Archive for "Food and Drink"
Itzcali Tapas & Tequila Revisited
Posted on April 25, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
The first time I tried Itzcali Tapas & Tequila, I really didn’t like it. Fast forward to one year later and I’m kind of changing my tune.
Chris Townley and I ate there for lunch a couple of months ago. This time I decided to try their horchata, which was super creamy and really good. It pretty much set the tone for the meal.
I ordered the elote and it was also excellent.
Normally you would have birria as a taco but Itzcali offers it in different forms so Chris and I had it two different ways that day. I had the birria soup and Chris had the birria flatbread pizza.
My birria soup was delicious. This lunch is truly what changed my feelings about Itzcali. So, when Chris suggested we have lunch there again a few weeks ago. I was like, sure. I really liked it the last time — thinking of our most recent visit and not the first one (which I didn’t really like).
On this next visit, I opted for the cucumber aqua fresca. It was amazing. It’s now my most favorite drink to get there.
I had the bowl with pork al pastor (above) for lunch. The presentation was 100x better than the first bowl I got there. Chris had a quesadilla (below) but I cannot remember what meat he chose. He said it was good, though.
Anyway, I like Itzcali so much now that I actually didn’t mind eating there twice in the same week. The same week that Chris and I had lunch there, I met our friends Grant and Susie Ternes and Brian there for lunch too. Chris and I went on Tuesday and I was back again on Friday. Grant and Susie had been there before but it was Brian’s first time.
Here’s a picture of the restaurant interior, which is interesting and unique. There’s no other place that looks like this in Wichita.
This was the day of Brian’s follow up with Dr. Chris Dakhil, when we found out the results of his PET scan. Everything looked good.
I had to get my favorite drink!
Susie went for something stronger.
The rest of the pics that follow are pictures of our lunch.
We don’t really have a lot of tapas places here in Wichita so I am grateful to have found one I like. I feel like this place struggled in the beginning but it looks like they’re finally finding their groove. It’s now on my permanent rotation. Let me know if you have other tapas places you like that we should check out.
No Comments
A Pitch Perfect Saturday
Posted on April 23, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink, Movies, Things to Do.
The day started out how most of our days start – with coffee. I finally got Brian to try Adelitas Coffee Co (formerly Las Adelitas).
While there, we were joined by our good friends Jay and Becca Dill. And then, sure enough, Chris Townley my coffee-run bestie from work, comes walking up. The five of us ended up hanging out for a bit that morning. Jay and Becca had just returned from their European adventure. It was nice catching up.
Later that night, I had some friends come over for a Pitch Perfect movie night which all came about because I found out my friend Susie Ternes had never seen Pitch Perfect, one of my most favorite movies of all time.
From left: Cindy Egan, Megan Phillips-Nighswonger, me, Monica McGehee, and Susie. Cindy had the idea to make it a pajama party.
Susie said she wanted to be there for Brian’s first bite of Ziggy’s pizza post cancer treatments so we decided to serve Ziggy’s pizza and wings that night. Brian fixed himself some food before retiring to the office to play video games.
We only got through 2 movies that night — Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 — so we still need another movie night for Pitch Perfect 3. Although, I did watch the third movie a week or so later because I just couldn’t help myself. LOL.
No Comments
Gyoza Bar
Posted on April 21, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Super late post but Chris Townley and I finally got around to checking out Gyoza Bar last month. We started with some pan-fried dumplings because you can’t go to a gyoza bar without getting gyoza.
More pics of our lunch follow…
No Comments
All You Can Eat Crab Legs for Pi Day
Posted on March 17, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Celebrated Pi Day this year by eating “all you can eat” crab legs at Rock & Brews in Braman, OK. From left: Hai Nguyen, Chris Reyes, Aelisa Carter, Susie Ternes, and Grant Ternes. Chris, Hai, and I carpooled with Susie and Grant; while Hai and Chris’ friend Aelisa met us at the casino.
The $65 “all you can eat” price includes a small salad to start, corn on the cob, potatoes, unlimited crab legs, and ice cream for dessert. I think Hai normally skips the salad (to save more room for crab legs) but he got peer-pressured into getting it on this trip.
The drinks are extra so I limited myself to only one margarita.
All of us started off with plates like these — corn, potato, two clusters of crab legs, and a tub of butter.
The server regularly comes around to get additional drink orders and empty the shell/discard bucket. Then there’s another guy who comes around and brings you more crab legs as you finish your clusters. I thought I could eat crab legs but I didn’t realize I was going with a bunch of pros. They made me feel like a 2.5 — for real. Aelisa busted out her gloves and Chris and Hai were ready for more crab legs before I could even finish my first cluster.
Susie, Grant, and I were no match for these three.
We all got ice cream at the end and then walked off our dinner by exploring the casino area (and donating some cash to the gambling gods).
I think they are normally not this slow on a Friday night but that was the night of the big wind storm. I suspect a lot of people opted to stay home. It worked out in our favor because I was told they sometimes will run out of crab legs when they are super busy. There was plenty to go around that night.
Anyway, Aelisa had the right idea with the gloves. I ended up cutting my thumb and didn’t find it until the next morning. I knew I had cut myself because, when I was wiping my hand with a wet nap, I kept getting bloody spots all over it but, every time I would stop, I couldn’t find where the cut was. I would look at my hands and nothing was bleeding but as soon as I wiped my hands with a wet nap, the towelette would get bloody again. I knew I had cut myself. I just didn’t know where. So, when Hai washed his hands with lemon juice at the end, I opted not to use lemon juice because I was afraid it would hurt like hell. So I just went to the restroom and washed my hands with soap and water after. I still could not find the cut and I didn’t see it until the next morning.
The unlimited crab legs was so good. I don’t even mind getting injured. At least I know for next time to bring a pair of gloves. LOL. Let me know if anyone wants to go and we can all carpool. I would totally do this again!
No Comments
KC Food From Last Weekend
Posted on March 14, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We got to enjoy a delicious dinner at Red Door Woodfired Grill (Liberty) last weekend. I think Susie picked the spot and it was a home run. We knew it was going to be good when we could hardly find a parking spot. At first, when we couldn’t find parking, the girls were thinking we might have to go elsewhere. I’m glad we persisted because it was totally worth it.
Monica and I both ordered the surf and turf tacos, except she ordered a side of Brussels sprouts to go with hers.
Susie had a margarita.
And I had this delicious “sweater weather” drink.
The next day, we hit a church parking lot to try Taqueria Ibarra food truck on our way back to Wichita after the pickleball tournament.
I just had a basic rice bowl but I thought it was really good. I chose pork al pastor for my meat and it had excellent flavor.
Susie had a combo platter that came with a quesabirria that she could not stop raving about. She said she would totally drive back up for it. Her quesabirria reminded me of lunch at Itzcali Tapas & Tequila a few weeks ago with my friend Chris. We had birria two different ways. He has his on a flatbread pizza, while I had mine as a soup.
Here are pics from that lunch.
I think I might have to take Susie there because I know she will really like it. Tonight we are going for some all-you-can-eat crab legs at the Rock & Brews Casino in Braman, OK. Stay tuned for a post about that. Until next time!
No Comments
