FLIP + CHING

Wonders of Kansas

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Ching under Travel.

You’re all familiar with the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Then there are the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages which consists of the Stonehenge, the Colosseum, the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, the Great Wall of China, the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, Hagia Sophia, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Other wonders that are sometimes mentioned include the Taj Mahal, the Cairo Citadel, Ely Cathedral, and Cluny Abbey.

Now there are modern wonders such as the Channel Tunnel, the CN Tower, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Itaipu Dam, the Delta Works, and the Panama Canal. However, the wonders that are most popular with tourists are the Giza Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Serengeti Migration, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon, and the Machu Picchu. There are natural wonders, underwater wonders, and the New Seven Wonders as proposed by the New Open World Corporation (NOWC).

In 2008, Kansas will announce its 8 wonders selected by popular vote at 8wonders.org.

The 24 finalists are as follows:

Arikaree Breaks, Cheyenne County

Ball of Twine, Cawker City

Big Brutus, West Mineral

Big Well, Greensburg

Brookville Hotel, Abilene

Chase County Courthouse, Cottonwood Falls

Cheyenne Bottoms/Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Barton and Stafford Counties

Cimarron National Grassland, Morton County

Constitution Hall State Historic Site, Lecompton

John Steuart Curry murals, State Capitol, Topeka

Davis Memorial, Hiawatha

Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene

Fort Larned National Historic Site, Pawnee County

Garden of Eden, Lucas

Gypsum Hills Scenic Drive, Barber County

Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson

Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Hutchinson

Keeper of the Plains, Wichita

Lake Scott State Park, Scott County

Monument Rocks/Castle Rock, Gove County

Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site, Republic County

St. Fidelis Church, (Cathedral of the Plains), Victoria

St. Mary’s Church, St. Benedict

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (for the Flint Hills), Chase County

So if you ever hear of anyone complaining that there’s nothing to see or do in Kansas, be sure to inform them of the 24 wonders. I bet you probably didn’t even know these wonders existed.

Check them out and cast your vote. I will be doing the same (though I already have my favorites). I will share my top 8 if you guys share yours also. Anyway, public voting ends at midnight on December 31, 2007. Happy voting!

2 Comments

Salina Road Trip Recap

Posted on June 2, 2007 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Food and Drink, Travel.

Brian’s parents wanted to celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary by driving to Cozy’s in Salina and invited Brian and I to tag along. Now if you tell someone that you are driving 3 hours to eat some burgers, with gas at over $3 a gallon, they’re going to think you are freakin’ nuts. This is pretty much the reaction that Brian and I received from folks we told about our road trip. Our Cozy Inn burgers, as good as they were, have got to be the most expensive burgers I’ve ever eaten. Good thing they were on mom and dad. ;-P

Of course, I managed to talk everyone into checking out some of the Salina tourist traps to make the most out of the drive. No one believed me that there were things to do in Salina. Just type “things to do in salina” on Google and you’ll find several suggestions.

The three places we visited were the Smoky Hill Winery, the Smoky Hill Museum, and the Central Mall aquarium. The trip was loads of fun.

I think Smoky Hill Vineyards and Winery was my favorite part of the trip. We got to sample a variety of different wines. We also walked around the property a bit and checked out the vineyards. Mom and dad bought a couple of bottles of wine to take home with them.

The Smoky Hill Museum was really cool also. They had some really neat exhibits. I love the antique stuff and the reproductions.

Central Mall is just like any other mall, except it has a really neat aquarium by the food court. The aquarium is home to several species of fish indigenous to Kansas. The mall also has plenty of areas for children. It is very kid-friendly unlike some of the malls we have in Wichita. The stores are nothing spectacular, though. I think people mostly just go there to hang out.

Anyway, we had a really nice time on our day trip. We also had a nice treat on the way to Salina. We happened by the Black Kettle Festival in Moundridge. We stopped to check out the antique planes. Of course, I took the opportunity to take some photos. Overall, I think everyone had a great time.

4 Comments

Bang Bang Sauce

Posted on May 27, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Food and Drink.

Brian and I tried Bonefish Grill one of the newer restos in town a few months ago and really loved the food. I was completely amazed that Brian liked the restaurant because it is primarily a seafood joint. They offer great steaks, though, which is nice because then Brian has something that he can select from the menu. The two times that we have dined there, everything has been deliciously prepared. We have no complaints.

I was so impressed that I told my coworkers about the place. Jan has been there once or twice. Darcy has taken dining at Bonefish to another level. She’s been there probably half a dozen times since. She and her husband Mike absolutely love the place. They actually drive from the West side of town, where they reside, to the Waterfront, which is on the East side of town just to go to Bonefish.

