Mesh

I have been excited to give Mesh on Mass Avenue a try ever since I heard it had opened (a couple months ago now I think).  I was glad to see a new option offered along Mass Ave and so far have been hearing fairly favorable comments about it.  I have heard the chef from 14 West had moved there, and I really enjoyed the last meal I had at 14 West when he was still there.

To start with we were greeted by a very friendly hostess who seated us at a table upstairs.  The remodel of the interior (formerly Si) is nice.  It still feels like a nice restaurant but with a casual edge to it.  And apparently Mesh prides themselves on welcoming customers no matter what they are wearing. 

Our server was quite attentive to us, but there were a few issues around the timing of the food.  We ordered a couple of appetizers to share and each couple split a salad.  Our server specifically said she would space them out and time them, but just after our second appetizer was delivered, they also brought the salads.  It was a little annoying because we had just started the apps.  We sent the salads back (honestly there wasn’t even room for the plates on the table) and asked them to bring them when we were done with our starters.  (I would also prefer them to split the salad for you, which they did not do, because one person always gets less dressing and stuff and it is just a pain to split salads at the table).

Anyway, for our starters, we shared the rock shrimp which were served in spicy garlic butter on top of grilled slices of a baguette.  The shrimp were very good.  They were quite plentiful and well cooked (read, not overcooked).  The somewhat creamy garlic sauce had a nice garlic-y flavor and the crunch of the baguette was a great texture variation.  It was a fancy version of bruschetta and it was tasty.  I like rock shrimp because it seems like it is rarer for a restaurant to overcook them, and they are nice and bite sized.

We also made a “cheese and smear” plate which you can pick 3 items from for $12 or 6 for $20.  There are a lot of yummy sounding items and we chose Humboldt Fog cheese, white bean hummus and arugula pistachio pesto.  This was really good as well.  Humboldt Fog, if you aren’t familiar is a wonderful creamy goat cheese that has both the tangy goat cheese edge, without being as dry as many goat cheeses are.  There is a line of ash running through it which I think also enhances the flavor.  And get this, THE CHEESE WAS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!  I was so happy because I firmly believe that cheese should be allowed to come to room temperature before being served in order to really get all the depth of the flavors.  And the cheese was great.  The hummus was tasty as well, I was worried it would be bland and it wasn’t.  It was well seasoned and went nicely with the mix of breads served alongside.  Probably my favorite thing, and the surprise standout though, was the arugula pesto.  It was delicious.  It was really fresh tasty, and I enjoyed the somewhat unique take using a different green and nut in a pesto.  Instead of being more of a garnish, this was a dip you could really happily eat on its own.  I would be hard pressed not to order the exact same plate next time.

Hubby and I shared the Mesh salad which was Bibb lettuce, arugula and Belgian endive with hearts of palm, watercress puree and a tarragon mustard vinaigrette.  Like I said, we had to split it ourselves which is not my favorite thing (and I am always very grateful when they do it for you).  I had the extra plate and dished some on to it, and while the bites I had that were dressed tasted quite good, I did not think I had enough of the dressing on my greens.  Maybe if you were eating it as they served it, it was better, I don’t know.  But all the ingredients were fresh and I liked the flavors, I just wish there was a bit more of them with the greens.

For my main, I went with the grilled shrimp.  The shrimp were quite large and the portion was as well (I didn’t finish it).  They were cooked nicely, maybe just a tad bit too far, but you know how picky I am.  It was served over fried pork belly corn grits which were really quite tasty.  I think that corn/grit flavor goes really well with shrimp and they had a very pleasant smoky flavor from the pork belly.  There was also braised Belgian endive which was a nice counter balance texture wise.   There was a also a lobster cream which just kept everything moist.  Overall this dish was pretty successful.  Hubby really liked the grits and they were probably the most unique thing about the dish.

Hubby had the pork belly entrée which he thoroughly enjoyed.  It was served with white bean Cassoulet, more braised endive and a balsamic reduction.  The pork belly was nice and crispy on the edges and was very tasty.  I mean, what is not to like about what is essentially a bacon steak?  And the sweet and tangy taste of the balsamic was a great compliment to the meat.

