One Gastro Gnome In Search of Epicurean Epiphany

Artsparkle Judging

2011-08-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I was one of the food booth judges for Artsparkle. This was quite fun and I was quite stuffed when I finished, even though I took only two or three bites of each dish. Even with only seventeen booths there was a lot of food, and several booths served more than one dish.

There were two judges. We each graded the food and decor from each booth by whatever criteria we liked, and then ranked our choices for the top three booths in each of three categories. Both of us came to similar conclusions, usually selecting at least two of the same booths in each category, although generally not in the same order. The Art Center took our rankings, assigned points, and came up with the overall number one booth in each category.

Best Taste

My first choice was the Crispy Eggplant Cakes at MBP Distinctive Catering. I am not sure what all was in it except eggplant, but it was three foods stacked on top of each other and held together with a toothpick. MBP had two other items: Cuban Papas Rellanas and Ahi Tuna Tacos. The other judge liked the Relanas and voted MBP second place. The S.O. liked the tuna tacos. So something here for everyone.

My second choice was Peanut Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Bacon from Little Events, another caterer. My third choice was the Pulled Pork Sandwich from Fire by the Monon.

The prize for Best Taste went to MBP.

Best Dessert

My first choice was Dessert Crepes from Jacquie's Gourmet Catering. They put some chopped up fruit and Nutella in a crepe and warmed them in a skillet for a bit. My second choice was Rene's Bakery with a creme sandwich. The "bun" was made of eclair pastry and the filling was a hazelnut cream, similar to Nutella. (There's a theme going on here.) My third choice was Bread Pudding from Northside Social.

The other judge had not ranked Jacquie's and I had not ranked her first choice, but we both ranked Rene's second, so Rene's Bakery won the prize for Best Dessert.

Best Booth Decor

The Art Center had identical booths set up for everyone, so we judged them on how well they had decorated their booths. A few did just the minimum, but several got rather fancy.

My favorite was Little Events which brought a circus monkey statuette holding a sign and custom made circus signs describing their fare. My second favorite was Jacquie's and third was Northside Social/Kitchenette.

Both judges apparently loved the monkey as we both gave Little Events our top ranking and they won the prize for Best Booth Decor.

The event was lots of fun with tons of circus related memorabilia and activities, including the Blue Monkey Side Show, something you have to see to believe. Or maybe not.

Artsparkle!

2011-08-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Not Judge Dredd, but Judge Gastro Gnome!!

I have been asked to be one of the food booth judges at this year Indianapolis Art Center later summer party, Artsparkle: Circus Under the Stars. It will be held this Saturday, August 20 starting at 7:00 PM.

The list of restaurants and caterers is pretty outstanding, so it will be fun rather than a chore to taste each dish and decide which is the Best Taste, the Best Sweet and the Best Dressed Booth. (I am sure I have those names a bit mixed up, but you get the idea.)

If you haven't been, Artsparkle is an outdoor party on the grounds of the Art Center. Food is provided by twenty or more restaurants and caterers who serve samples of their dishes. (I generally go back and get more of my favorites.)

Beer, wine and mixed drinks are available. There is a silent auction, music by a party band, lots of chances to hobnob with artists and art patrons, and, knowing the Art Center, there will be some special Circus related entertainment that will pop up at opportune moments.

Tickets are still available at the IAC website.

See you there!

Tavern on South

2011-08-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we did Devour Downtown at Tavern on South. We both started with salads. I had the Caesar Salad which I though was just okay. The S.O. had the Tavern Salad which she enjoyed. For our main course we both had Sea Bass. These were very good. And the portions were just right, though I believe they are smaller on the Devour Downtown menu than on their regular menu.

For her dessert the S.O. had the Chocolate Silk Tower and I had Peach Strudel with Cinnamon Ice Cream. The silk tower was a very light and smooth chocolate mousse with Oreo crumbles. My peach strudel was very nice, though I could have used a slightly bigger scoop of ice cream.

Both dinners were $30 each, which is a pretty good deal. We also had a bottle of Martin Ray Russian River Valley Chardonnay, which we both enjoyed. A nice California Chard.

We plan to hit a couple more Devour Downtown places before the promotion ends. At least one neither of us have ever been to. The other a restaurant we haven't been to in ages.

