Shanghai Lil - Dim Sum Revisit

I heard a rumor the other day that Shanghai Lil might be closing (hopefully that is all it was) so the other day when hubby and I had a free day for lunch (and got shot down attempting to try a new place that as it turns out was only open for dinner), we decided to drop in and have some dim sum. It had been awhile.  And I figured I would remind you about it just in case you had forgotten (I would be sad if it closes).

The meal started with a little amuse bouche before our lunch (even for lunch which I thought was a nice touch).  This time the one they gave us was delicious as well. It was a little duck and cabbage salad with a piece of soft, wonderfully cooked eggplant (I am a sucker for eggplant).  It was super tender and had a nice soy based, slightly sweet sauce.  The salad part was more acidic and they were nice together.

We ordered several things—our usual ha gao ($3.95) and spring rolls ($3.75) were a no brainer. They are some of our favorite basic things, and they are very well done at Shanghai Lil.  Ha Gao are shrimp dumplings and they are generally pretty straightforward—shrimp inside a soft steamed dumpling.  The shrimp is fresh and doesn’t have that fishy taste that it sometimes can if it’s been sitting around too long, and it was properly cooked.  The spring rolls are good as well—super crunchy and containing actual shrimp and lots of veggies.  They are also thinner than your classic egg roll and easier to eat.

We also got shrimp siu mai ($3.95) which is similar to the shrimp dumplings, except the steamed shell is filled with shrimp that has been minced with other things—I am thinking scallions here, so it has a slightly different flavor.  The dough used in the dumpling is a little different too—a little firmer than the ha gao.

We also tried the fried tofu with scallion sauce ($3.95) and the shrimp and chive cake ($3.95).  I generally like tofu, and this was pretty good, particularly along the pointy parts where you got nice bites with crispy edges. Once you got to the middle it was just a little too much gooey tofu with nothing else.  The sauce had very little flavor to me. We ended up adding some soy to it.

The shrimp and chive cakes were interesting and a nice variety (we usually try and get at least one new thing when we do dim sum).  Interestingly, there was actually pork in there too, which I didn’t mind, but it was a little surprise.  They ingredients were minced together, put in a dumpling skin (more like the siu mai thickness) and then pan-fried which gave them a nice little crunchy side.  There were a lot of chives and scallions in there, and they had a very grassy flavor because of it.  I appreciated the additional variation in texture (I try to balance between steamed, fried and pan fried) although this was probably my least favorite item of the day.

Overall the quality is really very good, and the dim sum menu is quite large.  We don’t have a lot of good Chinese food on the northeast side, and Shanghai Lil is definitely one of the better ones. And I am glad they do dim sum (they also have some good looking non-dim sum lunch specials I would like to try as well). 

Shanghai Lil

8505 Keystone Crossing

Indy  46240

317/205-9335

www.shanghai-lil.com 

Road Trip - Sotto - Cincinnati

Hubby and I took a quick road trip to Cincinnati recently to see a band we like.  The purpose of the trip was the concert, but naturally as soon as we decided to go, I started figuring out where we could eat before for dinner and lunch the next day.  So we had a very early dinner at Sotto, which is the new, more casual, restaurant from the same people who own Boca, which we loved. 

Boca has recently re-opened in the space that used to house the Maisonnette, which was the old school “best” restaurant in Cincinnati. When the Maisonnette was open, there was a casual French restaurant run by the same owners called La Normandie.  Now Boca is up top and Sotto is below (a very cool thing is that hubby and I had the opportunity to eat at both places before they closed as well).

I love the atmosphere of Sotto—it is basically underground, and full of brick. The first thing you notice is how dark it is, especially when you come in from full daylight.  Think lots of wooden chairs, weathered looking walls and one of my favorite things—a big pillar candle on each table.  I loved the wine pit that they had created out of the former fireplace. There was also a great soundtrack playing. 

