Monday, April 29, 2019

Smallcakes


My daughter is a bit of a cupcake fanatic. Really sweets in general, but she is easily lured in by cupcakes. When she saw that there was a new place in Broad Ripple, she wanted to try it right away. Sadly, the first time we went there, they were totally out of cupcakes. Still open, but no cupcakes. It was kind of a bummer. I guess they also service ice cream, but we were in the market for cupcakes only.

The next time we went early, and luckily, they were fully stocked with everything. We had people over, so we got an assortment of flavors. We had pink chocolate (which is really just chocolate cake with pink buttercream icing, vanilla and chocolate (yellow cake with chocolate buttercream icing), lemon drop, chocolate cream, a dulce du leche, and one with caramel and pretzels that was a special. Oh, and a strawberry one for the daughter’s boyfriend.

The best of the lot was probably the chocolate cream—which looks like a fancy hostess chocolate cupcake with a little cream filling inside and some on top of the fudge icing as well. I liked this one a lot because the cake was one of the moistest of them all and the icing was super rich and fudgy. My next favorite was the lemon drop because it was really fresh and lemony—I was surprised by its tartness, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

The dulce du leche was a favorite as well—I think the caramel and cream added moisture too. The regular ones with buttercream were the least exciting and also the dryer ones of the lot. They didn’t have any filling either, which added to the dryness.  I love a vanilla cake with chocolate icing, but I would have preferred a fudgy icing likes the one on the chocolate cream. 

All in all, a tasty addition to Broad Ripple, with some tasty options that I would get again. If you’ve had any of the special flavors, let me know your favorites.

Smallcakes
930 Broad Ripple Ave
Indy 46220
317/389-5447



Monday, April 22, 2019

Half Liter


The newest addition to the Sahm’s empire is Half Liter, which is a Texas-style BBQ place that is in the back of Liter House on the Monon. It’s an impressive huge high-ceilinged place with vary casual picnic style tables. Downstairs there are only the benches and tables, but I think upstairs has some regular tables with chairs with backs. The one weird thing is I still don't know where the "front" door is on this place. I ended up going in through the patio because the door by the parking lot that said enter here was locked. 

It’s a cool place though and it was packed for a midday lunch (but not so packed we didn’t get a table right away). The concept is Texas dry rub BBQ and they serve several different BBQ sauces on the table. They have a Carolina-style mustard sauce, a traditional Texas style red sauce and a sweet, Dr. Pepper-based sauce. I ordered a quarter chicken leg for my lunch ($7) and it came with 2 sides. I went with potato salad (because I always try potato salad whenever I try a BBQ place) and a green salad because I was feeling peckish for something green.  The chicken was really, really good. I always worry that it will be horribly dry, but this chicken was anything but. It was so, so good. Super moist and with a ton of smoky flavor. It was a big leg/thigh quarter and it was a great lunch portion for me. I would be hard-pressed not to order the exact same thing again. Seriously, really good. As for the sides, the potato salad was a no-go for me. I am weird about potato salad and when I like it, I really like it. And if I don’t like it, I just don’t. There’s no middle ground. This one had celery in it, which isn’t my favorite, but it also had a certain sweet flavor I didn’t care for. Like I said, I am super weird about potato salad. Although my green salad was simple—just fresh lettuce, red onion and tomatoes. They only have like 3 choices for dressing (again one of the choices is Dr. Pepper flavored). I went with ranch and was happy I did—it was really tasty—not just ranch but ranch with some spicy kick to it that went well with the BBQ. 

My friend had the Eddie’s melt sandwich ($10) with one side. The sandwich was really interesting—it had pulled pork, collard greens, pimento cheese, and caramelized onions  It was something I am not sure I would have ordered before, but really enjoyed. His mac and cheese side was the superior of the two hot sides for sure. Not fancy or anything, but really good. 

We also got to try the cornbread and the waffle fries randomly, because I guess they made a serving of them on accident and because we were by the service window, they gave them to us. The waffle fries were good waffle fries—I liked that they made them a little unique with some extra seasoning. The cornbread was a nope for me. So dry and crumbly it bordered on sandy. But it was nice to have the opportunity to try them out.

All the meat I tried (which sadly wasn’t a ton) was spot on. Had a good deep smoky flavor and was very tender. The sides were kind of hit or miss—honestly, I would likely go for the mac and a salad again because I liked the dressing so much. There are several other options to try. And of course you can never go wrong with tots. 

I am looking forward to going back with more people and trying some more of the meats. Hubby can’t wait to try the brisket. Anyone had it?






Half Liter
5301 Winthrop Ave 
Indy 46220
463-212-8180


Monday, April 8, 2019

Thai Basil


Recently I found myself in Brownsburg at lunch time, and this is not an area I am familiar with, so I took to the twitterverse and asked for help. I got several good recommendations, but settled on Thai Basil, as recommended by @thejoeball. There were actually several spots that were tempting, which I was surprised by, but Thai food sounded good. 

