Rail Epicurean Market

I’ve been hearing lots of good things about Rail Epicurean from a lot of sources and met my friend Suzanne over there. The first thing I will say about this place is that it is ridiculously cute. It’s an old barn smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It has a nice little patio to sit on in front (we did) and a warm interior with several wooden tables as well. They serve beer and wine and I can totally see myself sitting outside if having a glass if this was my neighborhood (Westfield is a bit of a hike for me). I would say it functions as a store as much as it does a restaurant, selling many different local products (including my favorite cookies from 4 Birds Bakery.)

We were there for lunch though, and chose from the 4-5 options on the menu—there are like 3 sandwiches and a soup and a salad or two as well as a daily quiche. It’s a small menu. I think maybe expanding it a bit might be helpful. I had the chicken salad (no nuts! no fruit!). It was pretty straightforward—a lot of chicken, some celery, mayo and some dill maybe. It probably could have used a bit of salt and pepper. The bread was good—very dense in relation to the amount of filling on the sandwich though—I ended up eating it open-faced in order to really taste the fillings. It would be better on something lighter, like a croissant (lots of local choices there too). I had a side of the house made potato salad—it had a lot of dill in it but because it was very minimal on the binder (a very little amount of mayo), it was pretty dry. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the somewhat soft green beans in there.

Suzanne had a ham and Brie sandwich that they heated up and this was definitely the better choice. It was the same bread, but the heartier meat (Smoking Goose City Ham perhaps?) stood up better. And the cheese was nice and melty. I think if I were going for lunch again, I would give the quiche a try or get one of the sandwiches that could be heated up.

If I lived nearby, like I said, I can see this being a great warm, casual space to grab a glass of wine (or beer). If it were my restaurant, I would add a couple of cheese and/or charcuterie plates to go along those lines. And maybe jazz the sandwiches up a little. 

Rail Epicurean Market

211 Park Street

Westfield, IN 46074

317/450-4981

www.railepicureanmarket.com 

One World Market

At Castleton the other day because I had to be, and trying to figure out a place to eat lunch that a) wasn’t a chain and b) didn’t suck. I threw it up on twitter and I have to say, you guys came through for me big time with some really good ideas. Sushi sounded good though, so I decided to try the One World Asian market which also does sushi and other Japanese dishes. 

I liked the whole “build your own roll thing” and decided to go with that ($10.55 for a roll with soy paper, one fish, two veg-type ingredients and a sauce—tempura crispies free). So I chose tuna, avocado, and tempura asparagus in soy paper with some crunchies and some spicy mayo on the side. It included a cup of miso soup as well. I also got a tempura shrimp on the side ($1.50). I liked that you could just order several things like this a la carte—I wish more places did this. It gave me the chance to try something else. 

So, as for the roll, it was fine. The asparagus was quite tasty actually—still warm from being freshly fried. The thing I didn’t like about the roll though was its size—the circumference of the pieces was about the same size as the bottom of a soda can. Ok, I know I complain about this issue a lot, but who can eat that in one bite? Or maybe you aren’t supposed to—but when you have to take 2 bites for each piece (which I did), you don’t get all the ingredients in each bite which is a bummer. The tuna was a little mushy too—not sure how else to explain it. I only used a little of the spicy mayo—it was your classic spicy mayo. Anyway, I guess I like my rolls a little smaller in size so you can just pop them into your mouth without fighting with it. 

The soup that came alongside was your classic miso soup with seaweed and lots of hunks of tofu (my favorite part). The shrimp tempura was crazy fried. The fried part on the outside was as thick as the shrimp was wide. Honestly, it was fresh and really crunchy, but it was almost hard to taste the shrimp for all the fried stuff. 

The thing I probably most liked about this place was how nice and welcoming the staff was—all greeting you when you walked it. The place is really a food market with a little corner of seating, so the atmosphere is minimal, and sort of school cafeteria in feel. But in Castleton, with so many chains, it was nice to support a local place with such a friendly staff. And I got some of my favorite Japanese gum afterwards. 