I had a bit of each of our friends’ dishes as well, and honestly, I was impressed with pretty much everything I ate.  One friend had the chicken scaloppini with was served with blue cheese mashed potatoes and a Sherry cream.  I was surprised at how moist the chicken was.  It was very good.  My other friend had a tuna special and my bite of it was tasty as well and the fish was cooked perfectly—just lightly seared on the outside.

We also had dessert and the meal continued its course of being very good.  We had the “mud napoleon” which was layers of yummy things. It was chocaltely, had vanilla and mocha ice cream and a really really yummy warm peanut butter caramel sauce.  Ok, the details are a little foggy because I had had a good amount of wine, but I really liked this dessert.  I mean, what is not to like?  We also had a special which was a warm apple pie with blackberry ice cream.  It was good, but not as good as the tower of chocolaty richness.  But still, well done.

 Overall, we were impressed with what was a very well prepared and tasty meal.  Even with the minor service issues, this place could become a great regular spot if it can keep up its consistency.  What about you guys? Have you been?  What’s been good? What’s been not so good?  Any must order items?

Mesh on Mass Ave.

725 Massachusetts Avenue

Indy 46204

317/955-9600

www.meshonmass.com

West Coast Tacos

Ok, I know I am late in reviewing West Coast Tacos, but sometimes things take awhile.  The concept of the food truck is obviously gaining popularity across the country, what with entire television shows being dedicated to it, but hubby and I were a little surprised by it, I guess because food trucks (at least in San Fran) have been around a long time. (San Francisco’s are usually burrito trucks vs. taco trucks, but same idea).  I do find it interesting though, with the advent of things like Twitter, how a food truck can really move around and serve lots of people.  Usually food trucks in San Francisco stayed in one place and when one occasionally had to move, it was a crisis trying to figure out where it had gone.  Now, West Coast Tacos has taken full advantage of social media and moves all over town both for lunch and dinner.  I am sure this is a great boom for them because they can serve so many varying groups of people.

After checking Twitter, the first time we went, we headed to the east side to catch up with the truck.  It was fairly early in their service hours (I think they usually serve 11:00-1:00 or so) but there was already a line.  The choices on this day were chicken or steak with red sauce or green sauce.  We got three of each, the chicken with green sauce and the beef with red. 



Steak with red salsa

When I made it back to the car with my half of the order, hubby had already eaten one of the chicken ones (hence the picture missing a taco) and was declaring it, “frickin’ awesome.”  I started with a beef, and while it was not bad, I wasn’t seeing what the fuss was about really.  The meat was thinly sliced and covered with a mix of onion and cilantro and then covered in the red sauce.  The sauce wasn’t very spicy—I enjoyed the onion and cilantro mix more I think.  And considering every other review I have read talks about how spicy the red sauce is, I am starting to wonder if maybe they forgot a couple of ingredients on this day or something.  All the tacos are served on doubled up soft corn tortillas.  After hubby finished his first chicken taco, he had a beef and promptly agreed with me that he thought the beef was just okay.

Chicken with green salsa



Next I tried the chicken taco and could understand what hubby had been excited about.  This one was darn good.  The chicken was lightly seasoned and cut into cubes; there was more of the cilantro/onion mix and a wonderful green salsa that had so much more flavor than the red.  We regretted not getting one of the steak tacos with green to see if that would have changed our opinion of it.  The chicken ones were good enough that I can see why people crave them. 



Pork tacos


So, since it seemed like maybe it was an off day with the red salsa, I decided to do a second trip before finalizing this review.  On the second trip, the choices were steak, pork or chicken teriyaki tacos.  Red salsa was your only choice on the pork or steak.  We tried them all.  The red salsa definitely had a lot more flavor this time, which was interesting because there was less of it on the taco than there was the first time we went. It was much spicier—but not so spicy that it was overwhelming.   I think between the steak and the pork though, the pork was definitely better.  It was much more flavorful and had some nice caramelized edges to it.  The chicken teriyaki sounded intriguing, but it was my least favorite of all the tacos I have had from West Coast Tacos. The chicken tasted like it had been marinated a bit in teriyaki sauce, and had a slightly darker color to it than plain grilled chicken, but there was not a lot of teriyaki flavor to me.  And the taco was drizzled with what I assume was Sriracha, an Asian hot sauce.  I don’t know, those are not two flavors I would normally put together.  There also was none of the onion/cilantro mix, just a bit of green onion, and I missed it. I think the freshness of these flavors is one of my favorite parts of the tacos.  And the Sriracha made it so hot, that you couldn’t taste any other flavor nuances with the chicken.

