my family’s version of this involves sautéing the ramen chunks and almonds in butter first to get them toasted, letting that cool, then tossing in with the cabbage and dressing and I HIGHLY recommend it. Makes it way less healthy, but that’s just following the grand midwestern salad tradition, and the ramen keeps it’s…

I was a wildly picky eater as a kid. The first inroad to fixing it was when, at the start of high school, I decided I wanted to be the kind of person who ate sushi. You know - cool and metropolitan and whatnot. What cured it for good was going on a trip abroad a year or two later, and realizing I was going to miss out…

I would punch a man in the face right now if it meant I could get some lawson karaage kun. I miss it so much 

That backless hat would be perfect for high/thick ponytails

No General Tso or sesame chicken?? I’m shocked

There might be nostalgia at play for me, but the first fried pickles I ever had were wedges and that remains my favorite version to this day. I think it’s mostly because I love pickles a ridiculous amount, and whenever I’ve had fried pickles in chip form all I can really taste is oil.

I highly recommend Immm if you like street food style stuff. It’s right next door to tank noodle and is pretty cheap for how good the food is.

Is that the Uptown Lao Sze Chuan you’re talking about? Because if so, Plenty Chinese will fill that cheap general tso+fried rice+an eggroll role. (And if I have the neighborhood right and you haven’t done so already, you should also head up to Asia on Argyle and try basically all the restaurants there.)

my first job was at an ice cream shop and it remains the most miserable, soul sucking working experience I’ve had to date. 1) The worst possible customers are old white people, which is basically an ice cream shop’s target demographic, 2) it’s food service with low margins, so they’re literally never going to give you…

I’ll bring out my “lambics for all” sign right along with you. 

If you’re ever in the chicago area, I formally offer a standing invite to my friends’ game.

Hallelujah, this is one of my absolute favorite things to drink. 

the phone popsockets can collapse when you’re not using them so they basically lie flat along your phone, so it doesn’t make it much harder to put in your pocket than a slightly thick phone case. (They also help provide stability for holding phones one handed, and are helpful for keeping the phone still when taking…

My list would start with coffee, then lightyears away is everything else. But a few honorable mentions:

One of the few things I really miss about living in the bay area: bodega produce. Cheap as hell and better/fresher than anything I find in Chicago grocery stores.

The Brazilian rainforest is burning as basically a direct result of the demand for more land for ranching/beef production, and there are myriad scientific studies on how much more resource intensive meat is than non-meat products. And unless you’re living in the Himalayas or a similar arid tundra, there’s going to be…

My family has a history of high cholesterol and my doctor has, upon personal consultation with me/looking at my blood work, recommended I try to reduce my intake when possible. And I like hamburgers. So, when I’m craving a hamburger, substituting a not-particularly-healthy but zero cholesterol veggie burger for a…

Less cholesterol and better for the environment, for me. (Especially given the “accidental” fires in the Amazon at the moment, the desire to reduce my beef intake and limit the incentive to clear-cut more forest is especially on my mind recently.)

Or, hear me out, the question asker could drink beer from literally any other brewing tradition around the world as almost none of them have the level of bitter/hoppy flavor that American craft brewing has gotten obsessed with (and really only over the last few decades, at that.) I mean. At the very least I think…

Duchesse, my true love. I was in belgium recently and drank my weight in it, and having to reacclimatize myself to the cost of a bottle in the US has been... painful.