summer in the city.

Summertime and the living is busy!!!! I stole that line from my little sister Lindsay's blog because it's oh so true. :) And I've spent some time with my sisters this week so it's perfect!!



I'm the oldest of 3 girls. Laura is 2 years younger than me, and Lindsay is 9.5 years younger than me. My sisters are so much fun and I have a ball occasionally living vicariously through their lives as single ladies. Kind of like I did last week. One of our favorite things to do together is eat. All 3 of us LOVE food. I'm the cook out of the 3 of us, though I've inspired Lindsay to cook more often and she's learning the tricks of the trade. Laura can hold her own and we've cooked together a number of times. But I know her favorites and trade meals for haircuts or her babysitting services. It's a great system. ;)

So earlier in the week we made plans to head to the city for dinner. It was a beautiful evening to spend in downtown Chicago. As we headed down LSD, there were so many people out enjoying the weather. I saw countless runners along the lakefront and kind of wished I was one of them...what a gorgeous night for a run! Along with loving to eat, we also love to try new restaurants and different cuisines. Which brought us to a place called Bolat, which is African and a Sub-Saharan culinary excursion. The service was painfully slow (we got there at 8, were seated at 9, and didn't leave till after 10) but the food was great!



Our appetizer was Fried Yams with a trio of dipping sauces- black pepper, spicy tomato and spicy peanut. We were eating the sauces with our spoons, partly from hunger and partly because they were very tasty. The yams were fried perfect.

We split 2 entrees. First up was goat and steamed rice in a fried pepper sauce called Ayumashe. It was Nigerian. Delicious, but super spicy. I had one cube of goat and it was tasty, but I wasn't sure what part of the goat the rest of the meat was from so I stayed away!



We also had a dish from Liberia- an okra and bitterleaf stew served up with fufu, which is a spongy yam starch you pull apart with your fingers, roll, and flatten out to pick up the food. It was decent- the texture was off because okra is kind of slimy, but it was tasty. We also had coconut rice and that was delicious also.



All in all, the experience made me want to try Ethiopian food sometime soon!

Then it was off to Duffy's for $1 drafts and to rock out to some 80s music courtesy of the Spazmatics. My sisters have been loyal followers of this band for awhile now and I was finally introduced to a few of the members. The lead singer totally reminds me of Matt's best friend Kevin...too funny! They are actually pretty good and even let Laura sing one of their songs- Your Love by The Outfield- which totally brought back lots of 80s memories for me. What a fun night with my sisters. Lots of laughs and love. Awwww. :)