FLIP + CHING

New Sushi Place in Old Town

Posted on June 30, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.

When Michael Cobb came to town a few weeks ago to train us for the iPickle Nation round robins, we met up at Sushiya in Old Town Square. I believe it’s in the space that Hana Cafe vacated.

They had good drink options but their drink menu kind of sucked because you couldn’t read some of the text. It’s dark in there and the font color they chose was very difficult to read. This is probably an old person complaint but I think they should reprint their drink menus. You can read it pretty well in this pic but when I was there that night, I promise I could not read it. I actually had to use my phone’s flashlight feature.

That was really my only complaint. Other than that the food was really good. I liked everything that I tried. I even made a mental note to go back and bring Brian next time.

We had some edamame (not pictured), shrimp tempura, and shrimp shumai. They were all really good. The dishes kind of reminded me of the dishes I used to get at Nara in Kansas City, even the ones with local names.

I do not remember the names of all the rolls we got but there was only one I didn’t try (the one with the raw fish looking thing). Everything was great. I’m actually looking forward to going back. Until then, GNG.

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Pickle Day at Nortons Brewing

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.

It was “Pickle Day” the last time we were at Nortons. It’s almost as if they knew I was coming, or that I knew that they were having a “pickle party” (which I did not).

What was intentional was Brian wearing his Wicked Brew shirt, which we tend to do when we are making our stops.

Nortons was one of the last few that we needed to complete our passports.

We ran into our friend Cheryl Crist while we were there.

You cannot go to Nortons and not get bacon crack.

The truffle fries are also a must.

I honestly do not even remember what Brian ordered.

And then, of course, we had to get some drinks to get our stamps.

We did finally complete our tour. I picked up our shirts last week. They were already out of Smalls. It’s crazy how popular this drink tour has gotten. I’m glad though. I hope it’s helping local business. Until next time, GNG.

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First Time at Coffee Daze

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Ching under Things to Do.

Finally got around to checking out Coffee Daze on Douglas. I have my “go to” coffee spots and this hadn’t made the rotation but decided to check it out for a Wicked Brew stamp. The annual tour really does work.

It brings people like me who probably wouldn’t normally go and then maybe you can convert them into repeat customers. The place is really cute and the coffee wasn’t bad so I’ll probably be back.

Anyway, it’s not too late to start your passport. Brian and I did get our shirts last week and they were out of smalls but they still had plenty of the other sizes. Need to hurry though, because they only have 1500 shirts.

Until next time, GNG.

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2023 ICT Summer Classic

Posted on June 23, 2023 by Ching under Pickleball.

Saw Bo Tolbert at Riverside Tennis Center on Friday night, the first day of ICT Summer Classic. He was in his Picklemania shirt from last year. I just love these t-shirt sightings. Not only are they great promotion for our annual Rotary club pickleball tournament but it makes me think that the players really do love the tournament. If anything, at least I know they love the shirts.

Lots of Asians on singles night. For people who cramp a lot, we love our singles. LOL. Anyway, singles was super rough for me this go round. There weren’t enough entries so they just combined all the ladies. I ended up having to play against Colby Fugit and she pickled me!

Here’s the shirts from this year’s Picklemania tournament.

Saturday was gender doubles day. I love women’s doubles day because the women’s doubles teams are always so matchy matchy.

The ladies are also super fun. Here’s our women’s 4.0 17+ podium pic. Kimberly Howe and Janelle Lindeman took third, Alice Tunks-Jones and I got second, and Vickie Hancock and Lisa Alexander were the champs.

Alice and I actually beat Vickie and Lisa in pool play but they got the better of us in the championship game. Anyway, Alice was a complete delight and I had a blast playing with her.

Obviously, Bo and I intentionally coordinated. After I saw him on Friday night, I asked him to wear the blue shirt with white shorts the next day.

The color coordination with Frank Reyes was unintentional, though. Still equally fun and picture-worthy.

