Order is the equivalent for live music — it was a full-sensory experience with the perfectly timed laser light show and hanging LED screens.

New Order has been releasing music longer than I’ve been alive, and the age spectrum for the show reflected their longevity. Very few people stood up from their seats when New Ordered opened with “Singularity”, which I at first chalked up to the older crowd… but then they followed up with “Ceremony” and everyone went wild. I got emotional when they played “Bizarre Love Triangle (╥_╥) which was my introduction to New Order over a decade ago by @minimoonstar (Sabina, if you’re reading this — thank you! for everything, but especially for my music tastes).

I also appreciate that New Order treated their concert as a long dance party with little interruptions; Bernard Sumner said maybe 20 words the entire night, and they plowed through their set list back to back. They saved Joy Division for the encore. Let me tell you, it’s not that I think they should be required to play “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in their concerts, but I certainly felt elated and relieved when I heard that iconic guitar riff. /g

Some recent cooking adventures (previously #1, #2, #3, #4):

potato & onion focaccia bread (recipe)

salmon cakes with red onions and peppers + tofu scramble with veggies over brown rice

sometimes a girl just wants to eat some spam fried rice

leftover fried rice with spinach and more veggies thrown in (counts as brunch if it's served over buttered toast, right?)

Japanese chicken curry with carrots, peas, corn, and potatoes

banana bread with hazelnuts, walnuts, and honey drizzle

pork & cilantro dumplings with scallions, rice cakes, and baby bok choy in chicken broth