Archive for "Food and Drink"
Dining at Bonefish is Always an Experience
Posted on October 23, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It’s always a challenge to eat healthy during my birthday month because random restaurants send me coupons for stuff. And you know me. I just can’t resist. Though, over the last few years, I have gotten a bit more picky. I never pass up a chance to eat at Bonefish, though. Specially when they give me FREE bang bang shrimp.
Anymore if it’s just Brian and me then we just opt to eat in the bar area so we don’t have to make reservations and we don’t have to wait. Plus, we always seem to meet really cool people.
One time we were there we met Patty Armstrong who is in the Board of Directors of the Junior League of Wichita and her husband. I guess they are regulars because all the staff seemed to know them and the manager was really chummy with them. They were super nice and we had great dinner conversation, for a bunch of strangers.
It was really tough to get a seat at the bar on Saturday night, though. It was super packed. Brian and I were there later than usual too. We are a couple of old farts and prefer to go at five-ish. Anyway, we had to wait forever for an opening at one of the community tables. It made me think of Winston in one of the episodes of New Girl. The one where he saves all the seats by being all weird and trying to drive all the other diners away. It was just me and Brian so we didn’t have to do that, but if we were expecting others to join us and we didn’t have a reservation (not likely because Brian and I are anal and would always have reservations if we’re dining with a group of people but anyway) we agreed that we’d probably do the same thing. It made me laugh in my head. Sometimes I just do that. I think of something and it makes me laugh, but then I actually outwardly laugh and then other people are like, “What’s so funny?” but then you can’t explain it because it all happened in your head.
Anyway, this last time we didn’t really meet-meet people. There was another couple already at the table. I think they just gave up on waiting for their table and decided to eat dinner at the community table instead, but I could tell that probably isn’t something they normally do. Halfway through their meal their pager buzzed. I mean Brian and I purposefully choose to dine at the community table. Theirs was more accidental. We didn’t really get to visit with them much.
There was a young couple who sat across from us briefly. They seemed to be on a first date. I’m thinking they met on a dating web site. I don’t normally eavesdrop on people’s conversations, but I couldn’t help it. They were sitting across from me. Anyway, they left as soon as their table became available.
After they left another couple took their place. It was an old guy probably in his 50s. He wasn’t bad looking but definitely old. His date was a young girl about mid-twenties. Brian thought they were father and daughter at first but as soon as they started conversing with one another he caught on that they were on a date. Brian thought it was weird. I think he must have been putting out some kind of vibe because they ended up moving to the bar, or as far away from us as possible. Maybe our PDAs weren’t helping. Just kidding.
When they left I told Brian that I could tell they were on a date right off the bat just from how they looked and through their body language. And, I’m more open-minded when it comes to age differences. I don’t think it’s weird when people 20 years apart date. After about 25 everyone is pretty much the same age in my book. Plus, it’s one thing if you look ancient but I’ve seen some really hot-looking old dudes. Then again, my concept of hot is not the same as other women. For instance, Kevin Spacey in House of Cards is hot to me but other women will probably disagree.
Brian is turning 40 next year and I told him that he’s actually more attractive to me now than he ever has been. He looks better than he ever has physically but, aside from that, his salt and pepper hair is just plain sexy. I told him that I’d probably find him less attractive if he died his hair and actually looked younger. If he dressed in a nice business suit everyday, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Fortunately, he dresses like a slob (just kidding, but very casual nonetheless) most days so I can at least function and not act like a googly-eyed girl, daydreaming all day. If were in my twenties and met him as he is now, I would totally date him and I would feel the least bit oogie about it. I’d actually be all over it. Seriously. If I were single, I’d actually prefer dating older men to guys my age.
But I digress… Besides the great food, the dining experience at Bonefish is always interesting. Specially if you opt to eat in the bar area. Until next time!
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Oh Yeah!
Posted on October 12, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Where do you take a vegetarian friend to dinner? Oh Yeah! of course. LOL.
Here’s the appetizer sampler that I always get because it has a bunch of things I like.
I think I got the Mongolian beef but honestly can’t can’t remember. Whatever it was that I had, it was good. LOL.
Brian had something like sweet and sour chicken. No surprise there.
These are Christina’s soy patties.
Cookies!
Dinner was the hand off. After dinner, Christina and I went on to the Orpheum for MOMIX: Botanica 2013 while Brian went home to wait for his friends to come over.
MOMIX: Botanica was amazing, by the way. I was in awe of the performance the entire time. The best, most creative dancing I have ever seen. I’m so glad that Christina invited me to go with her. I couldn’t believe that there were empty seats in the auditorium. Wichitans have no idea what they missed. Seriously.
Same with Oh Yeah! I think this is one of the best kept secrets of Wichita. People who have never been don’t know what they’re missing. Seriously.
