This is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's first domestic structure in the United States, and it is a beautiful example of Minimalism. The house is located outside Chicago, but is worth the drive and the tour guides are pretty great. Due to flooding, the house and the property will undergo major preservation changes beginning in the next decade, so it's hard to tell how long the house will remain in it's current state.

The Green Mill is Chicago's oldest Jazz club, open since 1907. Today it is an authentic link to past visitors like Al Capone and his henchman “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn who was the club’s former manager.

The ONLY place to get fresh fish, H Mart is a mecca for Asian (particularly Korean) ingredients. Their huge store, out in the suburbs, was a haul, and their recent opening in the loop has made me super happy. Gorgeous range of seafood, marinated meats, kimchi, green tea mochi, korean fried chicken, soju, enoki mushrooms, purple yam; this place is da' bomb (in the best sense)!

Chicago is a gigantic open-air museum of hand painted signs and murals where you can still find gold leaf lettering in shop windows and ghost signs litter the city's brick walls. This handmade sign is on the wall of a Mexican garage near my apartment.

Located one block east of the historic Water Tower, the MCA champions the provocative side of contemporary art and culture. Their innovative exhibitions, performances, and programs are made to inspire. Founded in 1967 as a Kunsthalle (or non-collecting art gallery) the MCA is now one of the world’s largest museums dedicated to art since 1945. Since their inception, it has been their mission to exhibit new and experimental work artists in all media and to paired these with ambitious education programs. In 1974, the MCA expanded their mission to include collecting and preserving contemporary art for future generations with the inauguration of a permanent collection that has grown to include more than 2,000 works. After 29 years in a storefront on Ontario Street, the museum moved to their current location in 1996, giving their collection, exhibitions, and programming room to grow to meet the needs of 21st-century art and audiences.