Chicken Teriyaki & 2 Steak



I also know a lot of people have complained about the size of the tacos, and that they aren’t very filling, but I was pleasantly filled when I ate three full ones (the second time I didn’t finish the third one, the chicken teriyaki).  I tend to have a lighter appetite than most though, so I can understand the argument.  You can order them individually, but they are more expensive that way (generally they are 3 for $5 or $2 each).  I did see people ordering 4 to make a meal.

You have to be prepared to make do with wherever you are to eat them—in our case, the first time, this was on the truck of hubby’s car in a very hot parking lot.  The second time we took them home to eat them when the truck was located very near to our house.  I think I personally would choose the location somewhat carefully on any future visits and go somewhere where there might be somewhere to sit down (or to bring them home again).  I am not a fan of eating on the fly (or standing up for that matter), so this dulls a food experience for me, but what the hell, it’s coming out of a truck right?

West Coast Tacos

(various locations throughout the city, check twitter to find out where) @WestCoastTacos

http://thebestdamntacos.com/

Two Tickets To See Michael Pollan

Hey you guys, I have 2 free tickets (for you guys only, I stick by my pledge to not take freebies) to see Michael Pollan speak at the Scottish Rite Cathedral as part of the Spirit & Place Food For Thought festival.  The event is November 12^th at noon.

For more info about Michael Pollan check out: http://www.spiritandplace.org/Festival.aspx?access=People&Year=2010&PeopleID=372

For more info about the festival in general, check out: http://www.spiritandplace.org/Festival.aspx?access=Current

To get the free tickets, be the 7^th person to post a comment and I will send you the tickets.  In your comment post your favorite independent Indy restaurant….Be number 7 and the tickets are yours.  One comment per person please.

Good Luck,

Erin

Mangia!

My Dad has been bugging me to try Mangia for awhile, as it is his current favorite Italian spot.  And since it now seems that I am on some sort of quest to find good Italian places in Indy, I agreed.  Dad loves the pasta Bolognese and orders it every time.  My brother-in-law also loves the lasagna at Mangia and considers it one of his favorite places as well.  Interestingly, the women (my Mom and sister) were not as hot on the place overall.

So it is another one of those strip mall places that always surprise me at the size of the inside.  It was maybe half full, but you feel like you are eating with other people so that is nice.  Our server was helpful and really could answer just about every question we had, which I really appreciate.  The pasta items ran around $15-20, the meat courses were between $18-23.

The first thing we got was the complimentary bread which was probably my favorite part of the meal.  It was a nice focaccia with a flavorful firm yet chewy crust.  They served it just with olive oil which I enjoyed with the bread.  For our starter, we shared the “Torta di Caprino,” or goat cheese pie.  I enjoyed this as well.  It was a layered, warm, firm mound of goat cheese topped with a gorgonzola cream sauce.  I enjoyed the slight kick from the gorgonzola sauce with the tangy goat cheese, although I would have preferred more gorgonzola flavor.  It was served with toasted and seasoned crostini which were really tasty, and when we ran out, the server happily brought us more.  The appetizer was good, and we enjoyed it.  For some reason, it sort of reminded me of eating an Italian version of spinach cheese dip that you see at so many restaurants these days.  Not exactly sure why, other than it was so cheesy.

Hubby and I split a salad as well. We went with the Insalata Mista which was mixed greens topped with tomatoes, black olives, gorgonzola and a balsamic vinaigrette.  I really enjoyed the salad (although there were very few black olives which sort of bummed me out).  The dressing was well done and it was a nice break in between the rich starter and main dishes.  They also split the salad for us, which I always appreciate.

For my main I tried the lobster ravioli.  I was intrigued by the description of a “bisque” sauce just because it sounded different.  I just get burnt out on marinara and cream sauces all the time.  It was topped with 4 nice sized shrimp as well.  The ravioli was a disappointment however.  There was no real flavor inside them (which the server told me are not housemade).  And while a bisque usually has a bit of tomato paste in it, this sauce just tasted like a tomato sauce to me.  I didn’t get any of the subtle flavors that one expects with a bisque.  The shrimp were fine, nothing really exciting about them, but they weren’t bad either.  All in all, I ate a few of them, and just went back to eating the bread. I enjoyed it more.

