verb [ICT]

Daily [snap] – Keeper of the Plains

verb [ICT] staff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:27:22 +0000

Keeper of the Plains | Photo by Cheryl Dumcum

[eat] Los Cocos

Ashley Perkins — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:21:32 +0000

Last week, I wrote a post lamenting the loss of Red Mesa Grill and their excellent white cheese dip. Reader Josh left a particularly eloquent comment on this article, simply stating, “Super strong margaritas + great queso – huge bill = Los Cocos!” Coincidentally, I already had dinner plans at Los Cocos (1335 N. Tyler Rd.) for Sunday, and I was excited to put Josh’s proclamation to the test. The restaurant did not disappoint.

We started our evening at the bar, where I ordered a margarita the size of my head for $7. They have a wide selection of Mexican and domestic beers, and everyone in our party of 12 was able to find something they liked. As we sat at the bar and chatted, I took in the atmosphere of the restaurant. It is colorful and inviting, with a layout that makes it feel cozy and spacious all at once.

Once seated, we ordered a couple of rounds of queso blanco (otherwise known as white cheese dip!) and guacamole. Both were excellent, and we all had to keep ourself from filling up on the appetizers, because we had a feeling the entrees to come were going to be equally wonderful.

Of the dishes ordered, there were some standouts. The Pollo San Luis, smothered in cheese and topped with grilled shrimp was one of the favorites. We were especially impressed to find out that this dish was the namesake of our server Luis. Another notable entree was the fajitas, which were ordered by several at our table, including myself. Although some of the onions in my shrimp fajitas were a little burnt, the dish was great overall.

I would go back to Los Cocos anytime – in fact, my boyfriend and I agree that it will be our west side answer to Playa Azul from now on. I encourage you to give it a try, and tell Luis I said hi!

[think] Should Standing Be Allowed at Intrust Bank Arena Concerts?

Ryan Unruh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:18:05 +0000

“Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did. Lookin’ like a true survivor, feelin’ like a little kid.” – Bernie Taupin via Elton John

She wasn’t sure about all the words, but then again “Roy Cohn, Jaun Peron, Toscanini, Dancron” isn’t the catchiest lyric. Sarah Kallail improvised what she didn’t know from “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” dancing and singing in unison (kinda) with her friends while Billy Joel pounded a piano and chanted random cultural references 100-yards below.

It was pretty much what the girls had pictured when they bought their tickets to the Joel and Elton John concert three months ago. The past week had yielded countless Billy/Elton playlists and lyrical status updates. Now, finally, they soaked it in and let it all out, reciprocating the Piano Man’s energy from their $100 nosebleeds.

A few verses in, their fire was fought with the beam of a flashlight. From the entrance to their section, a police officer pointed his finger to the ground and mouthed the words “sit down.” They obeyed, a little confused, a little embarrassed. They had quit singing by the time Joel got to “BELGIANS IN THE CONGO!”

Kallail felt deflated. “I didn’t realize we we’re the only ones standing,” she says. “We weren’t trying to ruin anyone’s time. We were just thrilled to be there.”

Sitting seemed to be the preferred position amongst the 15-thousand piano-pop fans packed into Intrust Bank Arena on March 3. Other than the elated first few rows, the crowd was glued to their chairs throughout. That’s in part because police officers prowled the bowl during the show, putting the clamps on any one who tried to give them the stand-up routine.

“We got a sitting ovation,” jokes Kyle Foreman. People around his floor seats clapped when an officer ordered him to sit. “They were more excited about that than Crocodile Rock.”

Foremen’s well aware some people may prefer to do their hoppin’ and boppin’ from that folding chair they paid good money for. “I’m sure there were people complaining about us on their drive home,” he says. “But Billy and Elton were putting on a great show and we wanted to show our appreciation.”

Sarah concurs. “I don’t want to ruin it for someone, but at a concert, the artist is trying to get the audience on their feet.”

Sarah Haertl, the Arena’s director of sales and marketing, says there’s no venue policy on standing vs. sitting. “We take directions from the show. Our goal is to make the show and the ticket holders as happy as possible.” She declined to say what, if any, directions Joel/John promoters gave regarding the issue.

With the Arena bringing in concerts Wichitans haven’t seen the likes of in decades, the issue of standing vs. sitting needs to be addressed. But it should be up to us, not the Arena or promoters, to develop an accepted etiquette. We’re the ones paying the big bucks, after all.

