Petite Chou - Revisit

Adding back a Thursday post every so often now (did anyone even notice I’ve been doing only one post a week?) Anyway, they are going to be quickie posts probably about places I have written about before. Mostly pictures and a few words.

I had a birthday lunch with my friend Suzanne at Petite Chou the other day (Happy Birthday Suzanne!). They have changed up the menu a bit since I was more of a regular there, and it looks good. 

I had the benedict crepe ($12.95). It was similar to ingredients in a Croque

madame, or an eggs benedict but with less heft, which is what I was looking for. A simple tasty crepe filled with ham, Gruyere cheese and a lovely sunny egg. It also came with Béarnaise sauce that I had on the side because I am particular about my Béarnaise, but I would go for it next time—this was a lovely one with just the right acidic kick. The side salads at chorus always need more dressing, and this was no exception.

Suzanne had “Le Club.” ($11.25) This is a tasty sandwich with all my faves—avocado, roasted rotisserie chicken, Dijon, aioli and bacon. Oh and cucumbers. I could certainly live without them though. It was a triple-decker on thin Brioche. The bread was good, but I would have preferred just two slices. The bread kinda took over.

Oh and the duck fat fries. With the Dijonaise. You cannot go wrong with those. Delicious. Crispy, rich and salty. You should get them.

Petite Chou

823 Westfield Blvd

Indy 46220

317/259-0765

www.petitechoubistro.com  

Brugge Brasserie- Revisit (the crepe edition)

One of our good family friends recently moved away—one of those families you meet (we got to know them because our sons were friends starting in kindergarten) and the stars align because everyone likes everyone. Husbands, wives, kids etc. Plus they were neighbors. Anyway, we’ve all been a little sad because they recently moved to Texas—but before they did, I took my friend out for lunch—actually she took me out to lunch. But I asked her to choose a place she’ll miss when she leaves and she wanted Brugge. Naturally, I had no problem with that.

The thing she likes there and always orders (we have gone many times as families together) is one of the crepes. I almost always split mussels, but since I didn’t have anyone to split them with, I decided to go with a crepe as well. I don’t think I have ever had one that I can remember except for a dessert crepe (I LOVE the sugar and butter crepe). I ordered the scrambled egg crepe ($11). It is a large crepe folded over and stuffed with scrambled eggs, roasted tomatoes, beer-braised caramelized onions and Swiss cheese.

I really enjoyed it a lot. I love their scrambled eggs—I always steal bites from my son’s steak and eggs when we go there with the kids (he gets his eggs scrambled), They’re seasoned really well—and the tomatoes were just the right kick of acid, but were also soft and melty along with the cheese and onions. The crepe itself is very very thin and light and not totally overstuffed, which is how I like it. I thought it was interesting that my friend’s crepe came open in a bowl with all the stuff inside. Makes me wonder if every crepe is served differently. Mine came with a little bit of dressed greens on the side. If we didn’t get this next part, it would be a pretty healthy lunch I think.

But naturally we had to get some fries too, because well, it’s Brugge. And they have the best fries in Indy. For real. (Seriously, you need to tell me if you think there are better fries out there, because I need to know about them). The fries are just so damn good. A medium thick cut and fried til they’re just starting to get a teeny bit dark. And so many sauces (we had aioli and blue cheese).

Honestly, as much as I love the mussels at Brugge (and have you ever tried the fish and chips or the chicken fingers from the kids menu? Delish also), I think I might start craving this crepe as well (and maybe others on the menu, although I really liked this combo of flavors). It made for a very tasty lunch for sure. Even under the sad circumstances.

Brugge Brasserie

1011 A East Westfield Blvd.

Indy 46220

317-255-0978

www.bruggebrasserie.com 

Cropichon et Bidibule

I have a thing for buckwheat crepes. When I first heard about this place opening, I gave a whoop for joy because…well, I love buckwheat crepes. A lot of fuss has been made about the name of the place and it being hard to pronounce, or remember, but honestly, the place that made me fall in love with buckwheat crepes, in Oakland, California, had a fancy French name that I couldn’t remember right now for a million bucks, and we just simply called it, “the crepe place.” So I’m not worried. I knew if I liked it, I would just call it whatever I wanted to. The owners of the restaurant suggest “CB.” I will probably just go with “the French place on Mass Ave.”