Hubby was also disappointed with his dish.  He tried the “Rosticciana” because it was sounded more unusual than most menu items in most Italian restaurants around town.  It was roasted pork loin stuffed with pancetta and mushrooms in a rosemary demiglace.  Unfortunately it was hard for him to really get a handle on whether it could be good, because the pork was so dry.    It was served with a side of garlic mashed potatoes that were really very good as well as some veggies in a tomato sauce (which were more like plate filler and not that good).

Like I said though, my Dad loves the spaghetti Bolognese.  It is a simple meat and tomato sauce served with quite a large portion of spaghetti.  He really likes the fact that there is enough meat and sauce to eat with all the spaghetti.  My brother-in-law’s lasagna was a huge portion topped half with marinara and half with cream sauce.  I didn’t try it, but like I said, this is one of their favorite places for these dishes.  Probably the best entrée on the table (in my opinion) was the “Pettine alla Brandy,” or scallops in brandy cream sauce.  The scallops were properly cooked and seasoned and the cream sauce had a little more depth of flavor than traditional cream sauces.  More of the garlic mashed potatoes here, which only added to making this the best dish of the evening.

We did share a couple of desserts.  The tiramisu was the one that sticks out in my mind because it was really quite good.  Our server told us that it was made in house. It had just the right amount of coffee flavor as well as nice creamy layers and just a sprinkle of chocolate on top.  It tasted fresh and had just the right amount of sweetness.  This was probably one of my favorite parts of the meal
as well.

All in all, though, as far as my quest goes, I am still looking… (Sorry Dad!)

Mangia!

11594 Westfield Blvd.

Carmel, IN 46032

317/581-1910

www.mangiaitalian.com

Thai Taste - Lunch Revisit

The other day I met a friend for lunch at Thai Taste.  I hadn’t reviewed it since we had dinner there quite awhile ago, and I thought it might be nice to see how the lunch offerings were.  I like that they offer reduced portion lunches at a very reasonable price, but that they are cooked to order (no buffet). I think the entrées are all about $7 and include soup or salad, a spring roll and rum cake for dessert. 

I really enjoy Thai flavorings and have been enjoying trying different places around Indy.  This one happens to be very close to my house, so it is an easy one to stop into.  I chose soup (you had a choice of Tom Yum soup , a rice noodle soup, or salad).  I went with the noodle soup since I had decided not to get noodles for my entrée.  The soup was nice.  It was a mild flavored clear broth with a decent amount of rice noodles in it, and I think the main seasonings were black pepper and a few pieces of cilantro on top.  It would likely be too bland to eat an entire order of this soup, but it wasn’t bad.

For my main dish, I had the Garlic chicken.  The lunch portions are actually quite large, especially for the price.  I have to say though; I was disappointed in the chicken because it was pretty dried out.  I enjoyed the flavor of the garlicky, peppery sauce though; it helped make the meat more enjoyable.  Unfortunately though, I also didn’t really care for the fact that the meat was piled on a bed of cabbage, because all the sauce soaked in to the cabbage and left the meat even drier.  It would have been better if the meat was allowed to sit directly in the sauce so you could get a bit more of it with each bite.

My friend shared her Pud Thai (using their spelling) which was much better than my dish.  It was your classic rice noodles with bean sprouts, onions, tofu, egg and green onion and a light, slightly tangy sauce (I think the tanginess comes from tamarind).  There were dices of chicken and some crunchy peanuts on top.  This dish was much better than mine, because you could really taste the flavor of the sauce and because there were so many different flavors with all the various ingredients.  And the chicken, if it was overcooked, was not as noticeable because it was much smaller pieces that were fewer and farther between. 

Honestly, I didn’t really care for the spring roll that much, or maybe I just get them too much with dishes and am tired of them.  There just wasn’t anything about it that made me want to eat the extra calories.  It was a little too doughy on the inside.  We both skipped the dessert (we couldn’t even finish the entrées) so I can’t speak to the rum cake. 

This place does a very good lunch business though, and you are certainly getting a good value for your money.  I would rank the food in the middle of the pack as far as Thai places at which I have eaten in Indy.  Some things are quite good and other things just okay.

