Mike's Wedding in Prescott

My friend Mike got married this past weekend and held a unique wedding at a campground near Lynx Lake in Prescott.  Apparently, small and intimate weddings are becoming more popular, but kudos to him for having a wedding that the newlyweds would personally enjoy.  It is for them anyway and not anyone else!

I rode up with Jeff, Ashley, and Tree on Friday morning and we arrived in Prescott around noon.  I have never been to Prescott before, so this was all a new experience for me.  We were worried about the rain, but figured we'd take the chance to set up camp a day early since we were requested to by the groom.

That Friday afternoon, Mike was pretty busy getting set up for his wedding the next day.  So our group set up beer pong underneath the campground's ramada.  While we were playing, it started pouring.  The rain was so bad that we were pretty much forced to play beer pong all afternoon.

Friday was mostly drinking and relaxing, and eventually the others there started to cash in around 7:30pm when it started to get dark.  The four of us decided it was too early to call it a night, so we decided to check out the nightlife in Prescott.  When we arrived downtown in an area called "Whiskey Row", we immediately noticed that the population was 100% older white people.  Late 30's to early 40's, not a single minority in sight.

My friend Tree is a tall, black man and instantly felt the pressure of racial perspectives in this town.  At the first saloon, random strangers came up to him with comments such as "I'm glad you were able to come out tonight.", "Can I get a picture with you?", and finally, "Can I get a hug before you leave?"  He instantly viewed all these comments as racist and I can't blame him.  I wouldn't be surprised if they said other things to him that he just didn't feel comfortable sharing with us.

We eventually made our way to another saloon, which yielded better results.  It was a country bar, again with no other minorities, but at least this time Tree was accosted by many older women who wanted to talk to him and dance with him...teach him how to two-step and such.  Yours truly avoided this scene altogether, and was content just getting drunk among friends and just watching people make fools of themselves.

The next day was the wedding day.  Mike had a pretty cool setup for an outdoor wedding at a campground.  Altogether there were about 30 people, mostly family and relatives.

Overall it was a nice a wedding and it was good to see Mike who I don't get to see as often anymore despite being one of my first friends in high school.  I wish the best of luck to him and Tabitha in their marriage!

Andy Lin's Lickity List (Amazing $10 Authentic Meals in Tucson)

Welcome to Andy Lin's Lickity List!  Only restaurants that are unique to Tucson can be found on this list.  The other great part is that it's all very cheap - around $10 for an amazing meal!  I usually stick to the same item off the menu at these places to satisfy the craving of a meal I haven't had in a while.

This list will be a running log that I will update whenever I go to one of my several favorite restaurants in Tucson, so be sure to check back for my latest recommendations via the link under my Hot Topics section!

Andy Lin's Lickity List
Amazing $10 Authentic Meals in Tucson

Sher-E-Punjab
853 E Grant Rd
Tucson, AZ 85719
Date Visited: September 24, 2015
Style: Indian
Go-To-Lick: Lamb Vindaloo with Basmati Rice
Price: $12.44 including tax

Raves: In a city known mostly for its fantastic Mexican food, it's rare that you will find authentic cuisines from other origins.  For great Indian food in Tucson, there's not many choices, but that's fine, because we really only need one and that's Sher-E-Punjab.

My Go-To-Lick is the Lamb Vindaloo, which is chunks of lamb and potatoes cooked in a darker, vinaigrette curry sauce.  I've tried vindaloo curry at other Indian restaurants, but usually the vinegar taste is too strong for me and takes away from the flavorful curries.  I also like to order to a side of rice and mix it all into the curry.

When I order, I always ask for them to make it "spicy".  I think the guy on the phone recognizes my voice, so it's always made at a spice level that I enjoy, which can be fairly hot for most.  I will say that if you order "spicy", expect it to be pretty spicy because these guys won't mess around.  I have tried "extra spicy" and I admit that it was a bit much for me, but I pained my way to eat the whole dish in one sitting because the flavor is just so good.

