Archive for "Food and Drink"
Lunch Dates with My Foxy Friend
Posted on June 18, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I don’t know why “Karens” get such a bad rap. All of the “Karens” I have ever known have been warm and kind and generous. This is why I wasn’t surprised when Karen Fox and I easily struck up a friendship. Then again, Brian will counter that I shouldn’t be surprised because I think everyone is my friend even if they’re a complete stranger who smiles or winks at me one time.
I’d seen Karen before at various pickleball events. She even attended the pickleball-birthday-slash-Halloween-party that Matt Mayfield hosted for me last year. She actually wanted to have a Halloween party but Matt was throwing a pickleball birthday party for me at the West YMCA so they agreed to combine the two parties and just have one party. We knew each other then and I would have considered her a friend then but the pandemic has really brought us closer together.
You know how Jumanji and detention (The Breakfast Club?) have this weird way of bringing people together who probably wouldn’t normally hang out? I think that’s what COVID-19 did. I started doing the #BruceLeeAbsChallenge during the stay-at-home mandate because the lack of social connection (and lack of anything to do period) was taking a huge mental toll on me. I asked if others wanted to do it with me and she volunteered. We created a group text for accountability and we texted everyday. Sometimes the conversations weren’t even about our abs workouts. They would just be random (absolutely hilarious) conversations. I was also doing ZOOMba during this time and Karen couldn’t figure out the ZOOM thing (or just didn’t like how the technology worked) so she came over to my house to do Zumba in my garage with me. I totally thought she was joking until she sent me a text that morning asking for my address. Karen holds the record as my first pickleball friend to have ever set foot inside my house. Matt, my first ever pickleball friend, has never even been to my house (despite having known him the longest). I guess disasters have a weird way of bringing people together. And because she was there for me during the lockdown we got really close. She even invited me and Brian over for a delicious lasagna dinner at her house one evening. (SIDE NOTE: They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, it works the same for me. The best way to become my favorite person is to feed me.)
Besides meeting up for pickleball dates (we’ve arranged mixed doubles matches and womens double matches with other friends), we’ve also met up for lunch dates. Most of the time it was just sharing a burger at TJ’s which is conveniently next to our favorite park but the other day (when I say the other day, it usually means any time between yesterday and a few weeks ago – LOL) we both finished with our appointments at the exact same time so it worked out that we could meet for lunch. We decided to meet at Homegrown.
Here are a couple of pictures of our food.
Most of the time I just see pickleball friends while playing pickleball and there’s not really much time to visit and get to know each other on a deeper level. Lunch was nice that way. While we still mostly talked about our favorite sport, we visited and chatted about all sorts of other things too. It was great!
Here’s a picture of my Fox-y friend at TJ’s one day while we had lunch and rootbeer floats. We typically grab our lunches to go when we’re playing at Seneca Park but that day, while we were waiting to order our food, I was a rootbeer float go by and it called my name. So I talked Karen into dining in so we could enjoy some rootbeer floats with our lunch. Plus, it’s a lot easier to eat when you have a table. I don’t even have a chair sometimes when we’re at the park. My folding chair is always in the car but I only bring it out occasionally (when I expect to sit around a lot like on #SangriaSundays but most of the time I’m playing the whole time so it’s kind of pointless). I’ve learned not to pull it out all the time because I don’t even get to sit in it most of the time. And there’s always plenty of other chairs to rest your butt on because we’re rotating in and out and most people are willing to share.
Anyway, it’s been really nice getting to know Karen better over these last few months. As someone who has been playing pickleball a lot longer than me, I really appreciate her guidance and all the knowledge that she’s willing to share. I feel like she’s kind of taken me under her wing and has been almost like a “pickleball mentor” of sorts. As someone who is hungry to learn anything and everything, I have really enjoyed this time immensely. I suppose that is the one silver lining that has come out of the pandemic.
I guess that’s all for now. Big day today as it’s the day I get to spend all day learning from Ben Johns. Gotta start getting ready. Until next time. GNG.
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Rio Grill & Cantina
Posted on June 13, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
Finally had the opportunity to check out Rio Grill & Cantina in Andover. They took over the old Las Palmas space in the strip at Central and Andover Road. I can’t believe I’ve never been here before. The food is great!