Anyway, the menu looked great and we had a hard time choosing—we decided to get something from each different course and share.  The first thing we had been from the bruschetta menu (i.e. grilled bread with different toppings).  We had the oil packed tuna with hard boiled egg and chili oil ($10). A perfect portion to split between two—it was one toasted piece of bread cut into two pieces. Ours was topped with a thin layer of caper mayo, the super tender tuna, slices of hard boiled egg and drizzled with chili oil. It was delicious.  I have had similar preparations and never liked it as much as I did this.  I loved the addition of the chili oil (and the sprinkles of salt on top) to give it an extra dimension of flavor
too.

At the same time we were also served our antipasti course, which was polenta with a fried egg, lomo, brown butter and parmigiano. Oh. My. Goodness.  This was amazing.  The polenta was soooo fine and creamy, the egg was perfect and runny in the middle and the lomo (a very thin sliced cured pork tenderloin) was so tender but had a lot of flavor, but wasn’t overpowering.  And brown butter and parm? How can you go wrong?  We both loved this one. We split it exactly down the middle and scraped the dish clean with the bread that they bring to the table.  Speaking of which, the bread was great as well. It is from a local (to Cincy) bakery called Blue Oven.  It was an Italian country loaf that was cut into wedges. It had just the right amount of tender middle and chewy crust.  They serve it with a great grassy olive oil.

For our primi course, we went with the housemade tonnarelli pasta ($14).  Tonnarelli is a thicker long pasta (like spaghetti)—it is more of a square shape though and is textured a little so it holds onto the sauce pretty well.  There were only two housemade pastas which surprised me a little.  The sauce on the pasta was a simple creamy butter sauce with salt and pepper. Lots and lots of cracked black pepper. We enjoyed it, and it really kind of grew on us, but it was probably our least favorite item of the meal. I think I would have enjoyed it more as a side dish with my main dish, instead of on its own, but it was still good.

For our main dish, we shared the salmon with anchovy white wine sauce ($19). It was served on a bed of cooked spinach.  It was also perfectly prepared. The fish was grilled and was at the perfect medium rare—the center quite rare.  The sauce though—it is what made the dish.  You probably wouldn’t have even known it had anchovy in it if you hadn’t seen it on the menu—it just gave it a depth and slight saltiness that was so good with the slightly acidic wine sauce. I loved the sauce. I could have just dipped bread into it all night long.  

We still had a decent amount of time, and since we were having such a good meal, we decided to split a dessert as well.  We had the ricotta doughnuts ($6) with three dipping sauces.  These little fried doughnut holes seem popular these days, but these were unique in that they were made with ricotta so they were really moist inside.  They were served with dark chocolate, pistachio cream, and salted caramel sauce. Loved that salted caramel sauce. Loved it with a little bit of the chocolate and a lot of the salted caramel.  Hubby really liked the pistachio cream. Actually, hubby won't stop raving about these doughnuts.

The service was very good. Our server was attentive but not annoying. He knew a lot about the menu and made great recommendations. They were great about bringing the right silverware and dishware with each new course.  It was polished but not stuffy.  The whole dinner was a great experience, and I look forward to returning. Although I feel like I have to try the new Boca first. We poked our nose in there and it was a cool atmosphere too—very different from Sotto—light and lots of upholstery with a giant chandelier. Definitely a “fancier” feel.  But Sotto is a really great value for truly excellent food.

Sotto

118 East 6^th Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/977-6886

www.sottocincinnati.com 

Oishi Sushi

A bunch of you guys really like this place and since I have been a recent sushi binge, I figured it was time to try it so I met up with my friend Suzanne to give it a go. It’s good to have friends who will travel to distant places for lunch because hubby grumbles about it. It is also good to have an open mind, because, well, the exterior of the place is a little worn out. I got there a little early, but I was greeted promptly upon entering and brought a drink right away. They have a ton of rolls on the menu, and many that sound very interesting, so I was glad to have some extra time with the menu.

I had some miso soup to start ($1.95) and it was good. I mean, rarely does a miso soup amaze me or anything, and there wasn’t anything about this one that changed that opinion. It was fine. 

