FLIP + CHING

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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Miscellaneous New York Photos

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Ching under Travel.

Darcy and I took the train to New York when we were in New Jersey last week. It’s about a 40 minute train ride from the Metuchen train station.

This is a picture of Newark Penn Station. Not to be confused with New York Penn Station. You do not want to get off at this stop. Apparently, Newark is really bad. When we were trying to make arrangements for our lodging, we were told to stay as far away as possible from Newark.

I have no idea whose idea it was to name this train station very similar to New York Penn Station. With their accent, it sounds the same so it would be very easy to confuse the two. Darcy and I decided it’s probably a trick to trap tourists.

I took a bunch of random photos while we were walking around New York. You might recognize some of these landmarks.

We waked over to Times Square and Central Park.

This Thai place close to Central Park seems to be popular with the mounted police.

We also walked to Hell’s Kitchen.

We walked along the river for a while.

We got close to the Intrepid but didn’t go inside because it’s not really Darcy’s thing.

After seeing this photo Brian, who has never had any interest in visiting New York, decided that he wants to go. I guess it’s an aircraft carrier that’s been converted into a really cool museum. Brian seemed to know all about it.

There’s also a restaurant area long the pier and a small dog park.

There’s also various companies offering river cruises.

All in all there was plenty to see. What was really hard to come by though, are restrooms. Just like in Washington DC, the restrooms in fast food restaurants had keypads to keep the riffraff out. The restaurants, whether fast food or fine dining, only allowed paying customers to use their restrooms.

At one place, Brasserie Cognac, they wouldn’t even let us stay unless they were sure we were spending money. We really just wanted to rest our feet and use the restroom but we realized that we’d need to buy something so we told the server that we were just having drinks as soon as we walked in. He was like, “Are you having drinks or are you having coffee? Because if you’re only having coffee, I would suggest a bakery across the street.” We told him that we were having alcoholic beverages and he let us stay. His reason for discouraging us from staying? Supposedly they get really busy at lunch and they didn’t want to run out of tables.

After drinking a couple of their $15 drinks, using the restroom, and resting our feet for about an hour, it was finally lunch time. This is what the restaurant looked like at noon. The original guy who greeted us was nowhere to be found and a different server tabbed us out. We figured the other guy was probably hiding because he was full of shit. So much for being busy.

This explains why there’s always lots of people loitering or just leaning against the wall outside various establishments. If you go inside to rest your tush, even for just a moment, it’s going to cost you.

During our day of walking around New York we stopped to rest at several places. I’ll post pictures and blog about them next time. For now, I’ll just say that the people who say that New York is dirty are absolutely right. The city is literally dirty and smells really bad. I don’t even know how to describe it. Most of the time it smells of rotten sewage. Other times it smelled of air pollution from road vehicles. And at various points during our walk it felt like it was raining but it really wasn’t. I was getting droplets of condensation from the window AC units.

Darcy told me that when she took a shower that night, she had a dirt ring around her on the tub floor. I guess, since she was wearing a dress, the wind had blown all the dirt and it caked on her skin. I didn’t have the same problem because I was wearing pants. I figured we were going to be doing a lot of walking so I wore one of my unlined Lululemon studio pants and Nike running shoes. Actually, I even wore a sports bra instead of my regular bra. I was prepared in case we needed to make a run for it.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened. We were able to find our way back to the train station and even managed to find our way through Penn Station (which is super confusing for noobs like us). At least now I know what to expect for when I return with Brian.

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Efes Restaurant

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews, Travel.

Darcy and I ended up at Efes on our first night in New Jersey because we didn’t want to be too far from the train station. We walked up and down the street and didn’t really find anything that appealed to us. Efes looked quaint and promising.

The naan and the sauces were good. Service was super slow, though. I was really thirsty and I think she only refilled my water once. I had to ask for a water refill and had to wait a really long time.

The hummus and falafel were good but neither Darcy nor I liked our entree, which was a bummer because it was one of the house specialties and came highly recommend by our server. We should have known she was clueless.