Broiled Sea Bass “Oscar “– blue crab / asparagus / corn remoulade

Peach Crisp Strudel – cinnamon ice cream / house made caramel sauce

Chocolate Silk Tower – oreo cookie crust / house made caramel sauce

Meridian

2011-07-28T18:26:00.001-07:00

Scallops with Roasted Red Pepper Risotto Cakes

Barramundi

Petite Chou

2011-07-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from a Chow Down Midtown dinner at Petite Chou. Everything on the Chow Down menu was from their regular menu, but you saved a bit by ordering prix fixe. Everything was very good. No pictures of our salmon entrées I am afraid. We washed it all down with a nice bottle of La Mere Boitier Macon Village, a reasonably priced bottle of French Chardonnay.

Warmed Mushroom Duxelles
Locally grown mushrooms slowly cooked
with shallots, wine and a touch of cream

Lemon Tart
Traditional French lemon tart with a shortbread crust
and baked lemon curd filling. Served with berries.

Warmed Chocolate Ganache Crêpe
Garnished with sugared pecans and powdered sugar

Pizzology

2011-06-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Pizza and wine. What more could you want? Love the pig on the wine label.

Sangiovese

2011-06-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Snuck off to Sangiovese Ristorante when the S.O. was out of town and had diner with my friend Tony Fese whose wife was out of town as well. We sat with the owner, Chris, while he tasted his way through Tony's Free Market Wine Group portfolio. Chris liked several of the wines, but I think he was most impressed with this wine.

A nice white wine, it seemed to hit Chris's taste and value targets. Check to see if it is on the wine list the next time you are in there.

Tony and I stayed for dinner. The nice thing about having dinner with someone who owns a wine distributor and had been sampling his wares with the restaurant, your dinner wine is free. Whatever you liked that was opened just keeps on pouring. This is what we had with dinner.

Nice, accessible red, Esenzia Old Vine Garnacha. (3+)

I took pictures of what we had for dinner, although, as usual, I thought to take pictures after we had already eaten most of our meals. Tony had Filetto Spinaci, a grilled 8 ounce filet served over wilted spinach topped with a gorgonzola cream sauce.

Tony raved most about the vegetable side dish. He said it was the best he had had in a long time. I took a taste and pronounced them perfectly "crisp-tender." You know how difficult that is to figure out.

I had one of the specials which was shrimp and risotto. My dish was rich and way off my diet. Very rich. It didn't help my diet (but I didn't care) that I covered it in grated Parmesan.

Sangiovese is a nice Italian restaurant at Dean and 82nd Street with classic Italian recipes, a few interesting specials from time to time, a better than decent wine list, excellent servers, and a desire to please everyone who comes in the door.

Their only drawback at the moment is that with all the remodeling going on to incorporate Nordstrom Rack and the other new stores into the strip center, it constantly looks like they are closed. But they are open every night and have music Wednesday through Sunday.

Five Best Things in May

2011-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

The five best things that happened to Indy's Gastro Gnome in the month of May (in no particular order.)

Well, the five best food and wine related things that happened to the gnome in the month of May. The best thing that happens to the gnome is always the S.O., but she isn't a food or a wine.

1. Dinner at Mesh

I wrote this up earlier because this was such an outstanding meal: Wild Mushroom Strudel, Sea Bass, Graeter's Ice Cream, Miner Family "Simpson Vineyard" Viognier. We returned to Mesh in June before Avenue Q at the Phoenix and we almost had the same dinners. We switched the appetizer and the dessert, just because, but we both had the same entrées and wine.

2. Lunch at Tulip Noir

Stopped in at Tulip Noir by myself after an appointment in their neighborhood, planning to have a late breakfast, and I was disappointed to discover that they had already moved on to lunch. Making the best of things, I ordered what sounded like the best dish on the menu: an Open Faced Fish Sandwich. You could have shot me on the spot it was so good. The fish was Baramundi, also known as Asian Seabass, and it was served over a crispy risotto cake and some miscellaneous vegetables. It was so good I made a point of taking the S.O. there for lunch just so she could have this dish. It's on their spring menu and they may have moved on to summer, but if they have anything like this you have to try it. A bit pricey but the best lunch dish in town.

3. Bananas Foster at Eddie Merlots

We were invited to the after party for the premier of Dumbstruck, the ventriloquist movie at Keystone Landmark Cinema. The party was just dessert and drinks at Eddie Merlots, and of course a chance to mingle with the luminaries who attended the premier. They were making individual Bananas Foster from scratch, and while I had to wait for some ladies who cut in front of me to get mine, it reminded me of going to Chanticleer and having the waiter make dessert at table side.