For rolls, we ordered the Afghanistan Roll ($12.50), the Dinosaurs Roll ($13.95), and the Sushi in the Sky #2 Roll ($13.50).  We both really liked the Afghanistan and Dinosaurs.  The Afghanistan is unagi (eel) and avocado on the inside and is “erupting” (says the menu) with spicy shrimp tempura (in other words, the shrimp bits are on top of the rolls that have been placed on their sides. There was also a bit of masago on top (fish eggs). It was really good. Probably my favorite.  The roll itself was pretty petite though, which I like because you can fit it in your mouth and because the flavor isn’t dominated by the rice (it was actually a little crumbly though which made it a bit hard to pick up with chopsticks).  The crispy bits on top had a nice flavor, and were still nice and crunchy.

The Dinosaurs roll was fried soft shell crab inside with eel and avocado on top. Ok, so similar kind of thing to the Afghanistan, only kind of reversed, and also really good (note that they sometimes say “eel” on the menu, sometimes “unagi.”). The crab was chopped up and there was a fair amount of it inside the roll.  Nice and crunchy too.

The last roll we got was the Sushi in the Sky #2. It was ahi tuna, avocado and eel inside with torched yellowtail on the outside. The fish was all good, and I liked the middle of the roll, but the yellowtail on the outside just had too much of the “torched” taste I guess. It almost tasted like gas if you know what I mean. I think I would take a pass on the torched options in the future. We ended up sort of peeling the fish off the top and just eating the rolls. Then it was pretty good, although I still liked the others better.

All in all, this was one of the better new sushi experiences I have had in awhile. The food was good and the service was very efficient and friendly.  They were frequently refilling drinks and checking on us. I wish it wasn’t so far away from my house, I would like to go back.

Oishi Sushi

6929 East 10^th Street

Indy 46219

317/356-8880

www.indyoishi.com

Mississippi Belle - Revisit

This is a revisit, because it is one of those places that I feel an obligation to make sure you guys go to even if you missed my post from like 3 years ago.  Well, if you like fried chicken anyway.

We actually carry out from here a fair amount, but the other Sunday, we were driving around with the kids looking for somewhere to eat on the way to the Children’s Museum and everywhere was crazy busy.  We knew the kids would like it because, well, they’ve had it before.  I don’t know if Sunday for lunch is the best time to eat there because you pay full price (their lunches are more reasonable) but we ate for days on the food we took home (it is all you can eat for Sunday meals and dinner and the meal is $13 for your choice of meat and 4 sides, less for kids).

Normally when I do a revisit I try and branch out and get something different. At Mississippi Belle, screw that. Fried chicken. Mac and cheese. Mashed potatoes.  That’s the way to go and you will be happy.  My daughter, who isn’t as huge a fan of fried chicken as I am (how does this happen?), actually did get the turkey plate, which is an interesting shredded turkey.  It was pretty good—moist and tender and easy for her to eat. Better than the chicken? Heck no.

My advice is to go with all dark meat—it is just so good and so tender.  I love the crispy skin on their chicken over all, and you just get more of it on the dark meat pieces. The breasts are so huge you just don’t get enough of the skin. Although the wings are pretty tasty. Anyhow, it’s the seasoning makes this chicken stand out.  The only negative for me with the chicken is that they are obviously cooking it constantly because it comes out really fast though and occasionally because of this, you can get a piece that isn’t quite as fresh as others.

The mashed potatoes are good, and are generally a necessary component to a fried chicken meal for me.  Like I have said before, they taste like potatoes—and even without gravy, they are fairly creamy—not stiff like a lot of potatoes are when gravy is used.  There’s some pepper in there too.  One of my favorite things though is the mac and cheese. It isn’t fancy, and I am guessing there is some processed cheese in there because it is so smooth, but I love the peppery kick to it. It’s just right with the meal and I will never go there and not order it.  And they give you so much of it; I am serious when I say we were eating it for a week.

The hot water cornbread—which are like little discs of cornbread that are fried. Again, I would love a little butter or apple butter or something with them, but they’re pretty good too.

Anyhow, if you want some darn good fried chicken, skip the fast food and check out this place. You will certainly not go home hungry, I will guarantee you that.

Mississippi Belle

2170 East 54^th Street

Indy 46220

317/466-0522