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Good Eats, St. Louis

Posted on December 26, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

Recalling some of the food we ate while we were in St. Louis a couple of months ago… The first place we tried was Truck Norris in Ellisville because it was close to both MPC Ellisville and our hotel in Chesterfield. This place originated as a food truck, which ended up getting wrecked so then they had to find a brick and mortar. Thus, Truck Norris, the restaurant, came to be.

Brian found this place while googling restaurants nearby with good reviews.

They have lots of beers on tap but are most known for their “totchos” – short for tater tot nachos, which ironically we did not have. We should have tried it but we only found out after we had already ordered our food.

Here are some pictures of the food we did have…

The next day we had lunch at a place called Ukraft in downtown St. Louis after checking out the Gateway Arch. It was highly recommended by one of the employees we met at the Arch. It was also just a short walk so we didn’t have to move our car.

I honestly don’t even remember what we ordered but we both enjoyed our meals. The chips were homemade and they gave you a generous helping. Our sandwiches and my side of slaw was good. My favorite part, however, was the brunch punch. It was alcoholic but tasted like fruit juice.

Later that evening we met up with my friend Christie Pink and her partner Travis at Billy G’s, a local restaurant chain.

Here are some pics of our dinner.

After dinner, we went to check out this place called the District which is an entertainment area with a music/event venue (the Factory), and several restaurants and bars.

We walked around and checked out a couple of places including a local brewery. It was a little bit chilly that night, which I wasn’t quite prepared for, so we didn’t get to enjoy much of the outdoor space but overall I found the District pretty cool. Will have to return to check it out over the summer or some other time when there’s better weather.

Anyway, that was pretty much the dining we had during our quick St. Louis getaway. The dining was mostly a side thing, though. Our main mission that weekend was for me to check off the St. Charles Chicken N Pickle location, which we accomplished. Five more locations to go!

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April’s Birthday at Napoli

Posted on November 14, 2025 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.

We had such a wonderful time celebrating April’s birthday at Napoli. This was actually a couple of months ago but I’m super behind on posting here.

We enjoyed some fabulous food and drinks in addition to the wonderful company. It’s always great to see these guys because I don’t feel like we get to spend enough time together. Everyone is just so busy.

Food pics…

And the drinks… I only got a couple of pics, though.

Our friends are huge fans of Napoli. We love Napoli too but I think our go to for Italian right now is FioRito. The food is fantastic and it’s more centrally located. What about you all? Which Italian restaurant is your favorite?

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Crispy & Co HaneBe

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian and I found a new fried chicken place we love on the West side of town. And, no, it isn’t Raising Cane’s — although we do love us some Raising Cane’s as well.

This place is called Crispy & Co HaneBe and it went in the old Planet Sub space on Central and Maize. One of the best things about this place is you can get chicken, tacos, rice, and boba — all under one roof. We’ve been a few times now and we’ve enjoyed our food every time.

Food pics…

Here’s their current weekly special schedule (NOTE: Current as of October 2025. Depending on when you’re reading this, it might change so please don’t be mad at me.)

Manic Monday – All drinks are 50% OFF from 2 PM to 5 PM.
Taco Tuesday – Buy 1 order of chicken tacos and get the 2nd order at 50% OFF.
Wild Bowl Wednesday – $2 OFF all rice bowls.
Thirsty Thursday – All fruit teas and lemonades are 50% OFF.
Fry-Day – Any side of fries (includes sweet potato fries), tater tots, and onion rings are 50% OFF.

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Road Trip to Allen

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

Since I wrote about Chama already, I won’t write about it again. However, I will use this post to write about all the other things we did that weekend. As you know, we were down in the DFW area celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary in August but we found ourselves back there again last month for the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event in Allen, Texas.

For most of our road trips, we try to stay at Hyatt Place because (a) they are pet friendly and only charge a $75 pet cleaning fee, and (b) I can use my Chase Rewards points. On this visit, we stayed at the Hyatt Place in Allen, TX. I had to take picture of the door because their address number is 333, which is a throwback to our Texas hold’em days.

Saki is such a good girl. We love taking her on road trips whenever we can.

We met our friend Laurie Adams for happy hour at the Lazy Dog down the street from our hotel on Friday night. This was actually a wonderful surprise because I originally thought we would have to drive to Grapevine. Come to find out, there are several Lazy Dog locations throughout Texas and there was one about five minutes from our hotel.

Here are some pictures of our food.

You can’t go for happy hour and not have any drinks, obviously. So here are some drink pics. The cocktail sampler was not part of the happy hour specials but I still had to try it.

The next day, I played in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador team event at the Allen, TX CNP alongside Laure, Bee Bandasack, and Tom Pham.

We had dozens of ambassadors from at least seven Chicken N Pickle locations converge for some friendly competition. It was a great time!

Here’s a little highlight video I made of the event:

It was such a fabulous weekend. I can’t wait to do it all again.

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Brian’s First Sriracha Burnt Ends Since Cancer Treatments

Posted on October 6, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.

It’s been almost a year since he’s had his favorite starter at one of our most favorite lunch spots, Local Flavor. If you’ve never had the sriracha burnt ends there, we highly recommend it. Well, mostly Brian. I think it’s excellent but just too spicy for my taste. I can only handle a bite or two before it’s too much.