I went for an Andover Rotary Club board meeting. It was our first in person board meeting since the pandemic began. We’ve been holding the board meetings via ZOOM until this one. The funny thing is, I’ve been on the board for a year now and I could never make the meetings. I think I’ve only attended one meeting during my first year as PR chair because something would always come up. That is, until the pandemic began and then we had a state-wide stay-at-home order. The ZOOM meetings were a lot easier to attend because then I didn’t have to budget in the drive time, which always seemed to be the challenge on days that meetings were back to back. For instance, if I had a meeting from 11 o’clock to 12 noon, there was no way I could drive to Andover to attend attend a meeting so I would just have to miss it. With the ZOOM meetings, I could quickly go from one meeting to the next without having to worry about driving.
Anyway, I’m still working from home so, even though this last one was in person, I was able to attend. Rather than having to drive from my office in downtown Wichita, I came from my house which is only about 5-10 minutes from almost anywhere in Andover.
I’m so glad I was able to attend this one because, not only is the food good, but it also happened to be Alison’s birthday. Huge thanks to Stephanie for picking up birthday cake on her way to the meeting.
Besides celebrating her birthday with us, Alison also celebrated her final board meeting. After ten years of being on the Andover Rotary Club board (in one role or another), she finally gets a much-needed break. We are sad to see her leave the board because the club wouldn’t be what it is today without her service. She’ll still be part of the club so I’m pretty sure she’s still be helping us with lots of things but at least she won’t be required to attend the board meetings. At least for the time being. We are a very small club so who knows how long this break will last? She might be back again before too long. LOL.
I always try to take pictures of food whenever I eat out and most specially if I’m eating somewhere for the first time but I didn’t want to be too nerdy so I only got a couple of pictures this time. I got a picture of Norm’s nachos (above) and my California burrito (below).
My burrito was amazing. Easily the best burrito I have ever had. It’s got pork inside (which we all know how much I love pork), smothered in delicious green sauce, and topped with some avocado slices. It was so good, I can’t wait to have it again.
Once grandma is finally able to venture out of Victoria Falls, we’re going to have to eat lunch here because I think she’ll really like it.
Until next time. GNG.
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Pickleball and Lasagna Day
Posted on June 3, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies.
I completely took advantage of day time pickleball play during my time off work last week. Karen and I managed to arrange a pickleball play date with Jimmy and Michael by bribing them with her delicious lasagna.
Anyway, the day before our reservation, Jimmy asked me if I could reserve the second court because Tavon was in town and wanted to play. He said if I reserved the court, he could find three other players to complete the roster.
I knew of Tavon (because he’s a really good player) but I hadn’t met him personally yet so naturally I jumped at the chance. I quickly got the second court reserved and told Jimmy to proceed with finding the three other players.
I also immediately texted Karen and told her that we would be playing with Tavon. She was utterly confused because our appointment was with Jimmy and Michael so I had to explain the whole reserving the other court thing and then I asked if there would be enough lasagna for everyone. LOL.
Jimmy invited Han, Mark, and Cody to round out the roster. However, Cody had to work so I asked if Chris could take his place instead since I had a lesson with Chris that afternoon and he was coming early to eat lasagna with us anyway. Basically, he would just come a couple of hours early to play with us also.
Not only did I get to meet Tavon last week but I got to play with him too. And, it’s not very often that Chris is available to play with just regular folk so it was a real treat. Even playing with Jimmy and Michael is a privilege because Jimmy can be really picky with who he plays with (often you have to bribe him with food or drinks to get him to play – unless you’re one of the super elite guys).
Here are some of our photos from that day…
This was a pretty stellar group. I can’t believe I got to play with these guys (from top left: Chris Heck, Karen Fox, Tavon Morrow, Hanbeen You, Mark Narongvate, Michael Cheung, and that’s Jimmy Cho on the floor).
When Karen and I planned our outfits, we had no idea that we would accidentally coordinate with Tavon too.
Karen thought of everything. She even had individually wrapped utensils for everyone. And, she brought Ferrero Rocher chocolates for dessert.
I was good and only ate one piece. I would have had seconds normally but I didn’t want to be a pig in front of everyone. Also, I had my lesson after so I didn’t want to overeat and feel bad during.
Karen’s lasagna is amazing. We ate every bit of it until there was nothing left.
We hung out and visited while we ate. It was super nice because I don’t normally just get to sit and chat with people. Most of the time we’re in the middle of a game and don’t really get a chance to visit. It was really refreshing.