Sher-E-Punjab does a wonderful job with all their dishes, so if you're not into lamb, I would also recommend the Tikka Masala, which is a chicken curry and their most popular dish.  A lot of customers like to order naan instead of rice to dip it in the curry, and any of the naans they offer are delicious.

The restaurant is privately owned and has featured the same staff for years.  I go about once a month and the staff recognizes me, so I guess you could call me a regular.  If you're interested in getting some more variety during your visit, I highly recommend going for their lunch buffet.  It is around $10 as well and then you can try tandoori chicken, multiple curries, samosas, and more!


BK Tacos & Hotdogs
5118 S 12th Ave
Tucson, AZ 85706
Date Visited: August 21, 2014
Style: Sonora Mexican
Go-To-Lick: Large Caramelo Asada
Price: $6.78 including tax 
Read this Review.


Saing Thai Cuisine
9136 E Valencia Rd
Tucson, AZ 85747
Date Visited: June 19, 2014
Style: Thai
Go-To-Lick: Pad Kee Mao
Price: $8.59 including tax 
Read this Review.


Frog & Firkin
874 East University Blvd
Tucson, AZ 85719 
Date Visited: May 12, 2014
Style: English Pub
Go-To-Lick: The Firkin Burger with Cheese
Price: $9.13 including tax 
Read this Review.


El Guero Canelo
2480 North Oracle Road
Tucson, AZ 85705 
Date Visited: May 3, 2014
Style: Sonora Mexican
Go-To-Lick: 2x Carne Asada Burro Jr. with Extra Cheese
Price: $9.27 including tax 
Read this Review.


Andy Lin is your typical Tucson resident and is a not food connoisseur.  He is simply a man who knows what pleases his tastebuds and belly.   Special thanks to Nate M. and Matt H. for help with coming up with a title for this list.

Another Birthday Celebration?

While I wasn't planning on doing much for my birthday this year, I would find out that there was lots of planning going on around me.  My friend Cooper turned 30 a day before me and planned a big staycation at the Talking Stick in Scottsdale.  Since he made it out to my 30th birthday a couple years ago, I figured it'd be fun to join him at the Talking Stick for the weekend.  Turns out  I would also have a special surprise guest coming in as well.  Mike had already been planning on surprising me in Tucson for my birthday, but when I told him I was going to be going to Scottsdale for the weekend, he revealed to me the surprise (good thing he didn't purchase a plane ticket to Tucson!).

The weekend ended up being a great one.  I got to the Talking Stick on Friday evening and reserved two rooms for my party.  Mike, Wes, Ramon, and myself found a blackjack table that was really hot and made us almost an hour late for dinner.  But as anyone knows, you never leave a heater.  I ended up winning $200 at that table, Mike made $175, Ramon $90, and Wes $25.  Can't complain when everyone walks away a winner and you collectively take $500 from the casino!

Dinner that night was at Yardhouse, where we met up with Cooper and several members from his party.  Altogether there must've been about 20 people out there.  We made our way to Old Town Scottsdale, where we pretty much spent the whole night at Gilligan's.  I was fading fast around 11:30 at night, but found my second wind and rallied to get through the night without passing out too early.

On Saturday, the two parties chipped in and purchased a cabana for the pool party all afternoon.  Apparently this pool party was a big deal, as wristbands were going for $40 a person.  Fortunately, each room came with 4 wristbands, so altogether we had 20 wristbands and 10 from the cabana.  We ended up going through all but 8 of them and enjoyed a day - albeit a hot one - at the pool.

One of the highlights of Saturday was the catered lunch from Chipotle.  I've never seen Chipotle cater, but Cooper's party had ordered enough food to feed 25.  There was everything you could ask for from Chipotle (see tasty picture below) and I'm pretty sure I ate 6 tacos altogether, lol.