Sound off Wichita. Is it ever ok to stand at an Arena concert? Always ok? Does it matter where you’re sitting? Does the song matter? Sit for “Candle in the Wind,” set the dance alight for “Saturday Night’s Alright”?

Tell us about the buzz-kill cop who ruined your Jovi experience or the drunken Brad Paisley fan who made you wish you hadn’t dropped a bill-plus to sit behind him. Hopefully we can get the issue ironed out before the dulcet tones of Michael Buble spark some kind of sitters vs. standers showdown. His fans are supposedly very big on energy reciprocation.

image credit

Daily [snap] – Wichita at Night

verb [ICT] staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:49:17 +0000

Wichita at Night | Photo by Jen Lancaster

[move] ‘Til I Collapse: Week 2

Tim Kaul — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:45:53 +0000

I’m not a fashion guy at all. Put me in boots, jeans and a T-shirt and I’m a pretty happy guy. But what you go to the gym in, or hit the road in, is super important. Here are a few general guidelines.

Shoes

Get the right shoe for the job. If you don’t plan on jogging/running too much, then a standard pair of cross trainers are going to do great things for you. However, if you want to punish the pavement a little bit, get good running shoes. Your knees, hips, ankles, shins and back will thank you. Get fitted for these by someone who knows what they are doing. We have a great running store right here in Wichita at First Gear (111 N Mosley Street). Go see them and they will analyze how you walk and get you into the right shoe.

Underthings

Spandex is your friend. I’ll give you a minute to go get your mental bleach and get that image out of your head. I don’t care who you are, a pair of compression shorts under your workout gear will make your life so much easier and less painful. I won’t go into details here but will say this, friction when it comes to your brakes is a good thing, when it comes to a night out with your special somebody, it’s a great thing, but when it comes to your legs and arms? Worst. Thing. Ever.

Outerwear

Thankfully we’re getting to the time of year that shorts and a T-shirt are acceptable workout clothing options. However, your favorite cotton shirt may not be the best option. Cotton soaks up liquid and gets heavy and smelly quick. The newest technical fabrics are marvelous; they wick away sweat and keep you cool as you workout. You can spend a BUNCH of money on this stuff but if you keep your eyes peeled you can find even plus sized workout gear for as little as $10 a piece

Those are the basics. Of course there are GPS units, Mp3 players and all sorts of other gadgets out there that you can drop all sorts of coin on, but that’s for another time. Right now, just get started.

Look both ways out there kids and I’ll see ya next week.

Is there a piece of equipment you wouldn’t be caught dead at the gym without? Is there a killer app that will make me run like Usain Bolt? Shout it out in the comments.

[primp] Semplifi Hair Care Challenge

Stephanie Cloud Seery — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:43:34 +0000

Hello, my name is Stephanie, and I’m a recovering hair product snob.

There, I said it. I’ve been hooked on high-end hair products since I was 17. Before that, my idea of splurging on “good” shampoo was to buy Pantene or Aussie at the supermarket instead of Suave. I’m not kidding; I went from Suave to Aveda on one sunny afternoon in a salon on Douglas, and I never went back.

Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. My income hasn’t always been able to match my appetite, so I’ve been willing to settle for generics that produced the same results and had the same smell and shine. I’ve also been known to bargain shop on eBay for products by the liter or in bundles to save money (free shipping gets me every time).

However, lately I’ve been unhappy with my hair. I’d just switched off from the big A to Bumble and Bumble, hoping to see some perk return, and it wasn’t happening. My hair was dull, limp, flat, refusing to hold a curl, stringy if flat-ironed… and I was desperate. My stylist suggested rinsing it with a de-mineralizing agent, and then using a deep conditioner. A pricey option, and in the end, my hair hadn’t improved much. I resolved to go on with life and hope that it would fix itself. My pocket book didn’t leave me any other options.

Then my beloved editors asked if someone wanted to try out a new hair care line called Semplifi, created right here in Wichita. Semplifi only has five products, and the developers claim it can fix anything. It has to do with the way the products work together, the way they work with your hair, and another little secret. Of course, I was skeptical; who wouldn’t be? I went to their website, and scoffed as I read the glowing testimonials. Still, I was intrigued. So, I came up with a plan. You see, under my roof there are four women with four very different kinds of hair, and very different hair problems. If Semplifi works as well as it claimed, it should work for all of us, right? Thus, the experiment was born.