One World Market 
8466 Castleton Corner Drive 
Indy 46250 
317/842-3442

A Few of My Favorite Places: Kincaid's Meat Market

Another place that I really love in this town is Kincaid’s Meat Market.  This place has been around forever, and is my favorite place to go for serious red meat.  It is an old fashioned butcher shop and they have pretty much everything from deli meats to beef and chicken, as well as lots of exotic things that they usually have on hand in the freezer.  So if you are looking for ostrich, wild game, duck, foie gras or whatever, you can get them all here.  But probably my favorite thing to get there is beef.  (And I generally skip the seafood.)

They have all grades—choice and prime (as well as one lower than choice I believe) and their ribeyes are awesome.  My 6 year old loves going in there and picking out steaks for his favorite meal (ribeyes).  I also like that they still focus on customer service and will cut and prepare whatever you want to order.  I usually go in once or twice a month, pick out a ton of stuff and take it home and pop it in the freezer.  I always have them cut fresh beef tenderloin filets (one cannot live on ribeye alone) for me in exactly the size (and meat grade) that I want for the exact portion for our family.

My daughter’s all time favorite meal is turkey saltimbocca which involves thin sliced turkey cutlets (and prosciutto and sage).  First, I have found it nearly impossible to find turkey cutlets anywhere in Indy, and they just pull a fresh breast out of the case and cut me perfect cutlets.  Depending on who is doing the cutting, sometimes I don’t even have to pound them they are already so thin.  So this is also an item that I stock up on at Kincaid’s.  Of course, for the quality and service received, it is more expensive than your local grocery, but trust me when I say you can taste the difference.

They also carry a lot of local and regional products like Joseph Decuis soups, Graeter’s ice cream, Cook’s Ranch bison, and various dairy products from Trader’s Point Creamery.  And my favorite thing is in the spring when they have lots and lots of morels. I took a picture of their stash last year. Check them out! And hey, just a couple doors down is the Flying Cupcake. Not a bad little combination shopping trip.



the back door



L.E. Kincaid & Sons Meat Market

5605 North Illinois Street

Indy, 46208

317/255-5497

http://lekincaidmeats.com/Default.aspx

A Few of My Favorite Places: Kona Jack's Fish Market

Continuing along with the series on a few of my favorite Indy places (food and drink type places I frequent on a regular basis), I thought I would talk about Kona Jack’s fish market.  Honestly, this is an easy segment for me to write because literally you are just along on the ride with me on some of my regular errands…

Anyway, when I want fresh fish, and seafood in general, one of a very few places I will buy it to cook at home is Kona Jack’s.  And if I want sushi grade anything to make a ceviche or something along those lines, this is one of only two places I would trust.  For me, I have to have a little extra time, because it isn’t super close to my house, but I can always count on it being really fresh.

The nice thing about the market is that because it is also a restaurant and sushi bar, so you know their turnover is very high.  You can just go in and look in the case (my picture is of the main fish section, there is another case that contains mostly shellfish and freshwater fish) and you can tell that this stuff is good quality.  The regular fish mongers there know about seafood and can order just about anything you want—usually with just a day or two notice.

The only downside (besides it sort of being an out of the way location for me) is that it isn’t cheap.  But when you really want a good quality piece of fish, in my opinion, you can’t skimp too much or you may as well just eat something else.

I also like that I often run into friends at this fish market—even though it is a restaurant too, it feels  familiar to me and somewhat like a little neighborhood shop inside a restaurant.  So on this day, I walked in, on my way to pick up my kids, without knowing what I wanted. I just looked around until something jumped out at me. On this day it happened to be the grouper that caught my eye, which I took home and grilled with a version of a blackening type rub.  Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The grouper--after



Kona Jack’s Fish Market

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy   46260

317/843-1609

www.konajacksindy.com