Blue Lollipop Road

you rocked our pancake world bongo room

How was brunch on Sunday? In a word: holyfreakingindulgentanddelicious. (Did you get that?) Ok, so that’s more than one word, but I had to blend them all together in attempt to describe the level of pancake euphoria my friend and I experienced at Bongo Room in Wicker Park the other day. I’m still floating with memories the warm white chocolate sauce on one of our stacks:

Bongo Room White Chocolate & 4 Berry Pancakes

I’d been to Bongo room nearly 10 years ago and fell in love then. I’ve dreamt of the Oreo pancakes with vanilla sauce I scarfed down so long ago since that long ago visit. This time around when I saw some menu changes and no Oreo stack of any kind offered, surprisingly I wasn’t disappointed. How could I be with all offered on this springs menu?

This Sundays visit I was with a new friend, fellow foodie, and Bongo Room first-timer. Even though this was our first meal together, as soon as we looked at the menu, we looked at each other and yes, we would be ordering 2 things and splitting of course. The best friends are made over sharing food after all! We were on this same drooling page for sure. In addition to our choice of the White Chocolate & 4 Berry Flapjacks (graham cracker crusted flapjacks topped with warm white chocolate cream cheese sauce, four berry coulis & fresh berries) we chose the Banana Heath Bar Pancakes (banana pancaked with heath bat chips, topped with warm toffee-butter cream & fresh bananas.) Here’s what our stacks looked like before we started our feast:

Bongo Room Heath Bar & Banana Pancakes

Bongo Room White Chocolate & 4 Berry Pancakes

Did I mentioned I had saved my appetite for 14 hours at this point? Yep, I was starving and ready to do some damage. If you know me, you know I don’t leave a bite on a plate of goodness. Well kids, you heard if here first; I just couldn’t finish. Neither of us could. Even starting with the most empty stomachs possible, the famous Bongo Room breakfast plates got the best of us. I still think we did some good damage though:

"After" Bongo Room Banana Heath Bar Pancakes

"After" Bongo Room White Chocolate Berry Pancakes

What a perfect mess we made. I’m proud of our accomplishment. This meal was like running a marathon; you work really hard, give it everything you have, it all seems a bit painful halfway through, near the finish line you think you could die, but after you’re done you’re so satisfied with good pain, feel pride like you have never felt before, and think: “I did it! I did it!”

I can’t wait to “run” my next marathon at Bongo Room. Until then, I will actually be running around my neighborhood so I can still fit into my jeans. Good thing the doctor called last week and told me my good cholesterol numbers were higher than she’d ever seen.

Man I could go for some pancakes right now…

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scuba steve and intelligentsia coffee

Hello there reader Scuba Steve who wrote me yesterday:

Thank you for the compliment and note. Until we are finishing importing all the previous BLR posts here, you can still view everything Blue Lollipop Road previous to 4/29/11 on the original BLR site at www.bluelollipoproad.blogspot.com. I sent you a return note yesterday helping to explain this. For some reason, the email address you put down on my contact form didn’t work, so the email bounced back to me. Thanks for being patient and clicking around during this transition. Sorry for the confusion!

Onto coffee that I’m in love with:

It’s a sunny Saturday morning in Chicago and I’m sipping delicious Intelligentsia Coffee. If you are a coffee lover, have any access to an Intelligentsia Coffeebar, and haven’t been- you are missing out. Intelligentsia does coffee the only way coffee should ever be done. I’m drinking Organic Bolivia this morning as I type away:

Organic Bolivia Saturday morning Intelligentsia

The other night when it was cold and rainy, I camped out here and had a smack-yo-mamma good hot chocolate complete with pro barista art:

Inteliigentsia hot cocoa

This morning is my 3rd visit in 3 weeks. I have a feeling Intelligentsia and I are going to be very, very good friends during my summer in Chicago. I think I’m going to have to buy myself a Pourover box too. Once you do coffee this way, there’s just no going back.

