The place that sticks out in my mind is Chiu Quon Bakery and Dim Sum. Chiu Quon is a Chinese bakery in the Vietnamese and Thai part of town, which they call Asia on Argyle. There’s a bunch of old guys hanging around in the back, reading the papers, having conversations, playing card games. They have really great hot milk teas, and they make these hand-rolled rice noodles, almost like Chinese cavatelli, if you will, but a little bit bigger.

They take a little scoop of it and pop it in the microwave for a second, and then they give it to you with your milk tea, with a little Sriracha on the side. It’s a spicy, satisfying, relatively healthy, quick little breakfast.

Another thing I really like for breakfast is pho or a savory, spicy soup. Nha Hang Vietnam Restaurant is a fantastic, family-run, from-scratch Vietnamese restaurant with an excellent bun cha ca noodle soup with pineapple, tomato, and fish cakes. The broth is delicious; nourishing and light, lots of vibrant flavors that kick off your day. They have the best bánh xèo in the city, as far as I'm concerned, and they do a super strong chicory coffee with condensed milk (I drink it with a spoon so I can eat some of the condensed milk that's on the bottom). It's a beautiful thing.

I usually drink the coffee at the bakery at Fat Rice, because it’s fantastic. We use Sparrow Coffee, an independent roaster. [Roaster] Chris Chacko works with a lot of the higher end restaurants in Chicago to give them the flavor profile that they need based on cuisine. He's really about how the coffee goes with the food, which is a cool thing that I don't think a lot of people really think about. He has a roasting facility out in Naperville, and they just opened a cafe downtown.