It’s a cute little place with table service—although for some reason, it took quite a while to place my order and get my drink. They were decently busy, but not super busy. But eventually I put my order in for my very favorite Thai dish—the sautéed eggplant with chicken. Here they call it “Tasty Eggplant” ($11.99). They have a bunch of lunch specials that run $8.99 and come with soup and an eggroll, but no tasty eggplant on the lunch menu, so I just ordered off the dinner menu. 

They first brought me a small bowl of Tom Yum soup—it had a great lemongrass flavor and a hit of spiciness from red chili. There were some hunks of carrot and some fresh cilantro on top. I really liked it and had a hard time not eating every last drop. It did have a spicy kick to it. 

When the tasty eggplant came out, the first thing I noticed was how much like a rainbow it looked when they placed the dish in front of me—the purple eggplant, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, and orange carrots. There were also big leaves of basil mixed in. The other thing I noticed with my first bite is that it was smoking hot! Not spicy, but temperature-wise. It was crazy how hot it was. I had to let each bite cool before I could eat it—but when I did eat it, it was delicious. The chicken was nice and tender, and the sauce had a lot of flavor from the basil and the gingery brown sauce.  Again, I had a hard time not eating all of it, but trying to be somewhat healthy, I restrained myself. The veggies were crisp but tender and I love the way eggplant soaks up all the flavor in the stir fry.

All in all, this was a tasty lunch and if this were my town, I would probably put it in the rotation and try some other things as well.  All you Brownsburg, folks, what do you think? And what are your favorite places?

Thai Basil
814 E. Main Street
Brownsburg, IN 46112
317/286-7545
http://thaibasilindy.com/

Monday, April 1, 2019

Pots and Pans Pie Company


A neighbor recently brought a Pots and Pans pie to my house, and then another friend mentioned it again, and I realized I needed to check it out more fully when I heard about all the savory options they have. I will admit, there are only a few sweet pies that really wow me, so I was a bit slow until I heard about the savory options.  Each day they offer a fresh hot selections (one pot pie and one gallette) and then you can order frozen versions to cook at home as well.

One Sunday hubby, my daughter, and I headed over to have brunch there. It’s a tiny little place to eat in, but they do have a few tables. And they only have a few hot options each day, but on this day, it was biscuits and gravy individual pie ($8) and the goat cheese and caramelized onion gallette ($6). The thing about these pies is the crust. Man oh man—it is so light and flakey, but yet rich and buttery all at the same time. The crust alone is worth eating the pie. Then when you throw sausage and sausage gravy inside it, you have the makings of something truly delicious. Hubby was over the moon and it was hard to get him to share at all, but he did. 

The gallette was also very good- not quite as filling as the pie because there is less crust, but because of the richness of the toppings—there was a layer of goat cheese in the bottom crust and then caramelized onions on top—it was still extremely rich and satisfying. It was a little more unusual I guess, but honestly, I can’t even say that because I had never had biscuits and gravy pie either. Both were very good. You can feel that every bit of these pies is homemade, and fresh. I would eat that biscuit and gravy pie any day.

So I decided to order some sweet pies for an upcoming event I was hosting, and went with the chocolate tahini, “Bruce’s lemon pie,” and the apple crumble (full sized pies are $25). Again, the crust is so, so good. My favorite was probably the chocolate tahini, because I liked the nutty flavor from the tahini, but without having nuts in it, which my son with the nut allergy appreciated. It had that little bit of umami that I love in a sweet dessert. The lemon pie was also very tasty, it had a nice tanginess to it that I appreciated. The apple was good too, but apple tends to not be my favorite pie overall and this was less exciting. And overall, I definitely preferred the savory pies, but as I mentioned already, that’s to be expected from me. I think hey are just more interesting all around. 

With all that said though, we ordered a full-size frozen “taco truck” pie to take home and cook at a later date for dinner. Based on everything I had eaten, I was really excited about this and served it for family dinner one night. However, this was not a big hit. Again, the crust, as always, was delicious, and heated up nicely from frozen (except for a few edges that were broken straight out of the box). However, the filling for this pie probably should have been called something like “Asian taco truck” or something, because it was very different from what we expected. It was filled with pork shoulder, and lots of Asian veggies—bok choy, cabbage and had a much more Asian flair to it than we were expecting. It was much more veggie centered than we expected as well. I was sort of expecting more of a Mexican/Latin flavor and none of us particularly cared for it. Oh well, you win some, lose some. But I would try a different one in the future. And I appreciate the crust to filling ratio of the individual pot pies better as well over the larger versions.

All in all, a nice little addition to our local food scene—something different. Honestly, I would love to just try the straightforward chicken pot pie as well. And there’s a bacon and egg gallette that’s calling my name. 

So who else has been and what have you enjoyed? I need details.

Pots and Pans Pie Company
4915 North College Ave
Indy 46205
317/600-3475