Anyway, Bang Bang Shrimp is probably the most popular item on the Bonefish menu. Everyone loves their Bang Bang Shrimp. The secret is in the yummy sauce. The sauce kind of reminds me of the signature sauce, found in Honey Walnut Chicken at Fusa, but with a spicy kick to it. Darcy told me that she found a recipe online. This led me to my own search. Here’s what I found..

I found that the sauce consists mainly of three ingredients: mayonnaise, Thai Sweet Chili Sauce, and a few drops of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. How much of each ingredient you use will depend entirely on your taste buds. The simplicity of the sauce recipe is nice. However, from all the articles I’ve read online, most have failed at successfully duplicating the flavor of the famed Bang Bang Shrimp sauce.

I joked at Darcy that if she ever successfully duplicates the sauce, she could probably use it with everything. You could “bang bang” porkchops, “bang bang” chicken, and “bang bang” just about anything because it really is the sauce that makes the dish. The shrimp is just your run of the mill, garden variety battered and fried shrimp. Granted it is crispier than most, but the sauce is where the magic happens.

I’m not much of a cook, so I couldn’t really see myself toiling over the kitchen for hours mixing a bit more mayo and a bit more chili sauce just to get the flavor right. Surely there is an easier way to “bang bang” nirvana. Here’s a secret I will share with you: you can actually buy pre-made Bang Bang Sauce through the Dinni’s Select web site. I’ve not seen these carried at my local grocery store, but if I find it I will let you guys know. For now, I think it can only be purchased online.

Dinni’s Select offers a wide variety of delicious sauces for you to try. You can buy a three-jar gift pack and choose three different flavors. Or you can just get three jars of the Bang Bang Sauce. 🙂

Comment on This

How Lucky Am I

Posted on May 26, 2007 by Ching under Life, Poker.

I have the craziest luck in the world. Last December Mo loaned me his Accounting book so I could use it for my Accounting class in the spring. Well, at the end of the semester, I completely forgot that it wasn’t my book either. I ended up taking the Mo’s book along with my other textbooks to buy back. I completely spaced out the fact that it wasn’t my book.

It wasn’t until almost a week later when it dawned on me that I needed to return the book, which I no longer had. I thought about my folly and pondered telling Mo what I’d done. That was option one. Option two involved buying the exact same book and just not telling Mo. I figured that he probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it wasn’t the book he loaned to me.

However, the risk of option two is the cost. Even a used copy of the textbook costs over a hundred bucks. In the meantime, while I was mulling over my options, Mo beat me to the punch. He asked me if I was finished with the book.

I finally had to come clean. I told him what happened and offered to give him the $50 that I got for the book during buy back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his book. He completely spaced out that it wasn’t his when he loaned it to me. So now he had to return it to Dina, its rightful owner. I begged Mo to find out if Dina would be willing to accept the $50 in place of her book. He told me he would try to get her to accept my offer and get back with me the next day.

In the meantime, I scrambled for a back up plan. I had a feeling she probably would want her book back because Mo said she keeps all of her books. I searched everywhere and finally found the book on Amazon. Much to my amazement, I found someone willing to sell the exact same book — hard cover, US, 6th edition (not the soft cover, international version) — for less than $10. When Mo told me the next day that she really wanted her book back, I asked for her phone number so I could personally apologize for my flakiness and explain to her what happened.

So I contacted Dina and told her what I had done. I also explained to her that I was in the process of getting the exact same book to replace the one that I had lost (read: accidentally sold at buy back). I told her it might be two weeks because of media mail. The book actually arrived in the mail on Wednesday, less than week from when I ordered it, so that was really nice. How lucky is that? Not only did I find the book for less, it even arrived sooner than expected. When you think about it, I actually came out ahead. I got $50 for it at buy back and was able to buy the book for $10. So I unintentionally turned a $40 profit with $0 investment.

I shared my crazy story to April and Corey at poker on Wednesday. April commented that I should just buy a bunch of books on the cheap and sell them all at buy back. Instictively, I agreed. It seemed like a good idea. However, upon further inspection, it really won’t work. Or at least there is more risk involved than I would care to take on.

For one, even if I could buy several books and sell them at buy back, it would seem really suspicious if I tried to sell back several copies of the exact same book or dozens of books that I wasn’t even enrolled in or have never taken. Secondly, new editions are released every time. Who hasn’t gotten screwed at buy back because the new edition came out and now your book is obsolete? If you end up buying several books in anticipation for buy back and then the new edition renders the books worthless. You lose money. Lastly, it always seems that when I plan or intentionally do something it doesn’t work out. My best laid plans are always foiled. So I’m better off just lucking out once in a while.

I wish I could have had some luck at poker that night, though. I got knocked out pretty early. Brian did really well, though. He ended up taking first and winning a free seat to the BCPT. He’s been doing pretty well at poker lately. All we have to work on now is his sportsmanship. =P