4. Dinner at H2O Sushi

Maybe the best restaurant in town. Certainly in contention with Recess, Oakley's and R Bistro. We had the Green Edamame, the Grilled Shrimp Tacos, the Crazy "Ho" roll, the Spider Roll (soft shell crab), a bottle of B.R. Cohn Merlot, and the Oatmeal Cookies for dessert. We did a very similar menu with some friends in June which may well be one of the five best things in June.

5. Broad Ripple Art Fair Preview Party

The Indianapolis Art Center's biggest fund raiser each year is the Broad Ripple Art Fair. I never get to go because I am one of the volunteer captains and work the entire fair. The S.O. generally goes without me, but she was going to be out of town this year. However, the Art Center added a Preview Party the night before the fair and we both could go to that! Only some artists booths were open - the areas where the artists could not drive up to their booth to unload - but there were drinks and food and anyone buying a ticket to the preview party got a ticket to the whole fair. We had a great time. The big foodie hit of the night was the Mashed-tini Bar - mashed potatoes, gravy and whatever you wanted to add on in a martini shaped glass! Fun.

The Mashed-tini Bar

The Best of the Best

Best Service: Liz at H2O Sushi

Best Wine: 2003 Chateau Pommard, a red Burgundy we brought home in our luggage from France in 2007

Best Meal: Mesh dinner (above)

Best Dish: Open Face Barraundi Sandwich at Tulip Noir (above)

Best Value: Pizza and a bottle of Super Tuscan wine at MacKenzie River Pizza Co.

MacKenzie River Pizza Co.

2011-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

I have a severe backlog of food porn which I intend to unload upon an unsuspecting public over the next several posts. Words and descriptions may be limited, but bad iPhone pictures will be ubiquitous. You have been warned.

A while ago we were at an event at the Indianapolis Art Center and the S.O wanted to have dinner at the Monon Food Company. Unfortunately, there was a block party going on right in front of the MFC when we got there and the street (and the restaurant) were overrun with hordes of people. So I suggested that instead we go to a new restaurant that was in soft opening.

The things I do for this blog.

Actually I do as little as possible for this blog, but I digress.

Montana's got nothing on this place.

We headed up to the MacKenzie River Pizza Co., which is located on 82nd Street just west of Allisonville Road, in the space once occupied by Adobo Grill and their failed sister restaurant, Pick's Tavern.

They had been open just for a little while in what is called in the trade as a soft open. That's where you put a sign up that says "Open," but don't advertise the fact anywhere else. This allows the restaurant to work out their initial opening jitters with a limited clientèle without committing to the broad general public.

Initial impressions were that: 1) they were definitely in a space that matched their theme - lots of trees and open spaces outside the restaurant that reflected their Montana origins; 2) the staff of this restaurant were really, really happy, the happiest employees I have ever met in a restaurant - I guess they were happy to have jobs in this economy; and 3) the pizza, while not as good as Pizzology, was still very. very good.

Half Madison and half Flathead Pizza

We had a pizza and wine. While you can create your own - and we generally just punt and go with a sausage/mushroom pizza - we decided to order one of their specialty pizzas. When the waitress told us we could split a pizza into any two pizzas, we went with a half Madison (my pick) and a half Flathead pizza (the S.O.'s pick.)

The Madison is bacon, mushroom, ricotta, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The Flathead is alfredo sauce, fajita chicken, bacon, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and mozzarella. Yeah. I know, that's a lot of bacon.

While I thought the Madison was pretty good, the Flathead was definitely the better of the two. I would order that again the next twenty times I am in the restaurant.

Since pizza is an Italian dish we ordered an Italian wine, PrimaVoce Toscana IGT from Tenuta di Arceno, a wine dominated by Merlot but with Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Cabernet France, and Syrah. We really liked this wine. It goes well with pizza. And since I have mentioned it in the blog, I fully expect it will sell out pretty quick. That seems to always happen.

Zoobilation

2011-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Zoobilation is one event we make most every year. Great fun. Lots of food to taste. Lots of cheap, donated wine.

Overall impressions of this year's event were pretty favorable. A few new restaurants were added like Sangiovese. Did not know that Second Helpings had a program to help people learn the restaurant business. Saw the new tiger glass walled exhibit and the bats. Especially loved the female Alaskan brown bear, mostly I think because the bubbly keeper at the exhibit had such wonderful stories.