Sunday was mixed doubles day. Matt Nola ended up cramping in men’s doubles so they withdrew from the championship and he wasn’t well enough to play the next day so Ev Kim ended up filling in for him.

Lori and Dave Belew were back from their big, fancy tournament in time so they stopped by to watch some matches but didn’t end up playing this year.

Tanner Rice was at the PPA Texas Open that same weekend so no Tanner this year. I did snag a great partner in Dustin Herman, though. I thought we played amazing.

Our first match in pool play was against Cody Courter and Jen Tiano. We lost that 13-15 but they had 4 unreturnable net cord, which if you negate was really the difference maker. We totally could have won that match.

Our next match was against Nathan Peters and Gwen Warwick. I think we lost that 7-15. Nathan was just in beast mode and I couldn’t handle his drives. I learned a ton from that match, though.

Our final pool play match was against Scott Wolford and Kayla Keuter. Their game play was more suited to my style of play, which is a lot of dinking (as opposed to mostly shake-and-bakes, which was Nathan and Gwen’s strategy) so we had a better chance. I think we were down 11-14 and ended up winning 16-14.

It was a solid win considering Scott and Kayla are both amazing, experienced pickleball players.

Our first match in bracket play was against Chris Wilson and Greta Siemens. Bracket matches were best 2 out of 3 games to 11, win by 2. Our first game was rough. We lost 3-11 but then we rallied in the second game and won 11-4 and carried that momentum to win the third game 11-6. Their side choice actually helped us because we finished on the side that worked best for us. Had we started and finished on the opposite side, I think the outcome of that match would have been completely different.

Also, Greta was getting frustrated that Dustin was covering so much of the court. It’s the correct strategy in mixed and it was making it very challenging for them to target me. Add to that the fact that the wind was blowing to my right (and I play the right side of the court – always when I’m playing with a right handed mixed doubles partner). Not only was the target very small with Dustin covering 85% of the court but they had zero margin for error because of the way the wind was blowing. If they target too close to the line (which they generally did), the wind was blowing their shots out.

Our second match was against Ev Kim and Ling Wei Kong. They were the favorites to win but we were actually up 7-2 in game 1. That would have been quite an upset! I totally thought we had a chance. After a few side-outs with neither team scoring, they ended up scoring 2 points. We were at 7-4 for what seemed like an eternity (maybe 15 minutes in reality). We went through multiple side-outs with no one scoring until Ev went beast mode and they went on a tear. When they got to 9 points, I ended up calling a time out. Dustin doesn’t really like to call time outs but we had to because we hadn’t scored in forever. Anyway, we only scored one more point that game and finished it at 8-11. We lost the next game 2-11. Ev didn’t even have to do much that game, Ling Wei was just flawless.

That match was the end of the line for me and Dustin and Ev and Ling Wei eventually won gold as expected. I wasn’t not unhappy about how we played though. I feel like we gave them a good match.

The ICT tournament is so fun. I think regardless of how I do, I always have a great time. Tanner said he would play the fall one with me so I am looking forward to it. Hopefully nothing comes up that prevents him from coming up to play. We’ll see. Until next time, GNG.

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JINYA Ramen Bar

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Chris Townley, Brian, and I met at JINYA — a hip, new ramen bar downtown — for lunch a couple of weeks ago because, apparently, “ramen is all the craze.”

The JINYA patio is bordered by flower planters and seems quite cozy. The interior of the restaurant also has a nice, fun vibe.

They also have a huge, fully-stocked bar in the middle of everything.

It was our first time checking out the restaurant. Judging by the look on these folks faces, we weren’t the only first timers there that day.

Here’s a picture of Chris carefully studying the menu.

And now for the food pics…

We ordered one of the app specials but they were out of it so they gave us deep-fried Brussels sprouts instead. Deep-fried anything is good so we didn’t turn it down. They gave it to us for free because I was genuinely disappointed that they didn’t have whatever it was that I asked for (which I can’t even remember what it is now ironically) so that was super nice of them.