Thai Taste

5353 East 82nd Street

Indy 46250

317/578-9722

(no website I could find)

El Rincon Jarocho

Well a really, really long time ago, back when I first started my blog, a reader suggested this place to me.  I am not sure why it has taken so long for me to go, because I have had a couple other people mention it since.  My son, who loves quesadillas and beans, was also along for lunch, so I figured this would be a good one to hit with him as well.

First of all, this place is pretty much of a dive on the inside.  That doesn’t bother me, but it is kind of weird because there is a large restaurant attached, but it looks like for lunch, they just open the little front room up.  The whole time we were there, there was only one other paying table (although the staff ate their lunch with us in front of the tv showing Mexican soap operas), so I guess this makes sense.  It looks like they have a more social atmosphere in the evenings, with music and such, judging by the flyers on the walls.

They served chips and salsa.  The salsa was pretty watery and didn’t have a lot of flavor to it.  The chips weren’t bad—they were the thick type. Very crispy, but not warm.  I would say they were made awhile before we ate them. 

So I had read somewhere that the chicken they used in their dishes was really good.  And I have yet to find a really good chicken enchilada in Indy.  So I ordered the chicken enchilada lunch with red sauce (you can get red, green, or mole).  It came with rice and beans and was drizzled with sour cream and sprinkled with cheese.  So, I found the chicken to be pretty lacking in any real flavor, and while the red sauce was very rich and dark in color (and took out my shirt when I got some on myself—seriously that stuff did NOT come out), it was seriously lackluster in flavor.  The chicken was quite dry (ugh, you know I hate dry chicken) and seriously, I can’t come up with many descriptors of this meal.  Well, maybe “nondescript.”  There was nothing about any of it that stood out. 

Hubby had flautas, which he thought were okay (and I agreed after my bite), but there wasn’t much to them except a teeny bit of chicken inside.  They were fried crispy and drizzled with more of the sour cream.  My son had his quesadilla, which he didn’t like because the cheese wasn’t even warm.  He had also ordered guacamole because he prefers it over salsa for his chips.  The guacamole here was made to order, but unfortunately was pretty much as flat as everything else.  Chunks of nice avocado, but mixed only with some onion and cilantro. No acid from lime or even salt appeared to be added. 

I don’t know, maybe this place isn’t really known for the food.  Maybe it’s the nightlife.  But this is a restaurant I will not be repeating.   But keep the Mexican suggestions coming, and I would love to know what specifically you like to eat.  It seems like a lot of Mexican places just sort of use the same ingredients in different wrappers, and sometimes I get burnt out on them all.  So is there some unique dish that you love from someplace around here?  Please, I could use a change of pace.

El Rincon Jarocho

7985 Plummer  Street

Indy 46226

317/545-5300

Perugini Pizzeria

Several months ago, a reader sent me an email recommending this place to me because she liked it so much. I put it on the list (I really do put them all on the list, it just takes awhile to get to them sometimes) and we finally got around to trying it the other day. The pizza on the website looked pretty good, and you know I am always looking for good New York style pizza.

The first thing we noticed (we went for lunch) is that it was completely empty which always makes me nervous, but the owner, who also does the cooking, was very friendly and greeted us warmly. The one pizza they had available (cheese) was not overly appealing looking because it had been there awhile, but he said he would make up whatever we wanted, or we could have an entire pie (with one topping) for $5.00. This is a regular lunch deal there. This is a great deal for a 14 inch pizza with 8 slices. Now, if you want more toppings, they are $1.75 each, so you can quickly get more expensive, but still, $6.75 for this much pizza was a great deal. We got my favorite, mushroom and red onion.

But of course, because I am easily convinced to try lots of things, we also got an order of breadsticks. They make them plain, stuffed with pepperoni, or stuffed with mozzarella. We got the cheese stuffed ones. I was impressed to watch him get the dough out and make the breadsticks (rolling the dough around the cheese) and the pizza, right then and there. He told me he makes the dough and the pizza sauce from scratch. It took a little longer than running in for a slice for lunch, but watching him toss our pizza fresh was worth it.