The Flying Cupcake's tiger made of cupcakes.

The best food items I tried at Zoobilation:

Sweet and Savory Cafe's Roasted Corn Soup - the corn's sweetness comes through. Sweet and Savory is to start serving dinner soon.
Capital Grille's Kona Crusted Dry Aged Sirloin with Shallot Butter. I have had this before at Zoobilation and now won't order anything else at Capital Grill.
Maryland Crab Cakes at Rick's Boatyard Cafe. This restaurant is in one of the most out of way places in the city, yet still manages to haul in a crowd regularly for lunch and dinner.
Smoked Pork Crostini at Maker's Mark. They had the best single dish at last Year's Dig-In.
The Flying Cupcake's tiramisu cupcake.
Most everything in the VIP area.

Every year there seems to be one dish that has a sudden surge in popularity. The year of the Komodo Dragon, it was seared tuna. This year, I guess because it has been so hot lately, the dish was ceviche.

Maker's Mark Tiger ice sculpture.
They cheated. It's actually a picture inside the ice.

The not so good things at Zoobilation.

A friend of mine went into a real rant about how many environmentally unfriendly little glass bottles, paper plates and plastic forks the event produced. He had a point so I told him to write the event manager at the Zoo. He did. (Ed: The Zoo responded that they have a deal with Rays to sort through all the trash and remove everything that can be recycled. Not my idea of the ideal summer job, though.)
The number of restaurants that served something else than what was on the program. I get it that you have to turn in your menu well in advance and can't always get what you want, but I was disappointed that Fleming's did not have lamb chops this year. And I don't think that was crawfish at Hue's booth either. H2O Sushi having ceviche rather than soup I can live with.
One of the chefs tweeted afterwards (allegedly), "Never support the Zoo again." It may have had something to do with a slightly used King David dog, but some of the on line evidence appears to have been deleted. Except, as Rep. Weiner learned, nothing on the Internet truly gets deleted. (Ed: Okay, so it wasn't a hot dog. My bad.)

Party on into the night!

Although the weather threatened and it was extremely warm, there was no rain to spoil the party. Of course, the thanks for that should go to the gnome because he carried around his umbrella all evening, pretty much guaranteeing that it would not rain.

Next year's Zoobilation is June 8. But mark your calendar for February 1st. That is when tickets go on sale. 4500 people attended this event and all those tickets are essentially sold that first day. You have been warned.

One Down, Nine To Go

2011-06-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

The demise of Euphoria reminded me that it was one of the ten restaurants I included back in 2009 on my list of Ten Independent Indiana Restaurants You Must Experience Before You Die (or before they close, whichever comes first.) If you haven't already checked off everything on that list, get to it, because it has just become impossible to visit all ten.

It is probably time to revisit that list. Certainly Recess makes the revamped list. I am not sure if I would make any other changes. Oh, definitely add H2O Sushi.

I also think it might be a good idea to recommend a list of Indianapolis restaurants for persons attending the Super Bowl in 2012. Probably do that one by region so people can pick a restaurant close to where their hotels will be. Not a bad idea for food bloggers in town either.

The Cliff

2011-06-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Photos of the desserts from our dinner at The Cliff Restaurant, Barbados.

The Cliff

2011-05-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Photos of the entrees from our dinner at The Cliff Restaurant, Barbados.

Appetizer

2011-05-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

At a recent wine dinner, my friend Susan (aka "The Actress") prepared this dish as the appetizer. I paired 2005 Stony Hill Napa Valley Chardonnay. It was beautiful.

Prawns in Grappa Cream Sauce and Salsa Rosa

Seasons 52

2011-05-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

We love our chains in Indianapolis.

Seasons 52, Fresh Grill and Wine Bar, is part of the Darden chain of restaurants and boasts of a healthy menu - no dish over 475 calories - and an "award winning" wine list. They recently opened an outpost at Keystone at the Crossing and have been very busy.

We tried to just walk in a few weeks ago on a weekday night and were met with a 45 minute wait. Since then the crush of people wanting to dine at this trendy new restaurant has backed off a bit. When we went a couple of Wednesday ago there were plenty of tables at 7:00 PM and even a couple still open at 8:00. (Of course, we hedged our bets and booked a reservation on Open Table.)