I contacted the distributor and was thrilled when they offered to bring me and my daughters in for a consultation with the developer of Semplifi, Al Melchiorre. Al was very enthusiastic about the product line that he spent five years on. He told me that when he came up with the idea of Semplifi, he had to work with developers in Vancouver, Canada, because he couldn’t find anyone here who believed in what he was trying to do. I felt a little guilty, since I was so doubtful.

However, Al was very persuasive as he spoke about Semplifi. He explained that the secret of Semplifi is that certain products penetrate and fill the shaft of your hair, making it impossible for anything else to do so. The end result is that your styling products can’t penetrate and therefore don’t damage your hair. Al went on to assess each of us, running his fingers through our hair, lifting it, examining it… I really felt like he was doing detective work! Finally, he sat down with each of us and gave instructions on how to properly combine the products. Each of us had different problems, so we each had different ways to combine them to get the maximum benefit.

The plan is that all four of us will keep track of how we are using the products, and what our opinions are. We are making notes on how our hair reacts when we just wash and go, when we flat-iron, when we break out the curls for a night out, and any other time we do something different. Today I used mousse and put my hair in pigtails? Noted. In a few weeks, I’ll be back with an explanation about each of us, and what our hair was like before and after Semplifi. I’ll also talk more about the products and the Semplifi website at that time.

This skeptic has to confess that my immediate impression is positive. Actually, all four of us were impressed after Day One. After just one washing, and applying the products as instructed, we all felt like our hair was cleaner, silkier, and better-looking. My hair was lighter and full of volume, something I can’t remember it being in the recent past. I actually didn’t know how to style it, because it wasn’t the same hair I’m used to. If the next few weeks keep going like this, my next article might just sound like those testimonials I scoffed at on the website only a short time ago!

Have you used Semplifi? What did you think? What hair care products do you swear by?

Daily [snap] – Downtown

verb [ICT] staff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:56:56 +0000

Downtown | Photo by Sandy Keathley

[eat] Wichita’s Best Thai Food

Jana Curl — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:47:30 +0000

Basil, mint, peanuts, limes, lemongrass, chiles, cilantro – these are a few of my favorite things. They are also elements that play a starring role in Thai cuisine. Elements of Thai cuisine include a blend of salty, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy-hot, all of which create an amazing dining experience. Thai food is more than just spring rolls and pad thai, not that there is anything wrong with these delights. Thai cuisine is quite inventive and offers a range of flavors with textural variety. Soups, salads with papaya, and curry dishes can all be found on typical Thai restaurant menus.

In Wichita we are very lucky to have some fantastic places to choose from when it comes to Thai food. If you are a beginner to the world of Thai cuisine or if you are totally over pad thai and ready to dive into some more adventuresome things, you can find it in Wichita. I have explored several of these places and have a few favorites to share.

1. Taste of Thai (447 N. St. Francis): I have to say that this is my favorite place in town for Thai food. I have tried many things on the menu and never been disappointed. Owned by Jeff & Vatsana Saysombat, Taste of Thai has a large menu with many delicious choices. The meats and vegetables are always fresh and perfectly cooked. The Phraram Long Somg (#64) is my personal favorite and a must try. It comes with your choice of stir fried meat (I usually go for the beef) with a peanut curry sauce that is to die for and is served on a bed of cooked spinach and broccoli and served with rice. For curry lovers, the Panang Curry (#23) is the way to go. It is served in traditional style with peas, carrots, green beans and broccoli, and has the most amazing flavor profile. It starts out kind of sweet, while the heat slowly builds until you are pretty much warm all over. The spring rolls are so fresh and served with this great, clear peanut sauce that can surprise you with a hot kick in the tongue if you aren’t careful. I am not usually a big crab Rangoon fan, but I do love them here. They are perfectly crisp with the perfect crab-to-cream-cheese ratio.

2. Thai Tradition (650 N. Carriage Pkwy): This restaurant lives up to its name, as it has truly become a tradition in Wichita. My guess is that a lot of people in town had their first dish of pad thai here; I know I did. But there is so much more to this restaurant to talk about, so let’s start with the Tom Kha soup. Just thinking about it, I can taste the coconut milk broth. It is served with your choice of meat, and the broth is simmered with kalanga root, mushrooms, lemongrass and diced onions. I normally gravitate to the spicy side of Thai food, but my favorite thing to get at Thai Tradition is the Pad See Eew with chicken. The soy-fried noodles are flat and tasty with just enough egg for added yumminess, and it’s served with fresh-cooked broccoli. I have heard that the papaya salad is a must try, though I have not had it yet. It is called Som Thum and is green papaya served with fresh chili peppers, tomatoes and limes.

