FLIP + CHING

BJ’s Brewhouse

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian has enjoyed some really fabulous food this week. He had the opportunity to dine at Folks Folly, which is a premier steakhouse in Memphis. I’ll let him tell you guys about that, though.

In the meantime I’m stuck in Wichita eating Lean Cuisine microwaveable lunches. Blech. I finally had the chance to try BJ’s Brewhouse, though. Three of my coworkers and I decided to go there for lunch after our training class on Wednesday. I’d heard some good things, some bad things, and a lot of hype. Plus, they’re always busy so I figured it must be good. Otherwise people wouldn’t go there, right?

We started out with the fried calamari appetizer. It had good flavor, but some of the pieces were chewy. That’s typical of seafood in the Midwest, though. Unless you’re eating at Bonefish, the seafood isn’t always so fresh. Despite the texture, I thought it was good calamari.

I got the flatbread pizza and salad lunch combo. The flatbread was okay. It’s not as good as the flatbread at Granite City. The salad was okay too. They brought me out the wrong salad though, so she had to come back and bring the correct one.

Anyway, speaking of flatbread, Mel was somewhat perturbed by the fact that they couldn’t make her bacon flatbread. I can understand where Mel is coming from, though. If you have all of the ingredients required to make what is requested, why not just make it? She ended up having to order something else instead.

This is a photo of the correct salad that I requested to go with my meal.

Faith got the teriyaki chicken with rice. It looked yummy. She said it was delicious. I wished that I had ordered it after seeing her meal next to mine. You can never go wrong with chicken and rice.

I didn’t get a picture of Gwen and Mel’s lunches. Overall I think the food wasn’t bad. The items on the lunch specials are a pretty good value. I think BJ’s is a good alternative to some of the chains we have around town.

However, they do have a long way to go in terms of service. Our server was not particularly attentive. Despite how loudly Mel slurped on her empty water glass, no one noticed. The restaurant was not packed. One would expect that water glasses would be refilled automatically throughout the meal.

Anyway, I would probably go back because Brian hasn’t tried the restaurant yet. Though my first impression wasn’t stellar, I would give them another chance.

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Random Food Pics

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink.

This was Brian’s dinner on Monday night. I didn’t get to go because it was a work function.

Now I know this doesn’t look like much because it’s hard to get good food photos at Luca due to the dim lighting, but it’s so good. Anyway, the lighting at Luca is supposed to be that way. That’s the ambience they’re going for at the restaurant.

I know that the chicken is good because Brian saved one of the pieces for me. It was so delicious (even as a leftover) and really made me want to go back to Luca for a dinner date or something. Thank you, baby!

This next one is Brian’s lunch on Tuesday. It was his first meal in Memphis after landing. He said the restaurant was three blocks away from his hotel. Would you walk three blocks for some Chick-Fil-A?

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O, Crazy Days

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Ching under Babies.

I managed to make it to work on Monday with my tires looking like this. I say tires because all four tires were low. They weren’t all as bad as this one, but none of them had the right amount of pressure. Isaac used his digital tire gauge and got 6, 13, 17, and 24 or something like that. He said he would guess that the proper pressure for my tires should have been 32 psi. He told me that I couldn’t even drive it to get air because it wouldn’t be safe to do so with all four tires being low and one being almost completely flat. I listen to Isaac because his dad is an authority when it comes to cars and so he is an authority by association. Anyway, he asked around to see if anyone had an air pump but no one did. I told him not to worry as the car shop that we take our cars to, which also happens to be where I bought my tires, is just a couple of blocks over. I told him that I would call them instead and see if they can put enough air in my tires for me to drive the car over to the shop.

Isaac was like, “Could you not tell that there was something wrong?” I admitted that I did notice the car was pulling to the left when I was driving on Kellogg this morning, but I thought it was just really windy. I promptly got made fun of. In my defense, I get to work before 7 AM and it’s still really dark. When I hopped out of the car, I got my bags and went inside. I didn’t look at the tires. I would have noticed it for sure when I walked back to the car at the end of the day, but I was glad that someone told me before hand so I could call the shop right away.

Tracy’s Automotive was really awesome. When Brian got done with his training, I told him what happened. Tracy’s was going to send someone to our parking lot to put air in my tires but Brian said that, since he was done with training early, he would just drive over there and find out what the plan was. He ended up bringing Doug from Tracy’s over in his truck. Doug put air in my two front tires (not the back ones) so I could safely drive my car to the shop where they inspected all four tires and found no holes. The only conclusion they came to was that someone was messing with my valve stems, which is not really a comforting thought, but I’m glad that my tires are fine and I didn’t have to buy new ones. Tires are expensive.

The folks at Tracy’s were really nice. I talked to Frank and Rob so I want to thank them also. Doug did the work so I owe a debt of gratitude to him. They checked my tires, filled them with Nitrogen (that’s the kind of air that it had), and even rotated them at no charge. Then again, the free air and free tire rotation came with buying the tires from them so those would have been free anyway, but I’m really grateful that they were able to send someone to my work parking lot to put air in my tires. Thank you to Tracy’s Automotive for coming to my rescue.

I posted this next picture because I want to end this blog on a positive note. I finally met Maryland’s new baby Maela and even got to hold her for a while. She is super tiny and super cute! And super sweet. She didn’t cry at all when I was holding her. Congratulations to the Fergusons on the newest addition to their growing family!

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Post Zumba Munchies at Caffe Moderne

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian’s reward for letting me attend the Zumba event in Old Town Square was dinner at Caffe Moderne, one of our most favorite places to eat downtown.

He usually gets the Habana with tomato bisque soup as his side.

My usual is the Garbo with salad.

We shared gelato for dessert. It wouldn’t have been a real “reward” otherwise.

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Zumba in Old Town Square

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Ching under Zumba.

I had a great time doing Zumba in Old Town Square on Saturday night. Thank you so much to Wheels Studio for organizing the FREE event.

I also had my first Linercise experience. I had never participated in Linercise before. It was actually pretty interesting.

I thought I was just doing Zumba at first, but it was quite different. We kept turning different directions and the choreography followed a more specific pattern (no random breaks in the music, as is often common with Zumba).

If you want to try it out, along with other types of fitness and dance exercise classes, go to the Wheels Studio Facebook page.