To be fair, it’s not just crepes—they serve a decent-sized French bistro type menu. This is cuisine that Indy is sorely lacking in, so it is a nice thing to see. The place is fairly large, and has a cute, French bistro feel with white tile and bistro chairs. The wait staff seemed enthusiastic. Our server warned us that a large party’s order had been put into the kitchen just before us and that our order might take a bit longer than normal. I appreciated that.  I also appreciated the complimentary half loaf of French bread and healthy dose of butter they put on the table while we contemplated the menu. It’s been awhile since I have been offered that at a restaurant that wasn’t a steakhouse. The bread was chewy and tasty, even if it wasn’t as crisp on the edges as most French baguettes. We both enjoyed it.

Ok, so the crepe you ask? The crepe was really quite good—it totally met my buckwheat crepe craving. I had “la galette complete” ($9), which is a flat buckwheat crepe stuffed with Gruyere cheese, country ham, and an organic egg (it’s served with a very runny yolk—but they do ask to make sure you’re good with this). The crepe was thin and had just a hint of crisp edges (I love a little crispy edge on my savory crepe). The egg mixed with the cheese and ham to give a creamy, salty taste. I like these kind of thin, flat crepes better than the super fat stuffed ones you find on a lot of menus where the stuffing dominates the crepe itself by miles.

My friend Suzanne’s crepe, “la galette forestiere” ($9) was also very tasty. This was a richer taste with a creamed mushroom mix and crème fraiche. You could add house-cured bacon for $2 more. She did get the bacon—I was a little surprised it was on top of the crepe instead of inside it, but the more I thought about it, it was probably for the best because it stayed nice and crisp. If it had been mixed with all that creaminess, it would have gotten soft. The crème fraiche gave a nice slightly tangy edge to the fairly rich insides. The crepe, again, was cooked nicely with just a touch of crispy edges. The bacon was also cooked just right. I preferred mine to this one, just because, well, there’s in egg in mine (duh), but both were good. (My ideal buckwheat crepe is egg, Gruyere and sautéed mushrooms in case anyone wants to make that for me).

Sadly, once you got beyond the crepes themselves, things started to suffer a bit. The mixed greens that came alongside were in fact, a nice mix of greens, and were clearly dressed with something, but whatever the dressing was made of, it needed to include some sort of vinegar or acid. It just tasted totally flat. After one bite, I gave up on them.

We also ordered a side of the frites with roasted garlic aioli and these were very disappointing as well. They look good in the picture, and I was excited to try them, but after one or two, they were all just way too soft and soggy and not worth the calories. I feel like with some perfecting, these could have some hope. Maybe another run through the fry-o-later or something. They are housemade, but they just lack the crispness that a good fry needs. I really want them to be good though, so I hope they keep working on them. The aioli was strangely brown in color, I think mostly roasted garlic and less of the mayo part of aioli, but neither of us really cared for it. I like a little more creaminess to my aioli. You can also get ketchup.

The main dishes were good—the sides not so much. I am looking forward to going back to give this place more chances though because the menu is promising and we need a little French place downtown in the worst way. Who else has been?

Cropichon et Bidibule

735 Massachusetts Avenue

Indy  46204

317/737-2772

http://www.cropichonetbidibule.com/

Crepe Guys

Hubby and I had a quick lunch in Castleton again and decided to hit up Crepe Guys. This place is pretty new and originally was going to open over near 86^th and Ditch, but then ended up appearing over in Castleton. Again, I was excited because a new independent place is always welcome (and unusual) on our side of town.

It’s a little bit of a strange interior—there’s a weird mix of modern and kind of an “unfinished barn” décor going on in here. You order at the register and then pick a table. They bring the crepes out to you when they’re done (and you can watch them making them if you want). Would love to see a little better silverware (it's just plastic on paper plates) but maybe they don't have a place to wash it, I don't know.

I ordered “the breakfast” crepe ($6.99) because, duh, eggs,  (you can get it anytime). It was the crepe filled with bacon, ham, scrambled eggs, jack cheese and your choice of mayo, ranch or honey mustard (I chose ranch). I had them hold the ham because I am not always a fan of ham unless it’s really good quality. I was sort of hoping they would add more bacon instead, but I don’t think they did based on the somewhat small amount that was in there.  The crepes are somewhat dense in their consistency, which was okay with a decent amount of savory fillings. I thought the breakfast crepe was decent—the eggs weren’t overcooked and it was fairly cheesy. There wasn’t a lot of the bacon and it wasn’t crisp at all, nor very good. Adding some decent bacon quality could do a lot to make this thing go from being good to being much better.

