#i actually worked on this a lil bit more while waiting for my pasta dough to set

[highway-stars]

Goodbye then. Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go hollow.

[justsomefluff]

Okay this might be a lil weird but what about an ateez reaction to making frog bread together during quarentined :3

this is so cute, anon!! my friend made frog bread a couple weeks ago and it looked so good lmao

Also! None of the pictures of frog bread are mine, Google aided me on this one.

Hongjoong: 

He is gonna bake the cutest frog ever

He’s gonna knead the dough like the kitty he is

And then he’s gonna ask you to help him shape the lil friend

Also, there’s no stopping him, he’s naming this frog

This frog is going to be his illegitimate child okay

You’re gonna coparent like pros

I mean, until you eat the poor thing, of course

Joong is definitely gonna make sure to do all the stuff thats even kind of dangerous

Like you need food scissors to open a new bag of ingredients? Joongie will do it

Need to put the dough in the preheated oven? Joongie will do it

And while you guys are waiting for the froggie friend to bake, you will start making dinner to go along with the bread

Once everything is finished, and the oven timer goes off, Joongie is so 

excited to see the finished product

You open the oven and see your perfect lil frog baby (shout out to Frog Baby at my uni lmao)

I mean he’s a lil wonky but thats okay you still love him

You make sure to take plenty of pictures with your creation before you end up dipping his eyes in your pasta sauce O.O

Seonghwa:

Seonghwa’s frog is going to be perfect okay

Like he will take this project very seriously

He will sculpt this frog with the utmost patience and gentleness

And he won’t let you touch it

Like if you even try to help him he will shun you

Full kick you out of the kitchen without question

And if you try to distract him, he will send you the absolute dirtiest glare

Do not mess with Mama Hwa while he is making frog bread

But if you really want to be in the kitchen with him, he will allow you to start making your actual dinner 

Will allow one (1) back-hug when you pass by him

And once dinner is ready, he will be so proud of his froggie

He will make you close your eyes and make it a big reveal

Has the cutest, proudest smile on his face

And he will tell you to open your eyes and be like “isn’t my son perfect”

“Don’t you mean our son?”

“No, you did nothing”

“YOU WOULDNT LET ME”

“BECAUSE HE IS MY MASTERPIECE”

But forreal his froggie is so perfect, unmatched honestly

Yunho:

Yunho is going to make this a competition okay

Who can make the best frog bread

So you both make lil biscuit sized froggie friends 

While they are baking, you are both having a very intense debate about whose will be the better froggie

Who will have the most attractive frog

Long story short, the oven timer beeps and you both whip your heads towards the sound

Like its so dramatic

You race towards the oven and fling it open

Cue dramatic heavenly music

Now cue a doom and gloom sound effect bc your froggie has flattened completely

Yunho is hysterical and laughing bc your frog has stuck itself to the pan and its entire underside is burned

And Yunho’s little biscuit is a little bit burned, but mostly perfect

You’re pouting at him bc your poor little froggie didn’t work out the way you had wanted

Then he feels bad and he carves a smile into his lil froggie’s face

Promises to share his froggie biscuit with you so that you won’t feel too sad that yours got destroyed

Yeosang:

Yeosang is turning this into the messiest arts and crafts project you’ve ever done in your life

Full on food fighting with you

Super cheesy and cute

Tossing flour all over the place

You both have so much flower in your hair that it just looks like bad dandruff at this point

You both take plenty of pictures of you laughing together and being covered in flour

It’s actually super cute until you remember that you’ll have to clean up when you’re all finished

Somehow the frog eventually gets in the oven

You pass the time waiting for the froggie to finish by cleaning up the kitchen

Once that timer beeps, both of you look at each other

You’re kind of nervous to see how he turned out, seeing that you guys had messed around the entire time

But surprisingly, the froggie comes out looking decent!