So I really enjoyed the breadsticks. They were soft with a nice crisp edge and obviously as fresh and hot as was really possible considering they just came out of the oven. I am guessing it is the same dough used for the pizza crust, but I liked this version of it better because it was slightly chewy with a crisp and seasoned outer crust. They served them with parmesan cheese in a shaker as well as a side of bright orange cheese dipping sauce (which was maybe slightly better than most bright orange dipping sauce, but I am guessing this stuff is not being made in house). But I really didn’t need to dip my cheese stuffed breadsticks into another “cheese” sauce, but a little container of marinara might have been nice (or even garlic butter).

The pizza came out looking much better than I expected (I told you I was nervous by the lack of clientele). It was good pizza. The crust was very thin and crispy, and the sauce was savory and in just the right proportion to the rest of the pizza (I have said before, I am not a fan of really saucy pizza). The other ingredients were in just the right proportion as well. You got the cheesy pizza experience without it being mounded too high and making the crust soggy and not allowing you to taste it. It was maybe just a little too crispy for true (as I see it) New York style pizza. But it was good enough that if it were in my neighborhood, it would be in the rotation.

The décor is minimal. Hubby described it as “1984 pizza parlor.” It was plastic booths and a couple of video games and half of the place was painted in what I would call a disturbing shade of greenish. Not an overly appetizing color shall we say. I did enjoy that the soundtrack seemed to go along with the 1984 theme; we heard Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and the Go Go’s while there. (OK. I am being sarcastic about enjoying the music, with the exception of the Go Go’s.) But it was humorous. Several people came in and carried out while we were there, and my guess is they sell more pizza for dinner. And maybe there just isn’t an overwhelming desire of people to partake of the ambiance, but the pizza is certainly being made with care, the owners are quite nice, and overall the quality of the food was very good. If you live on that side of town (West), I would give it a go. (And you know I am always looking for more recommendations for pizza, so keep ‘em coming!).

Perugini Pizzeria
3350 N. High School Road
Indy 46224
317/405-9386
http://www.peruginipizzeria.com/

Nawlins Creole Café

My sister lives in Avon and recently tried this place and emailed me right away about it knowing that hubby is always looking for good Cajun/Creole food and that I am always looking for good food in general.  She qualified it with the fact that she had never eaten a po boy in New Orleans so she couldn’t verify its authenticity, but she really liked it and had talked to the owners who are from New Orleans and fly in several ingredients direct from there. I have had a couple of readers recommend it too, so I knew it was time to get over there.

It is quite a drive for us, but we met them over there the other day for lunch.  The place was pretty busy for a midweek lunch, so service started out a touch slow, but once we got the order in, things moved a long a little quicker.  The lady who runs it with her son, was a maybe a little gruff in the start, and it is the kind of place where you may just want to wait to speak until spoken to—she has a regimented way of taking orders, and you are probably better off letting her lead you through the process (hubby and I commented that it reminded us a little of the Soup Nazi episode on Seinfeld).  But by the end of the meal, after chatting with hubby about New Orleans, she warmed up to us (and her son is exceptionally friendly).

I ordered the sampler plate which included jambalaya, red beans and rice, and shrimp or crawfish étouffée or gumbo and some toasted French bread.  You also get two sides. I had the crawfish étouffée and I loved it—it was rich, but had amazing depth of flavor. It tasted like it was made from very well-tended roux.  There wasn’t a ton of crawfish in there, but enough to get a piece with most bites.  The jambalaya was also nice—a very spicy rice dish with mainly pieces of sausage and maybe a couple bites with shrimp as well.  The red beans and rice were nice—not all mushed together.  You could separate the beans from the rice if you wanted to and had a very nicely seasoned flavor. Spicy, but not overwhelming at all (not nearly as spicy as the jambalaya).  Hubby really liked them and ended up eating probably half of mine.  One of my sides was potato salad and I loved  it as well.  It is almost like mashed potatoes seasoned with celery and egg and chilled.  It was also a great counterbalance to all the hot and spicy dishes I was eating.  I would certainly always get some of the potato salad as a nice variation in taste and texture to the other things.  The macaroni and cheese was great too (my other side), and clearly homemade. Creamy, but not bright orange (which I like) and seasoned with pepper.  It had maybe a tiny smoky flavor.  Really good.  Again, hubby kept going after it out of my bowl.  I enjoyed everything I had, but I am pretty sure next time I go, unless there is some special that sounds good, I will be ordering a full order of the étouffée (maybe I will try the shrimp next time) with my side of potato salad and mac and cheese.  Wow, I want it right now just talking about it.

