Women at GT Wine Pairing Event
Posted on July 19, 2015 by Ching under Events.
My friend Faith and I attended the 5th annual wine pairing event hosted by the Women at Grant Thornton a couple of weeks ago. They had it at the Petroleum Club which is just a floor above ours in the Ruffin Building. I took it as a sign that I had to attend. LOL.
It was a Monday night so I had to find a sub for my Aqua Zumba class. Lucky for me, Jen Cole was available to sub so I was able to attend the wine pairing and networking event.
It was a great turnout. I even met one of Darcy’s old friends, who happens to live on the East side. Naturally, I went full on Zumba recruitment mode. I think I might have been more outgoing than usual because of all the wine. I found out about the event through my Leadership Wichita classmate, Jennifer Wold. Her husband Kris was in charge of the wine and he poured the tastings very generously. I was so glad that Brian and I planned ahead and he took me to work that day so I didn’t have to drive myself home. There’s no way I would have made it.
The first pairing was Natale Verga Prosecco with raspberry truffle. I’d had prosecco before so I knew that I would like it. The chocolates were from Cero’s Candies and they were all yummy. The raspberry truffle went great with the prosecco.
The second pairing was Elio Perrone Bigaro Rose with spring fling truffle. Of the five different types of wine I tasted that night this was my favorite. I guess this is supposed to be one of the best semi-sparkling moscato rosés on the market today. It’s made made with a blend of moscato and brachetto grapes with the pink color coming from the brachetto skins sitting with the juice for a short period of time. Sometimes I find moscatos too sweet but this had the perfect flavor. I liked it so much that I went looking for it on our very next trip to Groves (our favorite liquor store). As luck would have it, Groves carries this specific wine so it’s now in my regular rotation.
The truffle this was paired with consisted of passion fruit puree with orange in a white chocolate ganache layered with vanilla-infused dark chocolate ganache. It was another delicious truffle, which I liked even better than the first one.
The third pairing was Fritz Late Harvest Zinfandel with Saigon cinnamon truffle. Zinfandels are dessert wines that are great paired with chocolate, strawberries, or cherries so you couldn’t go wrong with this pairing. I typically like zinfandels and I liked this one but, after tasting wine #2, everything paled in comparison. The truffle was a Vietnamese cinnamon truffle coated in dark chocolate. All of the chocolates were fantastic but this was my favorite chocolate of the bunch.
Fourth was Rutherford Hill Port with fleur de sel caramel. This port is made of 100% zinfandel but don’t let that fool you. It was very, very strong. The dark chocolate dipped caramel sprinkled with fleur de sel salt was the perfect pairing. I took one of these to Brian when he picked me up. He loved it.
The fifth and final pairing was Dolce late harvest wine with orange cream. Dolce is considered “Liquid Gold from Napa” and is extremely limited in production. I was told each bottle cost over $90. I found it too sweet and was quite relieved to discover I didn’t like it. I can stick to my $10 to $20 bottles. LOL.
This wine was paired with fresh orange cream dipped in milk chocolate. The orange cream truffle was very sweet, which made it the perfect match because it toned down the sweetness of the wine.
Jennifer and her husband Kris did a fantastic job of matching the chocolates with the wines because each truffle complemented the wines they were paired with very well. In most cases the chocolates enhanced or accented the flavors in the wine and, in the case of the final pairing, the truffle toned down the sweetness of the wine. I wouldn’t have drank that wine by itself but it wasn’t too bad when paired with the orange cream truffle.
Out of all five wines I’d only tried one before so the event opened me up to new wines I’d never tried before. I even found a new favorite, the Elio Perrone Bigaro Rose from pairing #2. Also, I’d never had Cero’s truffles before so now I have a reason to go to their store.
Besides the delicious wine and decadent chocolates, Faith and I also had the rare opportunity to visit with other professional women in the area. It was a wonderful networking event so hats off to the Women at GT who hosted the event.
I wish there were more of these events throughout the year because it’s a great way to meet and network with other business women in the community. I would totally go to all of them, and not just for the wine or chocolates either. We have some amazing women in Wichita. I’ve met a few and am ready to meet some more.
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Finally Tried the Cuban at Metro Grill II
Posted on July 18, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink.
The last time we tried to go to Metro Grill II they were closed so Brian and I were finally excited to be able to eat there. It’s been at least a couple of weeks now but I’ve been behind on the blog so I’m just now writing about it.
Here are some pictures of our sandwiches.
I had a chicken sandwich that was mighty tasty.
Brian liked it even better than his Cuban, and that’s his favorite sandwich.
Everyone does something different with their Cuban sandwich and Metro Grill II is no exception. Their twist is they put potato chips in it. It’s odd but it does give it a nice crunch. Brian, even with the added twist of the potato chips, the sandwich itself was just okay. The pork needed more flavor and it was missing the sweet pickles that he likes.
Their potato chips are homemade and very good. Just had to add that bit of info.
These potatoes are seasoned very well and also delicious.
You know what else is delicious at Metro Grill II? Their desserts.
The only downside of dining at Metro Grill II is that you end up smelling like food when you leave because of the open kitchen concept.
I really like Metro Grill II overall. Their Cuban may not be as good as other Cuban sandwiches we’ve had but everything else they make is delicious. I have never been disappointed.
Brian and I really loved the chicken sandwich I had. It’s called Tuscan chicken and it’s got the perfect blend of flavors. We’ve decided that we’re just going to split it on our next visit because it’s large enough to feed two. And then we’ll actually have enough room for dessert, which we missed out on this last time because we were both too full.
It’s all good though, because now we have another reason to return.
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Harry Caray’s at Midway
Posted on July 18, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
This blog is so behind. I’m having trouble keeping up.
These are picture from the Harry Caray’s at Chicago Midway International Airport, where Darcy and I were delayed on our way back from New Jersey. I believe storms were the reason for the delays that day.
Always one to find the silver lining in everything, I felt like it turned out okay. We got to have a nice leisurely dinner at a place I’d never tried before.
It seemed to be a popular place to eat. Either that or there were several delays that day and everyone had the same idea: eat at Harry Caray’s. LOL.
Midway has more food options than the Wichita airport but it’s still an airport. There may be several options but there’s not that many good options. Harry Caray’s I guess just happens to be one and therefore it’s popular. I think we had a 30 minute wait. Not that we were in a hurry because our flight was delayed anyway. We had time to kill. Apparently, others were in the same boat because there were quite a few people ahead of us and they were willing to to way at as well.
I missed taking a photo of our actual meal. However, I did get a photo of the homemade potato chips topped with bleu cheese crumbles. It’s rare that you run into homemade anything inside an airport. If you ever get stuck at Midway, I highly recommend Harry Caray’s. Either that, or you could do yoga. There happens to be a little yoga studio just around the corner.
Originally we were going to arrive at 10 PM so I had planned on going to work the next day to complete mid-year reviews with my team members. Due to the delay, we didn’t arrive back in Wichita until well after midnight and I didn’t get home until after 1 AM. Despite my good intentions, there was no way I could make it to work by 7 AM the next day so I ended up taking the day off.
It worked out okay because I was still able to complete my mid-year reviews the following week, right before the holiday. Yeah. This blog is really behind. I still have to share with you guys 4th of July photos and everything else that happened. I may just have to write one long, catch up blog.
Have a fantastic weekend!
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The Cheesecake Factory Two Nights in a Row
Posted on July 8, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
When we were in Edison a couple of weeks ago we ended up eating at the Cheesecake Factory two nights in row. Why? Because there’s nothing else in Edison. LOL. I didn’t mind actually because I like the Cheesecake Factory.
The nice thing about the Cheesecake Factory is they have a huge menu that has dishes from almost every cuisine imaginable. There’s bound to be something on the menu that strikes your fancy. I’ve yet to try a dish that I didn’t like. And, they’re very consistent. The same dish tastes exactly the same no matter which Cheesecake Factory you visit.
On our first trip to the Cheesecake Factory in Edison, we started with crab cake bites. They were yummy.
I can’t remember what this is called but it’s what Darcy had and she said it was really good. I had the bang bang chicken and shrimp (below), which is my favorite dish they make. I always tell myself I’m going to order something different but some always end up with the same dish.
The next night we’re dining with people from other utilities and we end up at the Cheesecake Factory again, for lack of better options in Edison. Long wait this time because there were some graduations going on that night. We were told 30 minutes but our pager never buzzed. About 40 minutes into the wait, Darcy finally went back inside to check. They told her that they’d been paging us. Not sure why they didn’t try calling because they had one of our phone numbers also.
Anyway, we should have known service wasn’t going to be great from then on. Darcy any I didn’t have any problems the previous night though, so we didn’t think anything of it.
After we were seated it took a while for our server to come back and take our orders. I think he was a little put out by the fact that we were all on separate checks. The people at the other end said that they heard him mutter, “So I’m going to get stiffed.”
The service we received reflected that attitude also. The food took forever. After we got our food, no one ever came back to check how it was. Drink refills didn’t come. We had to specifically ask. And when we did ask, he would forget and had to be reminded.
It was so bad that, even though several of us talked about wanting to order some cheesecake for dessert, he just brought us our checks without offering dessert. My thought was, he would have gotten a much bigger tip if he would have let us order dessert and rack up a bigger tab. Some people are just not very good at their job and not very smart. Either that or he was having a really bad day.
But hey, at least I got a couple more food pictures of it. I didn’t take pictures of mine and Darcy’s dinner because I got the bang bang chicken and shrimp again (surprise, surprise) and that’s what Darcy had too.
A couple of people had shrimp and chicken gumbo, which they said wasn’t very good. That’s kind of bummer because that was the only redeeming quality of the restaurant, I thought. The service was terrible but at least my food tasted good.
Anyway, the disaster didn’t end at the table. I went to the restroom before we left and two of the stalls were completely out of toilet paper. The trash was overflowing and they were out of paper towels. I’m not sure what shape the men’s restroom was in but the ladies’ room looked like it hadn’t been serviced since that morning. They must have been really busy that night.
I normally like Cheesecake Factory restaurants. They’re a safe bet because the food is consistently good and, from my previous experience, the service has been pretty good too. The one in Edison is terrible though. Must be an Edison thing because the Hilton Garden Inn there was terrible too. So relieved I don’t ever have to go back!
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NY Munchies with Darcy
Posted on July 5, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Darcy and I stopped at several places while walking around New York. First stop was Brasserie Cognac at around 11 AM. This was the place with the snobby waiter who said we couldn’t stay for just coffee because of their non-existent lunch rush. I’m not an alcoholic but I did end up ordering a peach bellini. Darcy had a glass of sangria. We finished our drink and continued our NY adventure.
Next stop: Ivy in Hell’s Kitchen. This place had huge accordion windows that open completely so you feel like you’re outside inside. It was awesome. It was like we were out on the patio but we had the comfort of AC. We stay by the window which made for some great people watching.
At one point one of the NY bus tours was stopped in front of the restaurant. That’s NY traffic for you. I waved at the people on the bus but none of them waved back. They all had this uniform look of disdain. Not sure if it was the heat or what, but not one person was smiling. We had walked by several people peddling bus tours. It’s great for if you can’t walk long distances or don’t want to, but Darcy and I agreed it didn’t look like much fun. Seeing those people’s faces just proved us right.
Darcy and I ate a substantial breakfast at the hotel before we left so neither of us were really hungry for lunch. We decided to just get the artisanal cheese board and a pitcher of sangria. We were already drinking so might as well keep going.
Darcy knows more about cheese than I do so I let her do the picking. She chose Brie Fermier Jouvence (cow), Westfield Farm Capri (goat), and Pyrenees Brebis (sheep) so all the animals were represented. They were all really tasty with the grilled baguette but the honeycomb stole the show. I’d never had honeycomb before. It tasted amazing. Darcy recommended spreading both honey and cheese on the grilled baguette. I’d never had cheese that way before either. It was so good. The honey really highlighted the cheese flavors. My favorite combo was the honeycomb and capri on a baguette.
Love, love, love! Now I’m craving honeycomb. I don’t know where to buy it here, though.
We walked around some more then when we were ready to stop again, we stopped at Hudson Station. They mostly had bar food which didn’t really appeal to us so we just had drinks and left. Darcy found a place with good reviews called Marseille so we walked over there. Except our timing was a bit off. The kitchen was closed at the time and didn’t open again until 5 PM. We ended up going to Nizza down the street instead. The host at Marseille recommended it.
The best part about being in Hell’s Kitchen is all of the great restaurants. There’s so many of them. Although, out of all of the stops we made that day, Ivy was my favorite of all. I’m totally taking Brian there when we return this fall.
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