Archive for the year 2012
Chapada Chophouse & Churrascaria
Posted on October 27, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
The Secret
Jay and Becca, who got the same Groupon, joined us for dinner. I’ve heard mixed reviews of Chapada, but our experience was really good. The service was slow at first, but improved as the meal progressed. The process is just like any churrascaria. If you’ve not been to one, you have an all-you-can-eat salad bar and then gauchos with various meats on large skewers come to your table. If you want the meat offered, then you just ask them to slice off a piece for you. This goes on pretty much until you cry, “Uncle!”
Chapada is not quite the same caliber as Fogo de Chao, which is probably the most well-known out of all the churrascarias, or even Texas de Brazil, which we got to try last year when we were visiting Cousin Tracy and Jeff in Fort Worth. However, Chapada is the closest thing you can get to that type of dining experience around these parts because it’s the only churrascaria I know of in Wichita.
Here are some pictures from dinner…
Brian told them we were celebrating my birthday, which isn’t until Tuesday, but close enough — so they let me pick a dessert for free. I chose the cream brûlée (that’s not creme brûlée, mind you — they serve CREAM brûlée at Chapada — LOL), which consisted of three different flavors. There was a coffee flavored one, a raspberry, and a banana. The coffee one was my favorite. If we ever go back, I’m getting the cream brûlée again and asking for all three to be in coffee flavor.
Brian wasn’t a huge fan of the cream brûlée at Chapada. He still prefers the chocolate creme brûlée at Bonefish Grill, which is his favorite creme brûlée. It’s not always available, but he is always happy whenever he can get it.
At dinner Jay and Becca asked if we were having a birthday party for me this year. I told them no, that this was pretty much it. I think they were surprised and disappointed because we had a blast when we had the Ponderosa Party a couple of years ago, complete with “smash” cake and everything. There’s just too many parties going on this weekend already, and we have a mortgage to pay for now so we didn’t really have any extra money to throw at a birthday party (for catering, entertainment, decorations, and such), and we didn’t really have time to plan anything, and 35 is not really a poker hand. When I turn 44, we’ll talk. LOL.
Anyway, we had a great time with Jay and Becca last night. I was a nice, intimate birthday dinner — probably the first birthday dinner of several coming up, because we tend to have multiple dinner celebrations whenever we have birthdays. There’s really no point dieting during your birthday month.
But I digress… Chapada was not bad. However, the salad bar selection is not as vast as what you would find at Texas de Brazil, but you don’t want to get full on that other stuff anyway. You want to save room for the meat. Though it’s not the best of its class of restaurants, the cost is way less than other churrascarias, and it’s not like you really have a choice. They’re the only churrascaria here. For those of you who don’t want to spend the $35 per person for the all-you-can-eat parade-of-meat experience, but would like to try it at least once, then the Groupon is a great option. It’s going to be available for one more day. Go get one.
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Hana Cafe
Posted on October 24, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
Brian and I drove to work separately yesterday because he was attending the HOA meeting and I was to go to Zumba. However, Darcy wasn’t feeling well so she left work early which gave me an excuse to be a slug and not workout after work. Since I wasn’t working out, Brian and I decided to meet up at Hana Cafe after work. It was my first time there since they remodeled. The place looks great.
We made it in time for Happy Hour when they have some of the sushi items at half price. We got a California maki and a Hana maki.
Brian wasn’t that hungry after the sushi, so he just had miso soup.
My favorite thing to get at Hana ever since I’d been going back when they were still next to the old Eric Fisher Salon on Rock Road is the beef bi bim bab. It’s been a while since I’d had it so I ordered it, even though I was already somewhat full from the sushi. I just couldn’t resist.
I like to eat it with teriyaki sauce instead of the regular red sauce they serve with it.
I had red bean mochi for dessert. It was super yummy!
It was a delicious dinner. I ate way too much. So much that I figured I would probably vomit in the middle of Zumba class if I went. I decided to go home and attend the HOA meeting with Brian.
Since we drove separately, we decided to race (without speeding, of course — I didn’t speed, but I can’t speak for Brian — he probably tried to cheat) and see who could make it home first. Naturally, I won. LOL. But that’s because I was smart and cut across to First Street and got on the Canal Route from there. Brian went around to Saint Francis. He will blame his loss on a lot of things, including having to walk to the parking garage and getting stuck behind a slow-moving dually.
The HOA meeting took a lot longer than I thought it would. I’m glad it only happens twice a year. Even then, I don’t know that I ever want to attend again ever. I only felt like I had to go to keep Brian from acting like a douchebag. He actually behaved himself and the big question that he wanted addressed was asked by someone else. So he didn’t have to be the jerk who brought it up. LOL.
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Dinner at the Dills
Posted on October 24, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We had soup and Jay’s delicious chicken quesadillas and then watched The Walking Dead. Yup. It was a pretty good Sunday.
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Thank You, Mom and Dad B
Posted on October 23, 2012 by Ching under Travel.
Thank you to Mom and Dad B for our pasalubongs from South Dakota!
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Hanging Out With Misty
Posted on October 21, 2012 by Ching under Dreams, Things to Do, Wishlist.
Misty came over on Saturday. We hung out all afternoon driving around town looking at houses on the Parade of Homes, which is one of our favorite things to do this time of year. There were several houses that we missed last weekend so we had to go out again. There’s usually a hundred entries so you have to be really selective. There’s no way one can visit all of the houses in three weekends.
Sometimes, there’s a house that you want to see over and over again. There was one clear favorite among all the houses that we saw this season — the house at 2103 Driftwood in Harbor Isle, entry #41. Not that we could afford it but, in case you were wondering, it’s already sold.
Besides the huge closet in the master bedroom (which actually has enough room for all of my stuff and Brian’s stuff — too bad the price is so far beyond our reach in this lifetime), my favorite aspect of the house is the view from the basement.
How many basements have you seen with views like this?
The basement doesn’t feel like a basement at all. But wait, if you think the views are fantastic from the basement, then you’ll really love the views from the screened in deck upstairs. Misty and I joked about grabbing a bottle of wine before heading over and just spending the rest of the afternoon drinking wine on their deck. “Don’t mind us. We’re just hanging out. Enjoy your tour.” LOL.
We couldn’t stay at our favorite house all day so we went and looked at some other houses. Misty absolutely fell in love with Watercress Village. What’s not to love about that place, though? I would move out there in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the West side location. Brian and I refuse to move out West because neither of us want to be squinters. Since we both work downtown, if we lived on the West side of town, we’d be driving in to the sun going to work and driving into the sun coming home. That’s just too much squinting for us.
Misty and I ended the day by getting manis and pedis at Nails & Beyond. It’s been a few months since my last pedicure so I really needed it. Misty gets the shellac/gel stuff, which takes forever, so we were actually the last two people at the salon. Brian had dinner ready by the time we got back home. Dinner was great, but I think the best part was when we found out that we had a light in the hearth room. We’ve been living here for almost two months now and we’d been complaining about not having enough light because the ceiling fan doesn’t have a light kit. Guess what. It was user error.
I can’t believe it took almost two months for us to figure it out. LOL. I’m happy that we have more light in there now, but sad at the same time. We have a few more light switches that we haven’t figured out yet. I just hope that it doesn’t take a year for us to figure out what everything does because that will be really sad.
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