That night, we walked our way to Top Golf, which was packed and said there was a 2-hour wait for a bay!  We knew ahead of time that they didn't take reservations, but I didn't expect the wait to be that long.  Nonetheless, it turned out to only be about an hour or so, and most people had food and drinks while we waited.  There was also kick-ball beer pong and some bag toss, so there were plenty of activities to keep occupied with until our bay was available.  I want to say that waiting for Top Golf was worth it, but unfortunately at that point, this cat was too drunk.  There are videos of me struggling to hit the ball after like 10 tries.  Whatever, I still enjoyed myself.  We ended up leaving Top Golf at 12:30am, and by that time I was ready to pass out from a long day of drinking.

On Sunday I was hurting a little bit, forgetting to take my multivitamin before I went to bed the previous night (the best hangover prevention ever).  We still made it to the Wandering Horse Buffet for lunch before I eventually called it an end to my birthday weekend.  I want to thank everyone who made it out for my birthday!  Mike, Ramon, Wes, Kyle, Chris, Jeff, Ashley, Jen, Bernice, Lucky, Matt, Tree, Jonny, Jenny, Tyler, Tina, Nate, James, Mariana, Junior.

32 years old, I feel settled, extremely satisfied with where I am in life, and I honestly believe this is the happiest I ever been!

Poker Pubbing Again

The summertime is fairly slow for me.  With no basketball, bowling, or StarCraft leagues, I'm left with just my Tuesday pool league, which leaves me with a little more free time than I'm used to.  For the summer, I picked up another pool league that plays on Monday nights at Fox and the Hound.  It's a 9-ball league (Tuesdays are 8-ball) and the team consists of 3 players from my Tuesday night team.  I decided to only co-captain this team, since I don't plan on being there every week when my fall and spring leagues start up.  So far, we're doing really well: currently in 1st place by several points with only 2 weeks to go.

With the increase in pool playing time, I've been spending a fair amount of time at Clicks Billiards Hall, where APA members can get unlimited pool for free.  It turns out, that the Tucson Poker Pub hosts free nightly tournaments on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  You may recall that was playing weekly poker at the Frog n Firkin on Tuesdays a few years ago and even played in their semi-annual 2-day mega-tournament where I took 11th place out of 190 players.

Anyhoo, playing at Clicks has gotten me into playing poker again.  It's also nice that I can shoot pool before or after a tournament, so I can make it a full night of doing something.  I've invited several friends out to play poker/pool with me: Kat, Teqas, Gene, Jen.  I plan on playing for the whole summer until bowling league starts up again in early September.

A few weeks ago, I won a tournament at Clicks and qualified for their Monthly "Trip-to-Vegas" Tournament.  The grand prize is a paid trip to Vegas (includes room and travel) and seat to play in a tournament in Vegas.  Not a bad prize at all, but unfortunately that is the only prize at this monthly tournament.

 

The tournament was held yesterday at RJ's Replays and consisted of 60 players (about 7 tables of 8).  We started at 6pm and my second hand off the bat was pocket aces, although unfortunately no one else really caught anything to make a nice enough pot from it.

The night continued and I would win and lose pots here and there, but I never found myself with a large chip stack.  In fact, I found myself playing small stack poker most of the night, carefully picking my spots and not trying to chase too many hands.  However, tournament poker is all about survival, and surviving in tournaments is something I do very well.  A lot of people will burn out mentally after a few hours, but mentally I don't ever feel drained.  3 hours into the tournament, the blinds were starting to increase dramatically as people were getting anxious.  It became an all-in fest since there were so many people left and the organizers were trying to wrap things up quicker.  I continued to pick my spots carefully and eventually found myself at the final table!

All-in poker is very scary, especially when calls are made before the flop even comes out.  Eventually, I found myself in the all-in situation with the blinds so large.  I went in with A10, but one of the larger stacks was already committed in the blind, so it was an easy call for him.  I ended up losing to 79 when he hit his straight on the river and I finished 6th place for the tournament.

After 4 hours of poker, I definitely had a fun time and met some cool and fun people along the way.  I look forward to playing more during the summer and hopefully I can play in more big tournaments in the future!