You’re both super excited to eat him though

Yeosang’s immediately like “should we eat his legs first?” Lmao

San:

San’s frog bread making experience is pretty much the most romantic baking date you’ll ever have

He’s singing softly the entire time

Laughing quietly whenever either of you cracks a joke

Will totally dance with you while you wait for the bread to finish baking

Like its so sweet and romantic the whole time

But then the oven dings

And you’re both so excited to see the finished product

The oven opens… and the romance is gone

Because both of you are literally rolling on the ground laughing so hard

Like its a recognizable attempt

Its just that, instead of frog bread, it looks like “a frog that got smushed bread”

He’s just really really flat

Almost fills the entire pan with his flatness

Tears are running down both of your faces as you cackle like Dr. Frankenstein over your creation

“FLAT BOIIIIII”

But he tasted good and I guess thats all that really matters

Mingi:

Okay so when you start out it actually looks pretty good right

Super cute, kind of cartoony frog child 

You and Mingi are having a blast while making it too

Playing music super loud and dancing around like maniacs

Literally screaming lyrics in each others faces

Just having a good time together and you’re both super happy

You kind of cool off a little and do some dishes while you’re waiting for your froggie to finish baking

When the oven timer finally dings you both rush over to see the finished product

“WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM”

“I DONT KNOW HE LOOKS LIKE THE CRAB FROM MOANA”

“AHHHH” “AHHHHH”

But then you’re laughing bc I mean look at him lmao

“We tried, I guess”

And you really did try, so you just giggled at it

forgive me froggie for we have sinned

Then you put your frog abomination on a pretty plate

And waited for him to cool so you could try a piece of the bread

Wooyoung:

Okay first of all

Wooyoungie is going to want to make a dozen mini froggies for all of his friends okay

He will make a dozen of these lil guys just to make sure he has enough to share

He will have you help him and you try to make them all as identical as possible

And after a painstaking hour of molding dough into perfect little froggie shapes: its time for the oven

While you’re waiting for the bread to bake, you do the dishes and he thanks you sincerely for helping him make these little treats

He’s really proud and excited about giving these to the members because he knows how much time and effort you had both spent to make these perfect

Once the oven timer dings, you guys pull the little froggie friends out and place them on a baking stand to cool down

He takes pictures of each one and will serve them up specifically for each member

Baker Wooyoung is just the softest baby okay

Jongho:

This boy is going to make an entire froggie family and you cannot stop him

Will end up being cheesy and be like “thats you and thats me”

“And these are our babies”

And he’s so excited

He will name the little baby ones

And he’s discussing with you super seriously

“What about this name? No? We can choose another one”

Will literally look up baby names for inspiration

Like oh its serious

Once they’re finished baking

He’s going to plate them up so that they look like a family and they’re all cuddled up together

And he will take a picture of them

Then photoshop the babies names on them

And he will be like “which of the parent frogs do you want to be?”

And once you pick the one you want to be, he will photoshop your names in the picture too

Then he sends a picture to the ateez group chat and of course the guys are like ewwwwnoooo until their girlfriends say that they want to do it too lmao

[abiteofnat]

CINDY’S WOOFTOP WAS A HIT...

Cause you can’t help going up there without emitting a “WOOF!” from the views, the foods, the tunes, and the unbelievably hip-yet-understated atmosphere. Atop The Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, a “Venetian Gothic” building from the 1890s (So old! So Cool! Read more about it here), sits Cindy’s Rooftop- better known as the holy ground of fancy drinks & after-work shenanigans. This is not where you bring Aunt Sally from South Dakota when she comes to Chicago to see the Big City; this is where you bring your insanely fashionable and cool mom for her, uh, 45th birthday dinner and where your dad may walk in and find you sitting at the Hamptons-lake-house-chic wooden tables drinking a glass of fine Villa Maria Riesling because everyone is 25 minutes late and you CANNOT sit in Cindy’s without a glass in your hand.

Fun fact: I drank that same wine three weeks ago when I walked out of my last DePaul University undergrad class e v e r and my wine-loving, wild-eyed best friend Sophia essentially made us gallop to Cindy’s for a  $14 drink to celebrate a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of tuition DONE! We stood on the balcony that overlooks the entirety of Chicago’s best parts, from Millennium Park to where the museums all sit along the water and a million boats & buildings in-between, and suddenly as we sipped wine and discussed our favorite university memories fireworks began shooting off the end of Navy Pier and created a beautiful display of glittering light in the sky. Is that not the city- which was my campus, as DePaul loves to say- sending me off into adulthood with the best goodbye??

