Winter Wonderland

Well I do not know where all of you are located but as you all know I am currently in Austin and the past week has finally introduced us to a bit of actual fall. When this weather finally swooped in "Texans" freaked and immediately pulled out their winter coats. Are they crazy?! The weather only got down to about 40's at the lowest. Meanwhile back in Chicago my friends and family are thrilled with weather like that and are still out golfing!
It is very weird to me that I am waiting for this weather to finally come in full force. I see sweater commercials on the TV and think when am I finally going to be able to wear a sweater?
To me, things that are meant for cold weather and no longer occur for me in cold weather don't feel real. Like to be getting Starbucks holiday cups is crazy to me because it still feels a bit like summer, well at least spring! I hope you all can come to Chicago or another cold city and see the actual winter. The snow, the people dressed like marshmallows, ice-skating outside, horse and carriage rides, the Marshall Fields holiday windows (a famous department store in Chicago).
I know I will go back home to Chicago for Thanksgiving get a nice smell of winter and the fires burning and be ready to return to sunny Austin but until then I am still yearning for some snow

Mamma Mia, Pizza!!

After craving "normal"(to me) pizza I finally tried Mangia's "Chicago Stuffed" Pizza. Unfortunately, the report is not the best. I want to be hard on Mangia's and say I am ashamed they claim it to be "Chicago stuffed" but I will hold back and not be too critical. But, for the record, we call it deep dish and not stuffed.
For a Chicago-an or anyone that knows real Chicago deep dish pizza, the pizza was decent for pizza but most definitely not the same as Chicago deep dish pizza! But the others that I ate the pizza with (who are not from Chicago) thought it was good!(No offense to them) They didn't know what to expect and had they had real Chicago pizza I think they too would have been disappointed.
I have been let down by some pizza places in Chicago but none of them compare to the imitation stuffed pizza I got at Mangia's. It is hard to describe why the pizza was not the same to me so I will attempt to explain real Chicago stuffed pizza and attempt to explain why Mangia's was under par. (I say attempt because you have no idea until you taste it yourself.)
First, you all need to know that deep dish pizza is not like normal pizza because there is the crust and then the cheese and on top is the sauce (weird, I know but trust me). So at good pizzerias in Chicago the crust is buttery and flaky and thick! Then, the cheese is ooey and gooey! And, the sauce is a bit sweet and tangy and made with fresh, real tomatoes (the sauce even has some chunks of fresh tomatoes).
Now, at Mangia's the crust was too hard and not at all flaky. The cheese was decent because that's pretty hard to mess up. I have to admit, the cheese was pretty gooey. And the sauce was too thin, there were no real tomato chunks which are always a great surprise.
As we were eating we were discussing how it's weird that even with the same recipe some dishes just don't come out the same as the one you're trying to mimic. I just don't get it? Any ideas on how two dishes cooked with the same recipe can turn out very differently?
Although it is not the same to me, Mangia's has earned a number of awards including recognition as the best pizza in Austin from the Austin Chronicle Readers Pole.
But, my favorite pizzeria in Chicago, Lou Malnati's, has won a ton of awards and is the best deep dish pizza in the country (in mine and many other's opinion). The restaurant also won a throw down with celebrity chef, Bobby Flay.
So, go to Mangia's for good pizza but please know that that is not real deep dish pizza. And if you are ever in Chicago you NEED to eat at Lou Malnati's!

Lou's

VS.

Mangia's

Sport Fanatic

I LOVE sports, especially my Chicago teams! Da Bears, Da Bulls, Da Sox , I guess da Cubs, Da Blackhawks. I love that most people in Illinois are Chicago sport fans too. Most of our sports are representative of only one team, with the exception of baseball; there is the Southside Sox vs. Northside Cubs rivalary but for the most part when it comes down to it both fans would cheer for the other if either were in the World Series (although only the Sox fans would really know from that).

But here in Texas there are so many teams and such big rivalries! I am friends with people from all over Texas and some are such fans while others are such haters and I do not like that! For example, Texans have something to celebrate right now, the Rangers being in the world series but Astro fans have not been supporting them at all! Are these non-Ranger fans really that against this team or just that mean? In my opinion it's one for all and all for one and everyone should be excited about this huge achievement for the Rangers.

Also, it is hard because Texas is such a big state and the sports teams come from many different cities so you don't see an abundance of pride anywhere in Austin, just scattered team pride. Whereas in Illinois, all of the teams are in some part of the city so team colors and mascots are everywhere in site no matter where you are.