3. Siam Cuisine (6249 E. 21st Street North): All of the reviews that I read about Siam were glowing. So when I got my crew together and headed out there, I was super excited to try it. We went at lunch, so we ordered from the lunch special menu, which meant a cup of hot and sour soup, spring roll and a salad with our entrees all for around $6.00. After much consideration, I decided on the Spicy Basil Noodles with chicken. I can handle a little heat and this dish definitely had it – my mouth was pretty fired up. But it wasn’t just hot, it had an amazing flavor. I picked up the taste of sesame oil, chiles, garlic and, of course, the Thai basil. One of the lunch crew tried the pineapple curry that was served with shrimp and she really liked it. The pad thai that another crew member tried looked unbelievable; the plate was filled with fresh sprouts, carrots and limes and got rave reviews. The day we went nobody tried the Crying Tiger beef, but according to several eyewitness reports I have heard, it is a must-try dish.

4. Thai House (969 N. West St.): One of the greatest things about Thai House is that it’s family-owned and very affordable. When I first stepped inside the restaurant, I was struck by how small it is – only a few four-top tables are available, along with a few bar seats. The kitchen is right there and you can watch them whip up your meal from scratch. The chefs make everything to order and they encourage you to call ahead if you are on a tight timeline. One of specialties at Thai House is their satays – marinated chicken or pork charbroiled and served with a cool cucumber dip or peanut sauce. Because I am a creature of habit, I couldn’t resist trying the Pra Ram Long Song – the peanut curry dish stir fried with spinach and broccoli and served with rice. It was a very mild dish, and the sauce was thick and rich with peanut flavors. If you like spring rolls with the rice paper and served cold, beware – the spring rolls at Thai House are served warm over a bed of plum sauce and it is a slightly different taste experience.

Feel free to share your favorite dishes from these fabulous restaurants or tell us about a Thai restaurant in Wichita that you love.

[do] Family Activities for Spring Break

Andrea Anglin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:43:55 +0000

One of the most challenging jobs as a parent is managing spring break for their children. A blessing and a curse, spring break can give your family a lifetime of fun memories and tradition or be a horror show of annoying, whining children. Here are fun ideas to save your sanity this year.

YMCA Camp – Are you a working parent? Check out the YMCA’s School Day Out programs. You don’t have to be a member to take advantage of the camp-like activities for kids, including field trips, games, arts and crafts.

Exploration Place – From kite-making to a campfire sing-along, the staff at Exploration Place has a week of events planned for kids. Of course, the museum will be open for normal exhibits as well which are always fun and interesting including the beautiful shows in the Cyberdome Theater.

Sedgwick County Zoo – A membership to the zoo is something I consider a wise investment as a parent. If you have a membership or even if you don’t, check out the latest and greatest at the zoo, including the tiger exhibit.

Great Plains Nature Center – This is one of the few free attractions in Wichita. Open Monday-Saturday, the GPNC offers hands-on opportunities for kids and parents to learn about the flora and fauna that surround our great state.

Other fun ideas that are low-cost or free:

Park Tour of Wichita – Wichita has some amazing and little-known parks. If the weather is right, consider packing a lunch and taking in the sights and sand of one park a day. Some of my kids’ favorites are Sedgwick County and Kiwanis parks.

Movie Day at Home – I got this idea from one of my favorite moms and fellow verb [ICT] writers, Dani Stone. A Mom (or Dad) movie day is made fun by letting kids choose the movies, printing “tickets” on the computer and arranging a concession stand filled with store-purchased movie theatre favorites. It’s a day at the movies with all the fun, but not the extra cost. Plus, you can cuddle in your Snuggies and take as many potty breaks as needed.

Craft-A-Day – Give your kids something to look forward to by planning a craft they can do every day of spring break. Check here for a list of ideas. Another upside? You’ll have a stash of presents for Christmas and birthdays already created and ready to deliver.

Historical Tour – You remember all those fun places you’ve heard about in Wichita but perhaps have never been? Take your kids! From the troll in the grate by the water treatment plant, to the Keeper of the Plains, to the Minisa bridge by North High School, there are fun, quirky locations around town to discover with your favorite little explorer.

What are your strategies for spring break survival? Give up the goods in the comments.

Daily [snap] – Shadows

verb [ICT] staff — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:57:10 +0000

Shadows | Photo by Jennamay