Zoobilation 2011

It has been a couple of years since we’ve been to Zoobilation, but we were able to get there this year—it’s always fun to people watch at this event, particularly later in the evening.  I also ate a ton of different things, but here were some of the highlights that stuck out in my mind:

Tilapia ceviche from Adobo.  Maybe because it was so hot, but the cold dishes were hitting the spot.  This ceviche was light and limey with a hint of heat from jalapeno, and had a perfect slice of avocado on the plate. 

Shrimp, octopus and tuna ceviche with avocado, cucumber, cilantro, tomato, soy and yuzu from H20. It was served on a tortilla chip and the flavor was great.  I also like that it was easy to eat—not so big that you made a mess, and it was easy to walk and eat it.  Handling your drink and a plate with a fork got to be a little challenging sometimes—especially when you are trying to take pictures of it on top of everything else.  And I noticed it is on the menu tonight at H20, so you can go check it out yourself if you want.

Lobster voodoo from Ruth’s Chris. These were two small pieces of deep fried lobster tail that were coated in a spicy voodoo sauce.  They had quite an impressive set up with deep fryers behind the booth.  This was one hubby went back to for 3 helpings throughout the night.

Baked snow crab rolls from Sensu.  These were nice bite sized items as well—just one piece of a sushi roll with snow crab and Dynamite sauce (chili, garlic and mayo) and crunchy bits of tempura.  It was rolled with rice paper.  This was a really nice bite as well—and I was excited to get to try this because we had just been to Sensu and almost ordered this on their menu and hadn’t.  (P.S. Look for my full review of Sensu on Monday).

Dessert-wise I had several things I really liked.  The sticky toffee pudding from R Bistro was outstanding—sort of like a dense spice cake topped with a caramel sauce. (This won one of the best of the best awards.  I also really enjoyed the dark chocolate tartlets which were filled with caramel and sprinkled with sea salt from Circle City Sweets and the chocolate cake shooters with buttercream frosting and a bit of raspberry from Cakes by Cathy—that may have been the moistest cake I have ever eaten.

Circle City Sweets

I was happy to see a lot fewer sliders than 2 years ago when we went. There was a really good variety of different types of things served in different styles.  I didn’t eat every single thing there, but I got a pretty healthy sampling of most of the things.  It was also fun to see a lot of our City’s great chefs all together in one place. 

If you went, tell me what you liked or didn’t and your overall impressions of the night.  It looked like a lot of people were having a lot of fun, even if they were all pretty sweaty!

Zoobilation 2011 (next year’s date is June 8^th)

Indianapolis Zoo

1200 West Washington Street

Indy, 46222

317/630-2001

http://www.indianapoliszoo.com/

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

So the other night we had a last minute babysitter and we really could not decide where to go to eat. We literally drove out of the house not sure where we were headed. After toying with the idea of Miyagi’s, and sort of heading in that general direction, at the last minute we thought we would check out Ruth’s Chris’s bar and get some appetizers and skip the steak.

We wanted to sit in the bar because hubby is not a fan of the interior of the Northside location—and I have to say, the bar is much preferable. Our table next to the window was pretty cold though-we had to switch seats.

We started with the chop salad, which we split. I appreciate that they split this for us in the kitchen. But man, I can’t imagine having the whole salad myself. It would be enormous. The half portion is plenty big. Plenty. But I had seen a picture of it in one of the local magazines and thought it looked so good, I really wanted to try it. So it was chopped lettuces (spinach, iceberg and radicchio) mixed with lots of things—boiled egg, olives, avocado, hearts of palm, bacon, croutons, red onions, mushrooms, blue cheese and with fried skinny onions on top. The dressing was lemon basil vinaigrette. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of interesting though, there were so many things in it, you didn’t necessarily get a bite of every ingredient each time, but in fact every bite was a little different. But is well dressed and the dressing was the right combination of creamy and tangy.

So we ordered the barbeque shrimp, which is one of Ruth’s Chris signature items—and it is the type of “barbeque” that is found in New Orleans. It is a butter, wine, garlic and seasoning sauce (heavy on spices and I would say a bit of Worcestershire sauce). This is something that as long as hubby and I have been going to Ruth’s Chris (which we have on occasion since our San Francisco days) we have been ordering. The shrimp are properly cooked, and the sauce is delicious. Probably my favorite part is just sopping it up with the nice, warm, French loaf you get there. The shrimp were a little smaller than I remember, bust still good. The only bad part about them, is that apparently when they were bringing out our food from the kitchen, they dropped one of the other items, and had to remake it (a cold item) so by the time they got it all together, the shrimp were not exactly hot. More like lukewarm which kind of detracted.

We also ordered the crabtini which was lump crab meat served in a tall martini glass (hence the trouble carrying it out on a large tray). I really liked this one. I appreciated that they actually tossed the crab in a citrus-y vinaigrette before then also serving it with their very tasty version of a remoulade. The crab was really good quality, and the mix of flavors was more than your ordinary cold seafood cocktail.

Finally, we had their version of the steakhouse side dish of mac and cheese (it was a special). Now it seems like everyone has one of these, with lobster, or with truffles. This one was actually both lobster and truffle mac and cheese, at least according to the menu. Honestly, I did not taste the truffle at all and as far as the lobster goes, they were very small pieces. Now the pieces I did find were quite tender and not overcooked like so many are, but they were so small it was hard to really get the flavor with all that cheese. The pasta was very cheesy, with a lot of additional cheese melted on top. Maybe all the cheese was so strong, it just overwhelmed the flavors of the truffles and the lobster. It wasn’t bad, but for the price, I wouldn’t order it again.

Our server was really professional (how nice!) and very helpful with the menu. And I really appreciate that he did not seem put out in the least that we didn’t order steak or even an entrée for that matter. Other then the slip up with the dropped crab (and hey, accidents happen, and I don’t think he was the one who actually dropped it), service was pretty near perfect.

I enjoyed this dinner, and the professionalism of the staff at Ruth’s Chris. And I do like their steaks as well, although I don’t think they are the best around. But I would certainly go back and do a similar meal again.

Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
9445 Threel Road
Indianapolis, IN 46240
317-844-1155
www.ruthschris.com