I guess the pride that the state has for the UT Longhorns makes up for it because Illinois people aren't nearly as obsessed with University of Illinois or Northwestern or University of Chicago or any of the great colleges located in the state. So to hate on the lack of team pride Texas has would be unfair because both Chicago and Austin have huge team pride just Chicago has it for professional teams and Austin for college teams! Regardless the people in both places are passionate fans and that's all I can ask for!

But for me as a new Texan...I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and say Go Rangers!

Wild about Music

One thing Chicago sure doesn't have is Austin City Limits! Although, Chicago does have a good reputation when it comes to music with festivals like Lollapalooza, Pitchfork and Taste of Chicago, it doesn't beat Austin in that category.

Austin City Limits threw down on October 8 of this year and you guessed it, it was amazing! The Eagles, Muse, Phish, The Strokes, M.I.A., Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, Spoon, Slightly Stoopid, Black Keys, Norah Jones and so many other worldly renowned artists jammed at ACL 2010.

As amazing as the artists and their performances were it wasn't just that that made the weekend incredible. It was the combination between everything; the atmosphere (there was the beautiful Austin sky line in the background everywhere you walked), the weather (unlike last year the weather was clear and sunny all weekend long), the array of people (some obvious frequent festival goers and other festival virgins). All of these factors worked together to make this weekend an experience unlike any other.

Another difference between Austin City Limits and the other festivals in Chicago is that Austin knows when ACL weekend has arrived, whereas in Chicago it's just another day but some music fanatics and many youths know about the festival that's going on. In Austin, people in every restaurant or business we visited throughout the weekend made conversation about the huge amazing weekend that had arrived. By no means does the city shut down for ACL, actually quite the opposite it anticipates the festival's arrival and prepares for the visitors, music, and culture to flood in.

Well already, my favorite weekend of the year has come and gone and ACL 2010 is now over. But we do have South by Southwest to look forward to. And I am positive that that music festival will also dominate over any festivals Chicago puts on. It is great and such a privilege to be exposed to such great music in both cities but Austin does beat Chicago by a tad in the music competition.

Chicago vs. Austin?

I was born and raised in an amazing city, Chicago. At first I was going to say one of the best cities, but there are a lot of great cities out there, so I’ll just say amazing. If you haven't been, go! The food and shopping are incredible and the people are great! I grew up with midwesterners so I am used to those types of people. And the city itself is beautiful!  Also, we have some great sports teams (Da Bulls, Da Bears, Da Sox, Da Cubs, Da Blackhawks). But after being there for 18 years I was ready for change. Luckily, it was my time to start applying to colleges. So I saw that as my opportunity to try something new and I applied to 13 universities throughout the country. I was very confident with myself and figured I could handle going to school a plane ride away from home. After many months of contemplating, list making, researching, etc. I finally chose The University of Texas-Austin. 

Arriving in Austin immediately put a huge smile on my face! This place is great! The weather is awesome, and with great weather brings great landscaping and birds always chirping (which I love). The buildings are so unique looking, not much of that commercially strip malls thing. The shopping is top notch, with a lot of boutiques (which I also love). The food is good, except I feel like it’s a lot of the same: mexican, sushi, asian, barbecue and not much Italian food at all. But that’s ok, I am by no means starving here in Austin. I am having such a marvelous time here but then homesickness kicks in a little..

But why? Am I just homesick because it’s typical and I am stressed out with school so I just want to be home or am I homesick for Chicago because I think Chicago is better?

I cannot say Chicago is better than Austin, nor can I say Austin is better than Chicago; both are very unique yet incredible cities. Austin is just very different to me. I don’t want to say it’s because it’s Texas and everyone is a conservative, republican cowboy because that's not true but there is no doubt that were not in the rest of America when we’re in Texas. The people here just seem to be raised a bit differently. They are so proud to be a Texan, in fact, in school growing up they even sing a Texas state song! That to me is crazy! People here though are super nice, but in a different way than my fellow Chicago-ans.

Basically, there are obvious differences between Austin and Chicago but obviously! That’s a given! So do I like the new better than the old? Is Chicago better than Austin or Austin better than Chicago? I just don’t know… I am going to go about my life in Austin finding the great similarities and differences between here and Chicago. I will attempt to find things that make me happy in Chicago and see if they are available in Austin. First stop, deep dish pizza? Amazing department stores? City art work? Any great places in Austin ya'll (see I am getting used to living in Austin!) can suggest? I’ve got a lot to do…Be back soon!