Archive for the year 2026
One More Fun Group Dinner with Jim
Posted on April 9, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We had another fun group dinner with our friend Jim Tsen while he was in town last month. This time it was at our most favorite restaurant of all, the Belmont.
Our dinner mates consisted of the full Tres Palapas gang plus Brian.
One of my favorite things about Sundays at the Belmont is their “all day” happy hour. Naturally, we indulged.
Here are some pics of our wonderful food…
The Belmont never disappoints.
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Brian’s First Time at George’s
Posted on April 7, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Our friend Jim had a list of restaurants to try during his visit to Wichita. George’s French Bistro was on his list. I had been there for lunch a few times over the years, but I’d never had dinner there; and since Brian had never been there before, we decided to join him. Julie Egy and Brady Randall joined as well.
Brian had an old fashioned, which he said was the best old fashioned he had ever had. I can’t remember if it was $22 or $24 dollars. I just remember thinking it was expensive and telling him that at that price, it had better be good.
I got a French kiss, which was good but also expensive. I decided I wasn’t going to do any drinking there in the future unless it was happy hour.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I should have posted this shortly after our dinner because I honestly cannot remember what everyone got. Except, I know Brian got this very messy looking poutine thing. He seemed to like it.
My red snapper was just okay. Not as good as the red snapper at the Belmont or the whole one I had at Larios on the Beach in Miami.
The opera cake was great finish, though.
Bottom line? Our dinner was quiet expensive. While the food and service were both good, it wasn’t fantastic. I don’t know if I see the value because we have other restaurants like the Belmont that we really love that don’t cost quite as much. Unless you’re going for happy hour, this is probably more of a special occasion type of place for us. Our total for the charcuterie board app, two drinks, two entrees, and dessert cost way more than we’re comfortable spending on weekly dinners — maybe not even monthly. This is maybe a once or twice a year type dinner, but maybe not even because Brian isn’t a huge fan of French or fancy food. He’s pretty basic. The highlight of the whole dinner for him was his old fashioned.
The opera cake was good but nothing really stood out to me as having been fantastic. If a friend really wants to go there, we could probably be talked into going, but if it’s just the two of us then Brian and I would probably much rather go elsewhere. We are just not that fancy.
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Flight 1868
Posted on April 6, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I finally got a chance to check out Flight 1868 last month. We’d been wanting to but just have never had time. We ended up meeting our friend Jim Tsen, who was visiting from Seattle, here before our group dinner at George’s.
I originally wanted to try one of the flights but we were worried that we would not have time to finish it before our dinner reservation. Brian got an old fashioned. It might have been the drink called Flight Delay. I got a Frosted Sugar Cookie. They were getting ready to change out their menu so my drink might not be on there any longer. The place is cute with an interesting ambiance because of their commitment to the flying theme, complete with airplane seats as seating. We will have to return and enjoy some light bites during patio season.
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First MiLP of 2026 – Let’s Go!
Posted on March 31, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.
Now that my knees are feeling better — that and Duane doesn’t really need me on tournament day (I mostly help with tournament promotion, team/player recruitment, helping orphan players find teams, pre-tournament logistics planning and prep, etc.) — I decided I should play in one of these super fun, super amazing the Dink Official Minor League Pickleball (MiLP) team events. Why should everyone else have all the fun?
Besides being my first for 2026, this is also my first after my pickleball sabbatical. This tournament was further made special because our friend Jim Tsen, who we met in Mexico in 2024, came to visit and play in it with us.
Our MiLP team consisted of Brady Randall, Julie Egy, and me and Jim. We had the lowest team DUPR of all the teams in the DUPR 16 division so I knew it would be an uphill battle but it was a great day of competition over all. Plus, it was fun reconnecting with Jim (the last time Brian and I saw him was before our Alaska cruise in June and it had been since November 2024 for the others) and introducing him to all our Wichita pickleball friends. He even got to meet my mom and dad (who he didn’t get to meet in June because they decided to do their own thing and didn’t go to dinner with us in Seattle) and other Chicken N Pickle ambassadors they day before he left.
I will share more from Jim’s recent visit on the next post.
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First Time at Coquetry Maison
Posted on March 30, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Had the opportunity to check out this cute, new coffee shop downtown.
Their decor is super cute.
Their coffee is good and reasonably priced. I think it’s the perfect place for a casual meeting or catch up with a friend. Pennant still has my favorite iced vanilla latte, though. Which coffee shop is your fave?
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