Articles By: Alysse Dalessandro

Alysse Dalessandro is a freelance culture writer based out of Chicago who usually covers topics ranging from fashion to film to feminism and personal finance. You can find her work on AOL’s Walletpop.com and the RedEye's Boystown blog. Even though she's been a vegetarian for six years, she still craves chicken fingers. She dines out regularly due mostly to her fear of cooking and does not consider herself a "foodie." However, she does consider herself a fake meat connoisseur and is glad her Boystown apartment is walking distance to vegetarian-dining gem, the Chicago Diner. Favorite tastes: The Buffalo Tofu Sandwich at Watercourse Foods in Denver and the Sweet & Sour Tofu at Szechwan Garden in Cleveland Least favorite tastes: Anything containing green peppers — I used to pretend I was allergic to them until I developed an allergy to peanuts and learned food allergies are no joking manner.

Alysse Dalessandro /

Threadcakes: Off the back and on to the oven rack

The night before the winners were announced for the 2009 Threadcakes competition, Jennifer Flynn had a dream she won. Later that evening, she found out that her dream was reality. She had won grand prize in the 3-D competition for her cake “Noah Express.” She never thought lightning would strike twice. She was in total shock when she was announced [...]

Alysse Dalessandro /

Quest: Chicago’s Best Veggie Dogs

Before fully earning my writing stripes, I spent three summers working guest services at a major league baseball stadium. In addition to learning the superstition in saying “this game is going really fast,” I saw firsthand just how much people care about hot dogs. People take hot dogs very seriously. In fact, Chicago has its very own hot dog pride [...]