The ambiance struck me as modern steak house, but with windows. Lots of dark wood, bottles of wine gratuitously stacked up throughout the dining room. But instead of the secluded, dark atmosphere favored by steak houses, the dining room was airy with lots of light. More California than NYC.

Something else they borrowed from the up scale steak houses was a well trained staff. Our server was excellent even though she could have been better trained about the wines. She gave us her business card when we left and invited us to ask for her when we returned. Lots of little touches during the service betrayed the fact that this is a chain with extensive procedure manuals about how everything operates.

Not that that is a bad thing, mind you, but a touch impersonal.

Since they call themselves a "wine bar," I was hoping for an interesting wine list. Top heavy in California with the top wines being Caymus and Silver Oak, their wine list seemed more in line with corporate marketing than interesting.

We ordered a bottle of the only white Burgundy on the list, which we were told was out of stock. The problem, I thought, when your wine list is drawn up by a corporate entity that is concerned with products that can be supplied to all restaurants regardless of locale. Online later I noticed that the white Burgundy is not on the web site's wine list. Neither was the only red Burgundy on the Indianapolis wine list. That was probably out of stock, too.

Since I started to peruse the wine list for another wine, our waitress suggested the Markham Napa Chardonnay because she had looked at the computer and the Markham had the same "power rating" as the Burgundy. We said fine, we'd try it.

I haven't any idea what a power rating is. I asked a friend of mine who has been selling wine for years and he had no idea either. (Put "wine power rating" into Google and the top hits are all sports related. Try it.) I figure it is a gimmick that their "Master Sommelier" dreamed up to help servers recommend wines without having to actually know anything about wine.

We liked the wine but it was no way comparable to a white Burgundy. She told us after serving it that the computer described it as a "butter bomb."

The other thing we found curious was that the server did not bring out a chiller to keep the wine cold. A major faux paus for a wine bar.

Moving on to the food, we started by sharing a flatbread appetizer. The S.O. gave me a couple of choices to pick from and I, your basic hairy knuckle guy, selected the Grilled Steak and Cremini Mushroom Flatbread with fresh spinach and Wisconsin blue cheese. The flatbread was very thin, cracker like, and sliced into eight pieces.

The flatbread wasn't bad, but the grilled steak didn't have much flavor, and now that I have looked at the description again, I don't remember any blue cheese. (The S.O. says she remembers blue cheese so maybe it's one of those senior short term memory things for me.)

It worked as a mushroom pizza but not much else. There was a good amount and I guess the whole thing was less than 500 calories.

For our entrées we both ordered off the weekly specials menu rather than the regular seasonal menu. We both went for fish dishes.

The S.O. ordered the Tuna Niçoise and liked it. As you can see from the picture, there are a lot of greens and other vegetables. Interestingly, it was listed on the corporate web site, so I guess it is a recurring weekly special.

I ordered Lemongrass Arctic Char. It was quite good. It came with edamame, snow peas, grape tomatoes, and a starch. (I don't remember what the starch was, and since in the picture it is hidden under the fish, there is no chance for me to gracefully redeem myself by using the picture as a crutch.)

I found the dish to be surprisingly filling for less than 475 calories. And quite tasty. Arctic char is similar to salmon and worked well with the accompaniments. I can't say this was the best fish dish I have had in Indy lately (that honor would go to Mesh), but is was quite good. Too bad it was a weekly special and not on the regular menu. But if it is on the menu when you go I recommend it.

Seasons 52 has an interesting dessert concept. They bring you doilies and spoons and a selection of oversized shot glasses filled with various mousses and cream style desserts, all under 475 calories. It's good marketing because they put it right in front of you and you will find it very hard to resist. Fortunately for us, we had been invited to a dessert buffet later in the evening so we were able to turn this temptation down. But if it had been any other night, we would have each gotten one of their "mini-indulgences" and, I am sure, loved it. They looked scrumptious.

If you are someone who believes that dinner should be healthy and low in calories - and we should all be in the category - then you will like Seasons 52's culinary concept. (If you can resist dessert, of course.)

If your idea of the ideal restaurant is the most food for the lowest cost, then you should go somewhere else. (McDonald's comes to mind.)

As for wine, you will have to experiment (or be knowledgeable about wine) to discover what is good on their wine list, because I don't think their "power ratings" are going to lead you to the right wine. I have, however, heard good things from friends about their food and wine, so give them a chance. The S.O. and I will have fun finding the perfect wine for us. Then, like many other restaurant, we plan to drink them out of it!