Hubby had the smoked salmon crepe ($8.99). This one was pretty good as well—having a decent amount of the salmon stood up to the thickness of the crepe and it had nice flavor from sour cream, spinach, and capers. One of the problems was the way the crepes were made and folded into fairly small triangles, they ended up with a lot of the crepe folded on top of the ingredients and itself, and it was already kind of thick (in general I prefer my crepes a little thinner and crisper). So you ended up with a lot of crepe to filling ratio.

This became even more apparent with the dessert crepe we shared—the banana nutella ($6.99). According to the menu, this crepe includes bananas, nutella, chocolate cream, powdered sugar and whipped cream. All I really got was a lot of banana and a lot of crepe. This was where the thickness of the crepe really became a weakness—the sweet crepe fillings, since they were more of a light spread of the nutella (I didn’t really get chocolate cream here), didn’t hold up to the thickness of the crepe. You couldn’t really taste them much..

If you kind of look at it like a sandwich shop (the crepes are dense enough I think to make the comparison), I can see stopping in for a savory one now and then if you work on that side of town. They weren’t bad. They would be even better if they stepped up the quality of some of the ingredients a bit. I would guess that a lot of the meats are of the lunch meat quality, although I can't be sure. I would take a pass on the sweet ones though.

The Crepe Guys

5955 E 82^nd Street

Indy 46250

317/688-8897

www.crepeguys.com  

3 Days in Paris

I was downtown the other day at lunchtime and it was beautiful so I decided to take a walk to the City Market and see what was going on as I hadn’t been in quite awhile.  I spotted the 3 Days in Paris stand right away and was of course interested.  I also instantly spotted the yolk crepe ($4.50) and decided that was what I wanted. I love an egg in a crepe.

Once you place your order, they get to work making it right there in front of you. It is sort of fun to watch.  I was a little sad when I watched my egg being scrambled right on top of the crepe (I was expecting a sunny side up egg with a name like “Yolk).  Normally this crepe only comes with cheese with the egg, but I added mushrooms and they were very accommodating.  Anyway, after watching my egg being scrambled, they mixed the cheese (I chose Havarti) and mushrooms together and added them to the crepe until they were nice and melty.

Ultimately, though, it was just a thin layer of egg, which still imparted a nice egg flavor, but didn’t give me the satisfactory runny egg consistency that I like (next time I would ask if they can do it the other way, although with as quickly as they cook them, I wonder).  The crepe itself was made with the darker buckwheat flour that I like—it was somewhat dense but honestly, I enjoyed the flavor of all of it together. If I had my ideal crepe, it would be a little thinner and crisper, but you know, the way these were were probably more filling for a lunch on their own.

They wrap up the whole thing so that you could carry it and eat it on the go I guess, but they will also give you a plate if you like (I do). I am not a walk and eat kind of person, so I grabbed a plate and a knife and fork and took it upstairs to eat.  I like the obviously fresh made quality of the crepes, and I was excited to see all the variety of options going on at the City Market in general.  I ran into friends who work nearby and recommended several other places to try.  I will certainly be back to check out some of the others, but as always, would appreciate your feedback if you frequent the market and can make suggestions.

After my lunch, I was in the mood for something a little sweet (as I nearly always am after a meal) and grabbed (well I did pay for it, it was $1) just one little chocolate from the Amuse Bouche chocolate cart right near the crepe cart.  I had the salted caramel.  It was delicious.  I love a local product like this, and it had a super creamy caramel center—not the chewy stick to your teeth type of caramel -- and a couple of salt crystals on top of the chocolate.  I would certainly love to try an entire box of these chocolates….

Anyway, don’t forget to send me your suggestions for where you like to eat at the City Market, and what is good where. I plan on making some return visits soon!

3 Days in Paris

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Markey Street

Indy  46204

317/674-5602

(they’re on facebook)

Amuse Bouche

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Markey Street

Indy  46204

317/871-4958

http://www.amuseme.biz/