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Kirstie Alley at Hana Cafe

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink, Moblog.

We saw Kirstie Alley dining at Hana Cafe last week. What are the odds?

As I mentioned before, my 31st birthday fell on the day we arrived in Grand Cayman which also happened to be the second formal night. The first formal night was on Monday night and that was the night I didn’t dress up, but forced myself to go to the formal dining room anyway because it was lobster night. Brian and I did dress up for the second formal night. It was my birthday after all.

Here are some photos…

Richard and his niece Bethany. Bethany was actually at the spa that same day. After our treatment Brian made a comment that he thought he heard Bethany’s voice. We found out at dinner that it was really her. She was in the room either next to or close to ours. I think we heard her as she was coming down the hallway.

Richard arrived to dinner late because he had a spa treatment that day as well. He had some sort of special shave treatment. They must have given him the works because his shave thing lasted about two hours, from 4 pm to 6 pm. Dinner starts at 6 pm so he had to change really quickly and head to the dining room.

Shawn and Kylie. Shawn and Kylie both work for WPTAPL in Florida. Shawn also works as a dealer at a local casino so he is probably the most experienced dealer on the trip. Kylie has been with WPTAPL for three years or so now. She is a teacher by day and a WPTAPL regional manager by night. She is the of her kind. There are no more RMs except for Kylie because all the other regions have gone to a “sanctioned league” format.

We got to spend a lot of time with Kylie because the was in the poker room almost the entire time. She was our boss when the bosses weren’t around. I felt really bad because the guys picked on her quite a bit. One night Brent and Frank (and maybe Shawn was in it, too, I don’t remember who all was in on it — I just know I wasn’t) pulled a prank on her by hiding the money envelope. They let her search for a really long time and wouldn’t tell her where they hid it. I didn’t think it was funny. They finally told her that they hid it inside Frank’s backpack.

Except for the first night when Kurt and Shane dismissed Brian and I early (by early I mean before 1 am) because there was only one cash table going, we pretty much stayed with Kylie almost every night. We didn’t want to leave her by herself. There was actually one night when we were there past 3 am. We were trying to transfer photos to each other’s flash drives after all the players had left. We finally just gave up on it because our flash drives kept running out of space and it was taking too long. =P I liked Kylie a lot. I hope we get to see her again.

This is us. No further explanation need. =P

And finally, the bosses and their wives… Kurt and Kathy.

Jen and Shane.

Brian and I didn’t really get to spend very much time with Kathy and Jen except for at the night of the private party because we all went to the Degas lounge for the Rocky Horror Picture Show afterward. Jen and Shane each performed a song for us while we were waiting for RHPS to start. They are one talented couple.

As for Kurt, this trip pretty much affirmed my first impressions from years ago when we first started playing poker at the APL HQ (before Doyle Brunson and WPT) when APL was still APL. He is a really savvy businessman and very, very smart — quick on his toes and good with words. He could probably make camping in the dessert sound like a fun vacation. Look up “intelligent entrepreneur” and you’ll see his photo. He is a pretty good boss.

Shane is a good boss too but he still kind of scares me. Most of the times I’ve seen him at the HQ, he’s looked angry. He’s just a really intimidating type of guy. From what I understand, his reputation is not exactly without merit but he has mellowed down a lot over the years. I am told (Shane actually says so himself) that the Shane today is way, way better than Shane form years ago.

Anyway, people get so busy chatting in the poker room that they don’t pay attention whenever someone makes an announcement. However, as soon as Shane says something everyone quiets down and listens. Some might say that Shane has a louder voice than everyone else, but I think it’s because he is intimidating. I know I’m thinking, “This guy is scary. I better pay attention.”

At dinner one night Shane goes, “I don’t know why people are so afraid of me. I’m really super nice.” I said, “Maybe just nice. Super nice is a bit of a stretch.” Sometimes your mouth just opens before your brain can stop it. Shane didn’t seem offended and Kurt found the comment was funny so it’s all good. I didn’t get fired or thrown off the boat or anything.

Anyway, Brian told our dining room server it was my birthday so they came out and sang “Happy Birthday” as I blew my candle. Brian tried to get a big cake, but was told that you had to order those at least 24 hours in advance to allow them time to make and decorate the cake.

That’s probably what happened to Brent’s request on Tuesday night. He asked them to bring a whole anniversary cake for Jen and Shane and they only got a slice also. I’m guessing he didn’t ask for it 24 hours before either.

Brent said he told the staff and he was told that they would take care of it so he was expecting a whole cake and even told Jen and Shane not to order dessert. Most of the crew are foreign so I’m guessing something was lost in translation. Jen and Shane got a slice of diet cheesecake (I think that’s what it was, if I remember correctly) with two candles on it.

We had a good laugh about it afterward, but I thought that was a sweet and thoughtful gesture on Brent’s part. It was great getting to know Brent more on this trip (with bunking with him and Dan in Conroe and everything). Now, he is super nice.

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Triple Celebration

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Food and Drink, Life.

