Archive for the year 2016
Yokohama Ramen Joint
Posted on May 29, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
My friend Misty told me about this place a couple of weeks ago when we were at CSB. She gave it a poor review, though. She told us it was super busy and not worth it because you just get overpriced ramen noodles. LOL.
I just happen to love ramen noodles and I prefer to form my own own opinion about a place so, naturally, I talked Brian into to checking it out with me. Although, I was a little bit worried at first. Brian isn’t really a ramen guy.
“I hope they have other stuff on the menu besides ramen,” I thought to myself as we walked to the restaurant.
The place is really tiny, as you’ll see from the photos that follow. That’s the main reason why they’re always busy and there’s lines out the door. There isn’t enough room inside for everyone. When we walked up, we noticed people standing outside, in front of the restaurant. We wondered what that was about and quickly realized that it’s the line to be seated. It’s so small inside that there’s not enough room for people to wait.
You have to stand outside while you wait for a table. When a table becomes available, they come out and tell you that you may come inside. It’s definitely an interesting setup. Lucky for us, there wasn’t much of a line when we went.
Here are a couple of pictures of the restaurant’s compact interior.
Here’s a picture of the menu. I was relieved to see they have lots of other things besides ramen. Although, I’m not sure why you would go to a ramen place if you don’t like ramen – unless, of course, you’re Brian and your wife forced you to go with her.
They also had a variety of dessert options. We skipped it this trip, though.
Brian and I started with pan-fried dumplings, our go-to starter at places such as these. If it’s offered on the menu, there’s a 99% chance that we’re going to order it as an appetizer.
Predictably, Brian got a bowl of chicken fried rice for his meal.
I can’t remember what I got because I asked the server for a recommendation and ordered what she said was good. I think it was the N2, shouyu ramen.
I love that they serve their ramen with an egg. That’s exactly how I eat my ramen. Except, I add a hardboiled egg rather than a soft-boiled one.
I enjoyed my meal. Not sure why Misty was disappointed. Then again, I am a ramen lover. I could eat ramen everyday of my life and not complain.
Brian thought the restaurant was just okay. I will definitely be back though. I want to try all of the different ramen bowls.
Above is a video sneak peek posted by the Wichita Eagle. I highly recommend checking it out and trying the delicious ramen for yourself. If you go, let me know. I may join you.
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Next Time You’re Having a Bad Day
Posted on May 29, 2016 by Ching under Life.
Next time you’re having a bad day, picture this.
I’m not exactly sure when or how this happened. I had training in Topeka a week and a half ago so I reserved the green Volt for my up and back trip. People always ask me why I take the garish, obnoxiously wrapped Volt as opposed to the other, much better, cars in our fleet. When I need to reserve a vehicle, the green Volt is usually the only one that’s available because no one likes it. I don’t even bother checking the other cars anymore. I just automatically reserve the ugly green one.
Anyway, I noticed that the tires are really sensitive to temperature changes. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve gotten the low tire pressure alert and had to air it up. It’s not too bad when I get the alert message in Wichita because I always know I can get free air at any of the QT locations in town. I hate it when it happens while I’m in Topeka because none of their gas stations have free air. You have to put money in the machine and I never have any quarters on me.
One of the times it happened a few months ago, I just happened to visit one of my friends in Topeka. Her husband owns an air compressor so he took care of airing up the tires for me while we hung out. That was convenient. However, they’re super busy people too so I can’t just pop in every time I need air in the my tires.
There’s a BP down the street from my hotel – my home away from home – that has an air compressor but it costs .75 cents to make it run. These days I just make sure I always have a bunch of quarters with me.
On this particular day, I got to Topeka an hour ahead of the 10 AM training start time because I normally leave the house at 7 AM so I just left at my regular time. Anyway, it worked out because our project manager sent a meeting request the night before about a 9 AM meeting. I didn’t see the email but I just happened to be in Topeka already so I was able to attend. I remember getting a text asking if I was coming to the meeting as I was parking the car. “What meeting?” I thought. Note to self: check work email before going to bed at night just in case there are last minute meeting invites.
I parked a little sloppy because, even though I was an hour early for training, I was running a few minutes late for the 9 AM meeting. Maybe there was a tire pressure alert but I didn’t notice it because I was in a hurry? I really don’t remember seeing it, though. The only notification I got was an email from the fleet manager along with a picture of the flat tire. One of my coworkers saw the car in the garage and reported it. That was fortunate because they were able to replace the tire while I was in training.
Here’s how the tire looked when I returned to the parking garage. Brian was worried that they were going to replace it with a spare and I wouldn’t be able to go faster than 50 mph on the turnpike. They got a real tire on it, though. And, I’m glad it was fixed while I was in training because then I didn’t lose any time. I was able to hit the road, instead of still trying to get the flat tire situation dealt with, right after training.
I was feeling pretty lucky. However, I did have a moment of panic when I first turned the car on. I sat in the car and emailed the fleet folks before actually leaving because the tire pressure monitor had the tire at 17 psi. I had to step out of the car and look at it again. It looked fine to me.
As it turns out, there’s some kind of process that you have to do after a tire is replaced in order to reset the tire pressure monitoring system. They told me everything was fine. The system just needed to be reset.