After lunch I had my solo lesson with Chris. He is such a great teacher. I have learned so much in the time that he’s worked with me. I feel like I’ve improved so much since that fateful date in January when I took my first lesson with him.
Anyway, I had a couple of errands (met with my group fitness coordinator at VASA to get brought up to speed on resuming our group fitness classes and the procedures we are to follow to ensure everyone’s safety; and then had my first post-COVID waxing at Beau Monde) before going home to feed the girls and freshen up before my next pickleball appointment.
Pickleball that night was at Chicken N Pickle with Mark Smith, Gregg Smith, Kim Shea, Brooke Ayala, and Kim Knotts. We had a pretty good rotation. However, while I was waiting Brad (another pickleball friend) grabbed me to play with them because they needed a 4th to play with them while they were waiting for one of their other friends who was coming all the way from the West side. As I was playing with this group, guess who walks by — Tavon. Apparently, he had multiple pickleball play times scheduled that day too.
This was the most perfect day of pickleball I’d had in a long time. It wasn’t even that I played particularly well because I didn’t. It was just so nice spending time and playing with these wonderful people. I feel so blessed that they let me play with them. I sometimes wonder how I got so lucky because I know I am definitely not getting invited because of my skill. I often joke that what I lack in skill I make up for in cute outfits. It might just be my way of overcompensating. I’m like the guy who drives a fancy car because he has a small penis. LOL.
I’m taking lessons though, so I am getting better. But now the cute outfits are kind of part of thing. Extra bonus when my friend Karen and I match. I just enjoy everything about pickleball, from playing to friendships to matching outfits.
That’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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Karen’s Homemade Lasagna
Posted on April 25, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
Life is pretty dull these days. There’s not much for me to really look forward to besides #ZumbaVirtual classes (basically Zumba classes held on the ZOOM platform) and some ZOOM happy hour socials.
The one positive thing that’s come out of this pandemic is I finally made one of the Women of Rotary Wichita socials. I’ve been missing them for several months because I was teaching Aqua Zumba at South YMCA on Wednesday nights last summer and then, after that was over, I joined a Wednesday night pickleball league at Chicken N Pickle. There was always something going on each Wednesday that they’d have the social that prevented me from attending. Now that we’re pretty much on lock down, I have nothing to do so I was actually able to attend.
Besides ZOOM happy hours and ZOOMba, I really had nothing going so I was super excited when my friend Karen invited Brian and I over for homemade lasagna night. She makes amazing lasagna!
Here are some pics of our dinner that night.
Dinner was amazing and Karen was a fabulous host. I really enjoyed our visit that night. I’d been really depressed because of the whole stay at home thing so I really needed it. Thank you so much for the delicious dinner and wonderful conversation, Karen! Until next time. GNG.
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Did You Know?
Posted on April 18, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
Did you know that several local restaurants are serving customers via delivery and carry out during the extended stay-at-home mandate? There’s actually a Facebook group specifically for connecting local consumers with restaurants that are currently open for business. Wichita FOOD TO GO During COVID-19 has several local restaurant owners posting menus and promos. It’s a great way for them to reach people and keep business going during this crazy time.
Last weekend Brian and I decided to take advantage of the Easter special at Carrabba’s. For $50 we got fresh bread with herbs and oil, Caesar salad, penne pomodoro, sautéed broccoli, chicken piccata, and two slices of the sogno di cioccolata dessert. And then for an extra $18, I got a blackberry sangria kit with a giant bottle of wine. It made so much that I drank sangria for at least three days. We also had enough food for four people so we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. It was an awesome deal.
I didn’t get pics of our food because we were so hungry we just scarfed it right up. However, I did get a pic of the bottle of wine they gave me and the sangria kit instructions. It was just as good as what they serve at the restaurant and way cheaper. This is one thing about the whole pandemic that I hope doesn’t change. I would totally buy this every weekend.
I did switch it up this weekend and decided to try the margarita kit from Felipe’s Jr. It’s also a great deal. You have to supply the tequila (which is no problem because I have plenty at home) but their $5 kit makes four margaritas. It’s also another great deal. The whole booze-to-go situation is probably my most favorite part of this pandemic. Restaurants would never have been able to do this stuff had the world not been in crisis.
Anyway, you just have to find the silver lining in things because times are pretty crazy right now and if you don’t laugh or drink it off then you’ll really be depressed. Until next time. GNG.
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