Anyway, back to Mum’s celebration and discussion of libations. Once the party had arrived we settled into our favorite family activities: discussing the surroundings, the people, and of course the menu! Cindy’s offers an interesting mix between “vintage, beach-town chic” and “Anthropologie home section” so it’s a lot of soft tan & striped pillows, pebbled plates in soothing seaside colors, and then a lot of exposed wood and rope detail. But in a building from a very elegant time, so it’s done tastefully and for socialites that would have enjoyed it just as much in their whalebone corsets and hairpins as they did in ASOS rompers and wedges. The menu- ugh, this menu was made with my family in mind. Since we all stay pretty pescatarian (outside of chicken that the rest of them eat), we struggle to find places with plenty of options to share and taste amongst each other without it all being “salad.” Cindy’s got us covered though. After watching it go by a thousand times, the Bucatini Carbonara was mandatory. Imagine the most beautiful bowl of thick, spaghetti-like noodles cooked al-dente and tossed in crème fraîche & pecorino romano with peas stirred in; the texture was unreal. The sauce was thick but not too rich, the peas were the perfect punch of sweet and refreshing against the drama of the ground pepper, and the cheese on top must be straight outta Italy’s best cheese place because holy fuck. I could have just eaten that with a fork and been down ditty down down down.

We also got the Burrata- pictured- that came with a halo of “heirloom cucumber, seasonal citrus fruit, winter chicories, spiced pecans, citrus vinaigrette” (courtesy of their menu which worded it perfectly) and came with a grilled ciabatta that tasted like how bread should taste. The bread slathered with some salty, succulent burrata and then toped with a cucumber, greens, and a sour as heck grapefruit slice was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever bit into. The Crunchy Lettuces that were also part of our appetizer played into this; served in a thick peppercorn dressing and almost like a heavy plate of grub itself, the shaved carrots and roughage served as a great compliment to the light and very dessert-y feel of the burrata. This dish was the one my mom was most apprehensive of as it arrived due to hOW dressed with dressing it was, but then she ended up being the one using the excess to garnish EVERY OTHER PART OF THE MEAL. It was that good! We finished out the meal with some salmon fillets served on kale and cooked up just as salmon should be: smoky, cooked well, and flaking onto the fork easy breezy. I love love love how simple a good piece of salmon is; the buttery, crunchy exterior and a soft, flavorful inside reminds me why more people are vegetarian. Meat IS good! But that lil piece of salmon is just as far as I’ll go on these fancy splurge days. Sorry Salmon Sam :(

All in all, we were absolutely shocked by how incredible the level of food was. With views like Cindy’s offers, and the fact it’s in the heart of downtown along where a million offices are and where high class travelers staying in the dozens of local hotels can wander out for a night of wine and flirtation with coworkers, it’s a gold mine. They don’t actually need to be creating such well-done and carefully curated food, but they do, and it’s really amazing to know that some places just CARE about the dining experience of the customers. I get worried in big cities where people will go out to dinner even if the sky is falling- and where deep dish is considered a high-ticket item. Vom. I am very thankful to Cindy’s for the wonderful service (we put our waiter through hell with the amount of specifications we have and also because we’re very loud and cannot decide what to order to share when it is time, like ever) and also because I carried in a dozen Firecakes Donuts as they are Mum’s favorite and they immediately whisked them away to a cooler place AND served them on a slate platter WITH CANDLES FOR US! And brought them out for a birthday surprise! It was beyond wonderful and worth way more than the BYOD (bring your own donuts) fee they charged per head for us to do that.

Go to Cindy’s for that anniversary dinner coming up, for post-work drinks to impress your friends, to show off that new dress that’s begging for somewhere to go, and most importantly- FOR THAT FUCKIN’ PASTA OH MY GOODNESS. We left dinner for a sunset walk around The Bean feeling happily full and having had a great family birthday dinner, which is something I am always grateful to be able to do.

Should you think, “wow this is great for (insert occasion here)”, follow these tips!

1. MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER. This isn’t even a question mark, it is an exclamation point. We made 5 p.m. reservations and it was already pretty buzzing when we got there, and we were very thankful for a table amidst the amount of standing drinkers. It only got more full.

2. On that note, GO EARLY. You will want to see the city from when it’s entirely sunny and alive to when the sun is going down and the entire place is filled by the golden hour. It is so, so beautiful and you have a better chance of being on the outside patio for at least a few minutes while waiting for food to arrive.

3. SHAKE SHACK IS LOCATED DOWNSTAIRS. Unless you’re also planning to BYOD, grab a chocolate concrete with chocolate truffle cookie dough on your way out. Cute end to a date, too!

Until Next Time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie