El Capital Seafood & Grill
Posted on April 2, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I made Brian and Chris try a new Mexican seafood restaurant with me not too long ago. Chris and I actually went there before that, but we went on a Wednesday, and that just happens to be the one day a week that the restaurant is closed. I know. Weird, right? Normally most places choose to be closed on a Monday.
We ended up going to Doc Greens next door that day since we couldn’t go to El Capitan. A couple of weeks later, we returned on a Tuesday and met Brian there. Here are the pictures of our food.
I can’t say enough about the seafood soup I had. It was delicious. The shrimp offered a little bit of sweetness to balance the savory spices. Also, the soup had chayote as one of the ingredients. Chayote is common in Filipino food but rarely do I ever come across it in American cooking. In fact, I don’t even know the English translation for the word.
Anyway, if you ever get a hankering for some Mexican seafood, I highly recommend El Capitan. Brian could take or leave it but I really liked my soup.
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Dinner with the Dills at Our Favorite Spot
Posted on April 1, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It’s been ages since we’ve seen these two, let alone sit down to have dinner with them. They’re always running off to some luxurious resort or another, living the “Travel Junkie” lifestyle. Anyway, we finally caught up with them a couple of weeks ago. Here are some pics of our dinner at the Belmont.
Speaking of the Belmont, Brian and I are actually due for another visit. Our friend Jen Reifschneider who is the executive chef there recently revamped the restaurant’s dinner menu and I’m dying to try it.
In other news, Jay Dill was nominated as Visionary of the Year. Interestingly enough, I know two others who are candidates alongside him — Erica Case and Clayton Dir. I know Wichita is small so you usually know at least one of the candidates but to have three of them competing for the title in the same year is just wild. No matter who you are supporting, all of the money raised goes toward supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so everyone wins. Best of luck to all the candidates!
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Newbie Night at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on March 25, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball, Things to Do.
I’m on a mission to get all of my friends.. Scratch that. I’m on a mission to get every single person I meet into pickleball. Recently, I met a couple of friends (Jarrica Briedenthal, a friend from Zumba, and Teresa Winfield, an former coworker) at Chicken N Pickle for Newbie Night.
Me and Jarrica
Me and Teresa
Michael Harris, director of pickleball at our Chicken N Pickle in Wichita, did a wonderful job of leading the session.
Newbie Nights are a great way to introduce friends to pickleball because of the fun casual environment. Besides that, they also provide all the equipment so you don’t even have to have your own paddle. Most people who are eager to get into the sport have already bought a starter set from Amazon and usually show up with their own paddles but it is not required.
I remember dragging mom and dad, and even some of my Leadership Wichita classmates, to a Newbie Night a couple of years ago when they were first getting into pickleball also. Anyway, if you would like to check it out, the next one is on Tuesday, April 16.
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Buffalo Brew Coffee Company
Posted on March 22, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Buffalo Brew Coffee Company is a coffee shop from Valley Center that recently opened its second location at the National in downtown Wichita.
In addition to the yummy drinks, they also offer yummy breakfast burritos and sandwiches. My friend Chris Townley got a sausage, egg, and cheese English muffin while I tried a bagel sandwich with sausage and bacon last week.
I highly recommend checking out Buffalo Brew if you haven’t already. There’s still time this month to try the March specialty drinks. And, if you find something you really, really like, you can even get it in the giant 32 oz. size!
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Local Flavor is So Delightful
Posted on March 18, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Ever since I’ve discovered Local Flavor and their “local delight” pie I have been completely obsessed. In fact, I dragged Brian and Chris (my friend from work) there again for lunch recently just so I could satisfy my pie craving. Here are some pics from that visit and previous visits (because the place is now on our regular dining rotation).
The smoked chicken bacon wrap normally has greens and tomatoes. Brian doesn’t like tomatoes and so there’s none in this pic. After having this version, he decided he didn’t like the greens either. So now he gets it without greens and tomatoes and it’s absolutely perfect. This wrap has the best smoky flavor. It’s our new favorite thing to get there.
Brian also loves their rib tips. They are good but a bit too spicy for my taste buds.
Parmesan potatoes – not that special but good. And they’re the perfect additional side to complement your meal specially if you’ve decided to just split a chicken bacon wrap like we sometimes do.
Chris had the fish at lunch the other day. He got two huge fillets, battered and fried. Not gonna lie. It looked pretty good. I would have had fries instead of the fried okra, though.
The smoked salmon dip is also something that I have really enjoyed there. You can’t see the dip under the pretzel in this pic. They give you quite a bit of it along with the pretzel, Ritz crackers, veggies, and chips.
I had so much dip left over one time that I took the rest home and made a sandwich out of it the next day. It was great that way too.
And then here’s the best part – the local delight pie. It’s got the best fruity flavors.
The place doesn’t really look like much when you first pull up but, as soon as you get out of the car, you’re immediately greeted with that smoky barbecue aroma. That place smells so freakin’ delicious. Besides barbecue, they also serve tacos and burgers. Much like everywhere else, Tuesday is “Taco Tuesday” and Wednesday is burger day ($2 off any burger). You can see the rest of the daily specials in the pic of the menu below.
Happy hour is 2 to 5 PM Tuesday through Saturday and there’s a bonus late night happy hour from 9 PM to midnight Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’ve yet to come out to enjoy their happy hour but I’m very tempted to because the food and drink specials are pretty darn good.
Here are some of their specialty drinks.
I’ve also yet to come out to Sunday brunch but those $15 mimosa buckets are calling my name. Anyone wanna go this Sunday?
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