The description made it sound yummy and the server’s recommendation sold us. We both got the chicken dish, which Darcy describes sweet and sour chicken without the sweetness. It had a very pronounced sourness to it. Maybe we just don’t know our Turkish foods.

I wish that I would have ordered the salmon dish instead. It was that or the chicken dish. However, the chicken dish was a house specialty and our server told us it was her favorite and very popular. Usually, the house specialties are a good bet. Oh, well.

Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing because the restaurant is rated pretty well on Zagat. So disappointing.

The poor service didn’t help matters any. Our server never came unless we tried to get her attention. And, I really, really needed some water to tone down the sour flavor of the sauce. Darcy recommended just having more bread. I wanted my water, darn it!

The best part was the upside down “wash your hands” flyer in the restroom. The person who posted it couldn’t be bothered to make sure it was right side up. Seriously. You had one job! I had to take a picture.

Maybe this restaurant was good at one point but I’m guessing it’s been a long time since anyone who works there really cared.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Ching under Travel.

I had to travel for work last week. It was my first time flying out of the Wichita airport since they started operating out of the new terminal. Grandma wanted to see some pictures of the new airport. Here you go, grandma!

There’s more food options now. There’s even a Dunkin’ Donuts. Don’t get too excited, though. It’s not as good as a real Dunkin’.

Here’s a short video clip of the new airport.

The new airport is awesome. Brian and I were impressed. We even like the new, four-level parking garage because it has neat feature that tells you how many spaces are left on each level. Although, I couldn’t help but wonder how soon our community will outgrow it. When we were there last week, the first three levels were completely full. Only the rooftop level had spaces available.

Inside it’s very modern. Brian always wants to be early for our flights. Now that we have a nice, shiny, new airport, I won’t mind getting there early and having to wait at the gate. Maybe. LOL. I’ll probably still mind but won’t mind it as much.

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Moreland & Arbuckle at Bartlett Arboretum

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Ching under Family, Things to Do.

Last Sunday was a busy day for us. Brian helped his mom and dad sort through what they could take to Oklahoma. They didn’t have room for everything in their car so his mom will take the rest home on her next visit in a few weeks.

I dropped off a Father’s Day present for my dad who lives in Derby. I hung out with my family until it was time to head to my Sunday afternoon Zumba class at Andover YMCA. After Zumba I had to skedaddle. Took a quick shower so we could head to Bartlett Arboretum to celebrate Father’s Day with David and Donna.

We initially planned to taking Bebot but our new cooler was too big to fit in the trunk filled with folding chairs so we ended up taking two vehicles. Brian and his dad were in Bebot. Donna and I were in Alex. I hate driving in general and I hate driving to unfamiliar places even worse. Brian’s GPS decided to go berserk and I was totally stressed out. About an hour later, we miraculously found our way to Bartlett Arboretum safely and unscathed. Thank you, Jesus!

It was a beautiful day for an outdoor concert. Bartlett Arboretum is so magnificent, I couldn’t stay upset. The stress and frustration soon lifted away as we sat enjoying the music. I’d never seen or heard Moreland & Arbuckle before but I really enjoyed their performance. The parts we got to watch anyway, since we arrived at the end of the first set. (In addition to getting lost and taking a long time to get there, we actually misread the web site info. We thought the concert started at 5 PM rather than 4 PM. Oops!)

At least now we know how to get there and we know what to expect. It’s so beautiful there. Brian and I hope to return for another concert or maybe even attend the Winfield Warm Up in September or the Ecofest in October. There’s not any info yet about these two events on the Bartlett Arboretum web site but they’re both listed on the Tree House Concerts page so I’m penciling them in.

If you’ve never been to Bartlett Arboretum, I highly recommend it. It’s so peaceful and beautiful, and it’s not even that far away (about 40 minutes from our place, without getting lost). Here’s a little documentary about the century-old landmark in Belle Plaine. After watching this, I’m positive you’ll want to schedule a visit.