Correction: Originally this entry described Seasons 52 as "a mid-sized chain out of Florida," rather than part of the Darden chain that includes Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Longhorn Steakhouse.

Foxy Body Foods

2011-05-19T00:01:00.001-07:00

Friends have commented lately that I seem to be losing weight. I tell them it is my steady diet of gourmet food and wine.

Actually, I have been known to cheat. My personal trainer, Abby Fox, has a meal preparation service, Foxy Body Foods, in conjunction with Carmel caterer, A Cut Above Catering. They prepare five dinners which you order on Monday and pick up the next Monday. All the meals are designed by Abby to be nutritious yet tasty.

This is what I had for dinner the first night after I picked up my order last week. Warmed it in the microwave and it was quite delicious.

California baked tilapia with snow peas and sweet potatoes.

Tastings

2011-05-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Tastings: A Wine Experience and Executive Chef Steve Unrue have parted company. Steve is known best for creating the culinary delights that Tastings served during their weekly Wednesday Night Wine Tasting and Food Pairing events. These events have become quite popular with a lot of local foodies.

No reason has been given for the parting of the ways, but it appears that there was a disagreement over the direction the Wednesday night events should take. Apparently they do not fit Tastings' business model. Special food orders had to be placed each week to accommodate the unique dishes and anything not used had to be discarded since they were not part of the regular menu. Presumably, labor costs for the event were higher than anticipated.

Last Wednesday Tastings held their first Wednesday Night event sans Steve, and to everyone I talked to there, it was a major disappointment. Instead of food pairings, Tastings placed out some cheese plates and a couple of other appetizer trays for the participants to share during the wine tasting. There was no attempt to pair the foods with each individual wine. All the food items came from Tastings' regular menu.

Basically the event was turned into a wine tasting with some nibbles. While I never considered the events to deliver a complete meal - each wine was paired with a sampling of a complimentary dish - the drawing card was always the food. Often the wines we tasted were ordinary, but the foods never were. And there was always a considerable effort made to pair the foods with the wines.

There is every indication that this new wine tasting format is the model for the Wednesday Night events going forward. It may not be. Restaurants part ways with chefs quite regular. You can probably get rich making book that any individual executive chef who is not an owner will change jobs within three years. But from what we were hearing that night, it looks like this is the way they want to go.

That would be unfortunate. They will lose most of the local foodies immediately. And they will find it increasingly hard to find people willing to pay $25 for what they are delivering. What we got Wednesday night was a tasting of five different wines with some cheese, crackers and assorted appetizers. Most of the liquor stores do something similar every week for free.

Consider this, I visited Kahn's last Saturday for a tasting of five wines and two Armagnacs, poured by a representative of the winery in Gaston, France, accompanied by a tray of cheeses, crackers, and another nibble, for free. Why would you pay $25 plus tax and tip and parking for what someone else is going to give away for free?

A couple of my foodie friends, directly as a result of their disappointment last Wednesday night, canceled their Tastings reservation for this coming Wednesday in favor of the Cuisine of the Maghreb dinner at Oh Yumm sponsored by 21st Amendment. Five glasses of wine rather than tastings, five courses rather than samplings, each course paired to the wine, and for $50 inclusive of tax and tip rather than $25 plus tax and tip for what Tasting is serving.

I think you can see Tastings problem going forward with this new model.

If the Wednesday night events are too expensive, I think Tastings would be better off discontinuing them all together. The value of continuing it as a marketing tool may be marginal. They seem to have a decent crowd most nights. The ill will accrued by charging $25 for a commonly free event may hurt their business. People could be so upset they won't return at all.

For my part, I will continue to patronize Tastings whenever I want to just have a glass of wine and maybe a light bite when I am downtown. But don't look for me any future Wednesday nights as long as it's just an exorbitantly expensive wine tasting.

BTW, anyone out there looking for a creative chef to raise their menu to a higher level? You better snap up Steve Unrue while he is still on the market.

Zen

2011-05-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

Our first night on our recent night in Barbados, we ate at Zen, the Thai/Japanese restaurant at the Crane Resort. Excellent food.

We both ordered Thai stir fry dishes. We hope there will be subsequent visits where we can work our way through the menu.

Phad Khing
snapper with ginger, garlic, Shiitake mushrooms and fresh vegetables.