We met at Carrabba’s for lunch today for a triple celebration: grandpa Clark’s 91st birthday, grandma and grandpa’s 67th wedding anniversary, and my 31st birthday. Since the events all happen in October (grandpa’s birthday and their wedding anniversary are both on the 12th and my birthday is on the 30th), we usually just get together for one big celebration.

This year it was even more important to celebrate early because Brian and I will be out of town on the day of my birthday. We will actually be aboard the Carnival Conquest tendered in Grand Cayman on that day.

Lunch today was a blast. Our party of 12 consisted of David, Donna, grandpa Clark, grandma Betty, Chad, Chad, Jay, Becca, Cory, April, Brian and myself. I think everyone had a good time. Joe stopped by our table and talked with grandma and grandpa a bit. I think they really liked that.

After our meal, they brought us complimentary desserts. Joe had them bring a full-sized dessert for each of us — grandpa, grandma, and me — and even an extra one for everyone else to share (we had two sogno di cioccolatas and two dessert rosas to share). The desserts were yummy!

As if that weren’t enough, Joe comped grandma and grandpa’s meals. We were really confused at first when they brought our ticket. Brian found the mozzarella sticks, the calamari, carafe of sangria, and our meal on there but couldn’t find grandpa’s meal.

We had agreed beforehand that Brian’s parents would pay for grandma’s and then we would take grandpa’s. Brian was worried that both meals ended up on David and Donna’s ticket by mistake. So he checked theirs and didn’t find grandma’s meal on there either, that’s when our server came by and explained that Joe had comped the two meals. We thought that was way cool of Joe and totally unexpected.

Carrabba’s rocks and Joe is the best!

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Monterrey Mexican Grill

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian was feeling generous after his magnificent poker win so we decided to take his mom and dad out to dinner and a movie. The movie we had planned on in advance, but they originally had dinner plans with Bill and Lisa. Their plans fell through, so we figured the four of us could have dinner instead.

Since we invited them to dinner, we had them pick the restaurant. They picked Monterrey. We had never been there before so I figured it would be a good time to try it. Never again. We are going to pick the restaurants from now on. =P

We live on the Northeast side of town so we always drive by it, going to and from various places. We’d always wondered what the food was like, but never ventured in. I guess our instincts were correct.

Monterrey has got to be the most insignificant restaurant that has ever opened. Seriously. Notice how there are no pictures of food above. That’s because the food wasn’t picture worthy.

Here’s the quick and dirty. Though they weren’t really busy, the service was slow. The food was so-so. Chips were a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. Abuelo’s chips tips the scale. They have the best chips in town. Chili’s chips are good, too. Heck, Felipe’s has better chips. Salsa was average. They really needed good salsa to overcome the chips deficiency. So far, not so good.

By the time the server came by to take our drink orders, we were ready to order our meals. I did order a glass of sangria. I have to give it a try from every place that serves it. Blech. Worst sangria ever! What a turn off! My suggestion would be to take it off the menu.

I think Donna ordered a pick two and Dave ordered a pick three, while Brian and I decided to share a pick two between the two of us. He got a bean and cheese burrito while I had a the beef quesadilla. It’s pretty hard to mess up a bean and cheese burrito so I’m thinking Brian was fine with his portion of the meal. I wondered about mine, though. My quesadilla came out looking like a soft taco. When we asked the waiter, he said that is their quesadilla. I kind of expected it to be flatter. Hmmm… Brian and I agreed that our waiter could be (a) lying so that he doens’t have to take the food back to the kitchen and make them redo it, or (b) that’s really how they make their quesadillas, in which case I’m sure we are not the first patrons to scratch our heads.

Donna wasn’t impressed with her meal either. She made a comment that the food was way better the first time they tried the place. She gave it a rating of 2 forks out of 4. I don’t really give ratings, I just give feedback. If I make a repeat visit, then you know you’re doing something right.

As I mentioned earlier the food was pretty average and bland. David almost emptied the salt shaker on his plate. Either his food had no flavor at all, or he is just being himself. He is a bit of a salt addict.

I guess the one nice thing is that the server was conscientious enough to take the sangria off our tab. He could sense that I didn’t like it. I gave it all of three sips. I figured maybe it would get better, but it didn’t. Anyway, I guess he saw that my sangria was still very full at the end of the meal so he didn’t charge us for it.

I wouldn’t say the prices were reasonable because I wouldn’t pay to eat that stuff. If I were to put a price tag on the food, it’d have to be negative. I can say the prices are cheap, though. Well, compared to similar restaurants. Three full entrees and three drinks only cost $30. As they say, you get what you pay for…

I have no idea how they’ll stay in business. I mean, if I want to eat Mexican food I’ll go to Abuelo’s or Felipe’s. You wouldn’t be able to drag me back to this place even if you tried. The food was so insignificant that it made me wish that Red Hot and Blue had never closed. By the end of the meal, I was fully prepared to make a deal with the devil to eat at Red Hot and Blue every week just so they would return and erase this place. I give it about six months to a year.