It felt weird driving all the way home with the tire pressure alert on and saying the pressure is at 17 psi. I’ve seen the alert as low as 25 psi but I’d never seen it show all the way down to 17 psi before.
When I took the Volt to Topeka again last week, the system had not yet been reset. This time, instead of showing one of the tires at 17 psi, it just said that the tire pressure monitoring system needed maintenance. Driving without the aid of the system was weird but not as weird as it saying one of the tires only had 17 psi.
I can’t really feel the nuances of the driving experience unlike my dad who can tell that there’s something wrong with a car by the way it drives. He can feel things. I don’t have that same skill. I can’t rely on sight either because all tires look flat to me even when they’re perfectly fine. I tend to rely on the tire pressure monitoring system a lot.
I was a little bit uncomfortable driving the car without it working. However, I reminded myself that Bebot didn’t have a tire pressure monitoring system. I drove it for years and turned out just fine. LOL.
I did send an email to our local fleet supervisor to inform him of the maintenance alert, though. The car can get me from point A to point B fine but it would definitely make me feel better to have the tire pressure monitoring system functional again at least before my next extended trip.
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Dinner with Eric at Sabor
Posted on May 29, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I joined some friends at Sabor recently when Eric, our AllConnect account manager, was in town. It was really a work thing. Dinner guests mainly consisted of my coworkers and their spouses but Brian has met and knows them all with the exception of Eric and Shawn who he met for the first time that night. Although I could have sworn he met Shawn (Krystee’s husband) before. Our dinner party consisted of Mike, Tiffe, Isaac, Crystal, Krystee, Shawn, Tammie, Leo, Eric, Brian and me. Not sure where everyone else was that evening.
I think this is only the second AllConnect dinner I have ever made so I’m glad I was actually in town and able to join the group. Also glad that Tammie picked Sabor. It’s one of my favorite restaurants downtown.
It’s been a while since I posted pictures of food so here you go. Bonus points if you can tell which of the entrees belonged to me and Brian.
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Lacie’s Farewell Lunch
Posted on May 27, 2016 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
When you are loved, people not only celebrate you but they celebrate with you. We had a wonderful farewell lunch at Public in Lacie’s honor last week. I happened to be in town (somewhat of a rare occurrence these days) so I got to attend.
I’m actually grateful for several reasons:
- I’m grateful that someone remembered to invite me. As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.” I think sometimes people forget I actually work in Wichita so I do end up getting excluded from things.
- I’m grateful that I happened to be in Wichita that day and could go. Sometimes, people remember to invite me to things but my schedule is so busy that I can’t go anyway. The stars aligned just right this time around.
- I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to know Lacie. She’s moving on but I’m glad that we had the opportunity to work together. The person replacing her will have some big shoes to fill.
Lacie and Lila
Nykole, Shanda, and Sherii
I think Shane was starving because he tried to eat my head. JK.
Huge thanks to Karen for organizing the lunch.
And then here’s the obligatory food pics.
It’s Public. The food is amazing. Of course, I had to take pictures. LOL.
This last pic was of my lunch. I had the curry chicken special with a side of fruit. I’m not really trying to eat healthier but I am eating fruit when I can. Everything is great at Public. You really can’t go wrong, no matter what you choose to order from their menu.
Anyway, Lacie has only been gone a few days but I miss her already. I did get one of her work shirts so, at least, I have something to remember her by (besides the dozens of photos). Good luck, Lacie!
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Good Food and Good Friends – YPW May Mingle
Posted on May 27, 2016 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
Brian and I finally had the opportunity to check out Central Standard Brewing. We were there for the YP May Mingle a couple of weeks ago. I went there straight from work. Misty was already there.
Brian went home to take care of Molly and Saki first, then took an Uber over so that we would only have one car to drive home.
BS Sandwich Press was there so we went ahead and ate dinner there instead of making food at home. It worked out great.
I’m actually super grateful for these events because it forces me to get out and meet people. I ran into a couple of Leadership Wichita classmates, Dan and Jaimie, who I hadn’t seen in forever. Dan, specially. I hadn’t seem him since our Leadership Wichita graduation, and I saw him twice that day.
I ran into him the first time earlier in the evening as I was leaving work to go to the mingle at CSB. I was pulling out of our parking lot and he crossed right in front of me. “That looks like my friend Dan,” I thought. Naturally, I honked at him. Lucky for me, it was really him. LOL.
He was on his way to some fancy lawyer gathering that meets monthly at the Petroleum Club, which is located on the 9th floor of my work building. We chatted briefly. I didn’t think to mention the mingle because he was obviously busy.
Fast forward a couple of hours. We are hanging out at the CSB patio, having delicious food from BS Sandwich Press, when I see Dan walking up. He decided to stop by the mingle after his fancy lawyer thing. Seeing Dan twice in one day, after not seeing him for almost two years, was a real treat. We got to catch up a little bit and had a wonderful visit. And, I get to see him again in a couple of weeks at the 40 Under 40 recognition dinner. We also have one other Leadership Wichita classmate (Landon) who is also being recognized in this year’s class of 40 Under 40.
I look forward to seeing both of them and maybe you too. If you are at the 40 Under 40 awards dinner, please be sure to say hello!
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