Now, where in Chicago to have some breakfast. Oh the possibilities…

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welcome to the new blue lollipop road site!

Fancy meeting you here!

We’ve finally gotten everything to go live! The old BLR still lives at bluelollipoproad.blogspot.com and we are working on importing all old posts here, so all will be in one place. Until then, please poke around this new site and enjoy. Bear with us as we play around with a few things. We still have much to add, so get ready for some fun times ahead!

Here’s to a new beginning and a great ride. Thank you all for coming along with me…

Diane 🙂

 

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creepy?

I’m sure this moving company wanted to have a cute, friendly looking kid on the side of their truck in attempt to be appealing to potential customers, but I’m thinking you might agree that this little one looks more horror movie, less welcoming:

Creepy looking kid on moving truck

She’s even channeling some Poltergeist glow!

During this break in posting and BLR site transition, I have collected quite a few funny and strange photos around the streets of Chicago. This city is chucked full of Mom-and-Pop joints and funky neighborhoods. Those of course provide plenty of off the wall signs and store fronts, as well as some very interesting characters…

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the case of the mysterious nameserver pointing…

A challenging week with Go Daddy saying everything is set and pointed to the new site and some of you are writing me and telling me you see this one. My web guy and I are scratching our heads and still working on figuring out what’s happening. On a fun note, he was able to steal a couple days to ski and explore around Vail this week- so as the theme of BLR goes, I don’t like to bug people to do much technical work while they’re hitting the slopes with a local pint of delicious brew. Saying that we are hoping to have things hashed out this weekend and be back in the saddle of daily fun posts soon.

In the meantime I am collecting fun photos around Chicago, have had quite a surprise adventure myself this week, and I’m about to go get some Cadbury Mini Eggs; my single favorite holiday candy. I have a feeling the Easter Bunny might have a hard time finding me this year, so I need to take my chocolate situation in my own hands.

Happy Passover, Easter, Spring, One day late Earth Day!

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the new blr

We have switched nameservers, so hopefully the next time you log onto www.bluelollipoproad.com you will see the new site! I appreciate everyone being patient these past couple months. There will be a few little kinks as we get rolling this first week, but lots of fun news and many surprises to come…I am thrilled!

Best of all I have so much more capability with the new site so if there is something you’d like to see, put in a request. The sky is the limit from here.

Here’s to new beginnings and the best spring ever!

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saddles and cilantro

One of my favorite questions is: “Hey Di, I am going to/trying/visiting/touring X this weekend. Want to come?”

Well of course I do!

This weekend it was horseback riding lessons and a neighborhood Asian market/deli for lunch.

We drove north of the city to the farm. A view from the barn:

View from Chicago suburb hourse farm

In the barn:

Saddle and stall

The gear:

Saddles and tack

Saddles

(Isn’t that saddle leather gorgeous?)

Had to take a photo of the liability sign:

Horse riding warning

This was a neat experience. I didn’t ride, as it was my friends lesson. (I’ve only ridden a horse once, so I would’ve been a hot mess out there anyway.) I did get to watch everyone collect all the gear they needed to ride and brush and prep the horses. The amount of prep time and gear involved surprised me, along with how much skill it takes to just simply stay on the horse. I’ve been skydiving and I think I’d be more scared to be on a jumping horse than I was jumping out of a plane.

After the riding lesson, we drove back to the city and stopped at this great little Asian market for lunch:

BaLe wall

To go goodies:

BaLe take-out goodies

…and you’ve got to love those random food items that are in some kind of gel, liquid or other:

Funky BaLe goodies to go

I wasn’t brave enough to try any of those items, so I opted for a veggie sandwich and it was oh so good. Can you say avocado, jicima and cilantro? Yum:

BaLe sandwich Chicago

Good company, New experiences, cheap, fresh, and delish eats = happy Saturdays.

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