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Breakfast at Curly’s American Diner
Posted on October 8, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I took grandma out to breakfast on Saturday after my Zumba class.
Grandma and our friend Brandy who we hadn’t seen in a long time. I think the last time we saw her was at the old Highlands and that was almost five years ago.
Brandy and Brian have a moment.
Believe it or not, all grandma wanted was a waffle. I’m thinking we probably need to buy a waffle maker so we can make her some waffles next time we serve brunch at the house. LOL.
Brian got the loaded biscuits (see the description below). They’re a lot like the “breakfast gumbo” that Brian always orders by piecing together several items off the menu at every diner or breakfast eatery we try. They really should rename this menu item “The Brian” – LOL.
I got the courthouse scramble, which is pretty much everything else scrambled together in a skillet. I asked for it without onions because I just don’t like onions.
I had the option of getting Texas toast, pancake, or biscuit with gravy with my meal. I opted for the biscuit with gravy because I was really hungry.
The quality of the food at Curly’s is pretty mediocre but they seem to have a good following. The one thing that I do like about Curly’s is the friendly service.
Brandy is phenomenal. I think even if she didn’t know us we still would have received fantastic service. That’s why she’s the most highly sought after server at the restaurant.
There are so many great breakfast options in town. If I were to let the food be my guide, I’d probably have breakfast elsewhere… Like at home… Brian makes a kick butt breakfast spread. LOL. Kidding aside, if you do see me at Curly’s again, know that I’m not there for the food. I’m there for Brandy and her great customer service.
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Friday Night at Sabor
Posted on October 7, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We found ourselves back in Old Town on Friday night because Jorge and Ray invited us to join them and their customers for dinner. I love dining with these guys because they always pick great places to eat. The pick for Friday night was Sabor, one of my favorites in Old Town.
Here’s a picture of Brian with Ray.
A picture of me with Jorge and Yanila.
We got to try several starters. This one is the queso, which is really good.
This is the shrimp ceviche, which is also really good.
Of course, you can’t go to Sabor and not get the platanutres. The only thing I didn’t get a picture of were the fried calamari, which ordered several of but they would never last long enough for me to get a picture. Obviously, they were really good as well.
Here are some pictures of several entrees.
There were 25 of us at dinner that night. I couldn’t get a picture of everyone’s dinner because the rest of our group were just too far away. They had to put our table in an L formation because there were just so many of us.
Nonetheless, the pictures you see above represent the wonderful variety of entree options you can get at Sabor. Can you tell which one I had?
Here’s a picture of the delicious mango cheesecake. Brian’s not a cheesecake kind of guy but he actually liked this.
This one is fried cheesecake. We also had flan, but I missed taking a picture of it. Although, I have made a mental note that Brian likes the flan they serve at Sabor which is a big plus for me because I love flan. I just can’t have it often because Brian rarely ever likes it.
Here’s a picture of our large group. We practically shut Sabor down on Friday night.
I wished that Suede was still open because I had a feeling the Latin American guys would have kept the party going. And, you know how much Latin Americans love to dance. Oh, well.
Hopefully Suede reopens again soon because we really need a nice salsa club downtown. I miss dancing salsa. And, dancing would have helped me burn all the extra calories I ate that evening. The extra calories were super delicious and totally worth it though. Be sure to check out Suede if you haven’t been there in a while or at all.
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Il Vicino at Bradley Fair
Posted on October 6, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We’d been eating out a lot lately because Brian and I had been out of town over the last few weeks and we didn’t have anything in the fridge. We actually didn’t get groceries done until the other day. Brian went to the Dillons in Andover while I was in Zumba class. In the meantime we had no choice but to eat out.
We hit Il Vicino after the Wichita Flight Festival last Sunday because we hadn’t been there in a while and we’d almost forgotten how much we like it. I had at least until I saw Mama Dill’s post about going to Il Vicino.
Not being overly adventurous, we stuck with our usual: Caesar salad with chicken and a vespa. We normally split both.
I forgot to ask for them to leave the anchovies off. I don’t mind them but Brian doesn’t like anchovies so he had to pick them off.
Here’s what the vespa looks like. It has chicken, spinach, and tomatoes. I love all the flavor that they put in the chicken. I also add a splash of that delicious spicy oil they have at the table for even more flavor. So yummy!
Anyway, Brian was cleaning his wallet yesterday and found an old frequent buyer card from when we used to go to Il Vicino all the time. We had already gotten enough stamps for a free pizza or sandwich. Ugh. We could have used it last weekend when we went. Oh, well. I guess we will just have to go back. LOL.
Speaking of going back, when we go back to attend the Wichita Flight Festival next year, we are going to have to wear sunblock because Brian got one heck of a sunburn that day. He was redder than the tomatoes in our sandwich!
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