Hubby had the shrimp po boy.  He was very happy with it as well.  I am pretty sure they told us that they actually fly the bread in from New Orleans and apparently, it is the right kind of bread (according to hubby).  It is dressed with mayo and shredded lettuce, tomato and pickles.  The shrimp were seasoned and fried and were really tasty.  Hubby added hot sauce (Louisiana of course) and was amazed at how close his sandwich tasted to what he remembered from his college days at Tulane.  The only thing he wished is that there was more shrimp because there was so much bread, it was a little out of proportion to the shrimp.  He decided next time he would ask for a double order of shrimp and see if they would just do that and charge him accordingly.  It was a tasty sandwich.  You can get fries on the side for an upcharge.  He had the Cajun fries which were pretty tasty heavily seasoned fries.

I also had a fried oyster that came on my brother-in-law’s fried seafood platter (oysters, shrimp and catfish).  It was breaded and seasoned and fried and wasn’t bad, but I think I like the fried shrimp better.  The portions are quite generous though, especially with all the sides you get.

The restaurant does not have a liquor license (quite hard to come by in Hendricks county apparently), but they are allowed to pay for one on a day by day basis (which makes no sense to me, but that’s just my opinion) and they usually buy one on Fridays and Saturdays and offer beer and wine as well.  They also regularly offer special things on the weekend and have fairly regular shrimp boils (the next one is this Saturday, October 23^rd I believe). 

This place is a great example of a restaurant where a family has great recipes to share and seems to care about what they are doing.  This is also another place I wish was closer to my house.  Hubby declared it to be the best New Orleans style food he has had outside of New Orleans.   I can’t speak to that, but I know what I like, and I liked this place.

Nawlins Creole Café

1118 North State Road 267

Avon, IN  46123

317/272-1077

www.nawlinscreolecafe.com

Road Trip: Chicago

We recently had a very decadent weekend in Chicago. We were celebrating with friends who came in from various parts of the country, but were friends of ours when we lived in San Francisco.  We have shared many meals together over the years, and it was really fun to get to share a couple more with them.  Nothing like sitting around a table with old friends, food, and wine.

While we had an awesome time, the food wasn’t one of my highlights overall this weekend.  Although there were some awesome courses, there were no top to bottom mind-blowing meals for me.  So, instead of dragging this trip out into several posts that you may or may not be interested in as primarily Indy people, I am just going to hit on the highs and lows of each restaurant.  Of course, if you want to know anything else about any of the places, don’t hesitate to email me or post a comment, I can always ramble on about food!

Graham Elliot

Our original plan when we set this trip up was to go to Avec, and in fact our friends had sent us a gift card to use when we got the opportunity to all get together.  Unfortunately after we planned the trip, Avec had a fire and was still not re-opened by the time we were there at the end of September.  So we had made a back up reservation at Graham Elliot, which also looked fun, and that is where we ended up.

This place sort of prides itself on giving you fancy, inventive cuisine in a more casual atmosphere.  There are no white tablecloths or dress codes and the place is noisy and sports a fairly young clientele.  The menu is a little on the pricey side, particularly if you decide to go with more than 2 courses, which we did. 

The dish that was a highlight for me at Graham Elliot was cuttlefish which was cut into strands that were made to look like linguine.  The fish gave the “pasta” a great flavor and it was in a light sauce seasoned with chorizo, saffron, very small raisins, pine nuts and cannellini beans.  The texture of the “pasta” was great and the other ingredients added nice variations.  This dish pulled off being playful and tasty at the same time.

My starter was the Graham Elliot take on a Caesar salad, which apparently is a menu regular.  This was the dish that was the biggest disappointment of the evening for me.  It is served with what was basically a long rectangular crouton.  There was Romaine lettuce sort of neatly stacked on top, and in other rectangular portions on the plate.  Across each portion of lettuce, there was a mild white anchovy.  The entire dish was served on top of the dressing.  This was one that was lovely to look at, but flavor-wise was a letdown.  Really, the dressing had little flavor and there was not enough of it to go around. 

L20

This is my second trip to L20, and we were excited to actually go back somewhere in Chicago we had been before in order to use the knowledge we had learned about what we thought were the highlights.  The menu is broken down into a couple of very decadent tasting menus or a fixed price menu where you get 4 courses for $110.  Even though L20 is sort of known for seafood, on our last trip one of our favorite courses was hubby’s pork belly, so we decided not to be influenced and to get whatever struck our fancy.

Interestingly, one of the prettiest dishes I have ever had was also my least favorite of the evening taste- wise.  It was lamb tartare with Shiro ebi (shrimp) which is a very small shrimp which was also served raw on top of the lamb.  The color was beautiful.  The bright red meat and the almost pearlescent shrimp were almost jewel-like.  They were covered with pieces of pickled mango, greens, edible flowers, and edible gold leaf.  It was over the top in presentation and was like a piece of art (sorry the picture is dark).  Unfortunately, for me, there was a lack of any real flavor to it.  The meat was wonderfully fresh, but seemed almost unseasoned. 

My favorite course was my main dish.  It was halibut which was wonderfully tender and served in a thick, creamy, white corn chowder with a layer of chorizo gelée across the top and a couple of asparagus spears and what they described as “toast,” but was like a thin cracker that gave some texture to the very smooth consistency of everything else.  The reddish chorizo gelée was like a concentrated layer of the sausage flavor and was a very interesting take on mixing the flavors.  I really enjoyed it.

I also have to tell you (at his insistence) about hubby’s favorite course.  He had the salted cod dish as his second course.  It was also a very interesting and delicious take on a traditional salt cod brandade.  It was served in a glass and had a bottom layer of what was the closest to a traditional salt cod, with a layer of fingerling potato mousse that was topped with ribbons of gelée made of potato and topped with caviar.  It almost looked like a sundae, but with cod.  It was really really good as well (I snuck a few bites).

All in all though, while we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and our time with our friends, we weren’t as impressed with the food or the service as we were the first time.  The service was a highlight last time and this time had several problems (don’t take my napkin when I go to the bathroom if you aren’t going to replace it immediately).  If we do another revisit to a Chicago place, it will likely be somewhere else next time.  And it is really hard to go to a place more than once when there are so many other wonderful choices.

Lunch at Emilio’s

One day we also had a quick bite for lunch at Emilio’s Tapas.  We wanted something light knowing we were going in for a big dinner later.  We just shared three small plates.  We had a plate with Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, olives and olive oil.  It was served with toasted bread.  It was very good, and I liked the way they cut the Manchego into thin enough slices that you could stack them on top and not overwhelm the flavor of the ham.

We also had a tortilla which is described as a Spanish omelet, but is more like a wedge of frittata served cold. It is layers of potato flavored with onion and held together with egg.  It was served with a nice little salad on the side with olives and marinated red onion.  The tortilla didn’t have a ton of flavor, but wasn’t bad when you ate it with a bite of the salad.

Finally we had the classic Spanish dish of sautéed shrimp in olive oil with nice crispy fried bits of garlic.  The shrimp were nice and tender and the garlic was pleasantly toasty, but not burnt tasting.  This was a pleasant way to eat a light lunch yet still get to try several different flavors.  The menu at Emilio’s is huge so there are many different things to try for sure and I would repeat this place when you want a quick lunch with lots of different flavors, but not an overwhelming amount of food.

All in all, while we had a completely wonderful trip to Chicago, and got to see friends we haven’t seen in years; like I said, food-wise none of my meals totally blew me away.  You know what I realized though, because I so often get frustrated with the food in Indy, was that we are actually quite lucky to have some gems around us that are a lot cheaper.  The week we got back, we went to Recess with friends for dinner and had a 4 course meal that was from top to bottom, loads better than any of the meals we had in Chicago during this trip, and for about $50 (before wine).  It was a good reminder to me to appreciate what you have. 

But hey, I don’t think I have every asked you guys for your recommendations for places in Chicago.  What restaurants have you eaten in there that were truly memorable?  Any “best things I ever ate” moments? Let me know!

Graham Elliot

217 West Huron Street

Chicago, IL 60654

312/624-9975

www.grahamelliot.com

L20

2300 North Lincoln Park West

Chicago, IL 60614

773/868-0002

www.l2orestaurant.com

Emilio’s Tapas

215 East Ohio Street

Chicago, IL 60611

312/467-7177

www.emiliostapas.com



Check out the bathroom at L20