Bai Graprow
prawns, scallops, squid and fish flavored with chili and garlic,
topped with crispy basil leaves

Mesh on Mass Ave

2011-05-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

You know how you go to some restaurant and hit upon a dish or combination of dishes that seem so wonderful you know it is going to be difficult ever ordering anything else ever again at that restaurant?

We had an experience like that last Friday night. We were going to Zippers of Zoomerville, a Gilbert and Sullivanesque parody of the month of May in Indianapolis at the Phoenix Theater, and had dinner before hand at Mesh.

We both knew we were going to order fish and I was thrilled to see one of my favorite white wines on the wine list, Miner Family "Simpson Vineyard" Viognier. They even have it by the glass, which we took advantage of later in the meal to add just a bit more after consuming a bottle.

For an appetizer we ordered the Wild Mushroom Strudel. Nice flake pastry and nice accompanying sauce, but most notable for the flavorful and generous portion of mushrooms. If you like mushrooms you will love this.

The S.O. ordered the Pan Fried Lemon Sole, which she raved about. I found the coating to be a bit too forward for me, liking my white fish to be a bit more delicate.

Sea Bass and succatash!

On the other hand I found my Sea Bass to be fantastic. It came with carmelized onions, corn, edamame, roasted tomatoes and shitake mushrooms. It was wonderful. I will have a hard time ordering anything else here ever again.

Graeter's Ice Cream
From the top: blackberry chip, mint chip. mocha chip.

For dessert we split the Graeter's Ice Cream trio. Graeter's is from Cincinnati and is probably on the menu because Mesh was originally a Cincinnati restaurant that the Cunningham Group bought when they put a Stone Creek restaurant down there and imported the name "Mesh" for their restaurant on Mass Ave.

The S.O. will tell you that fruit is not a dessert. Chocolate and ice cream are desserts. Let me tell you, Graeter's Ice Cream is a decadent dessert. My favorite was the mint chip, the S.O.'s favorite was the blackberry chip (yeah, I know, fruit) but all three were delicious.

The next time we go to Mesh it is going to be hard to vary our order even the slightest from this menu. Best meal as a whole we have had in Indy for some time.

Barbados Moonrise

2011-04-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Barbados Sunset

2011-04-26T09:08:00.001-07:00

Tastings

2011-04-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

My friends, Doug and Laryn, on her birthday at Tasting wine and food
pairing a couple of Wednesdays ago. Doug says it is the best deal in town
on wine tastings. He is slowly converting Laryn into a wino like himself.

Charley Creek Inn

2011-04-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Owen, pouring wine, at the wine and cheese tasting
at Charley Creek Inn in Wabash.

Twenty

2011-04-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Menu at Twenty

Twenty

2011-04-10T15:29:00.001-07:00

Sirloin wrapped asparagus appetizer at Twenty,
the restaurant at Charley Creek Inn in Wabash, Indiana.

Can You Guess Where We Were?

2011-04-06T15:27:00.001-07:00

Napoli Villa

2011-04-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tartufo, dessert at Napoli Villa Italian Restaurant in Beech Grove

Stony Hill

2011-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night we had a Stony Hill dinner. By this I mean we had Stony Hill Vineyard wines with our dinner, which consisted of lamb chops, Indiana sweet corn (cooked on the cob in August, frozen and reheated), and asparagus.

Our wines were 2005 Stony Hill Chardonnay and 2008 Stony Hill Red Table Wine.

Stony Hill Red What?

Now if you are acquainted with Stony Hill at all, you know them as exclusively producing white wines. They have been described as the original California cult winery for their Spring Mountain Chardonnay.

If you have been on their mailing list, you know they have produced a small amount of red wine for their own enjoyment and rarely offer it to anyone outside the McCrea family.

It was one of those ultimate insider wines, don't you know. The only way you could be guaranteed to get any, if you were not a friend of the family, was to buy the wine maker dinner they routinely offer at the Napa Valley Wine Auction. For tens of thousands of dollars.

Last year they let a little slip out to their mailing list customers. This year they announced they are going to be offering a Cabernet Sauvignon starting with the 2009 vintage. They announced it in an email to their mailing list:

In truth, seven years ago we planted a five-acre Cabernet vineyard on a unique piece of our land – a west facing slope located at an elevation of 1500 feet. It has been bearing grapes for four years now, and as production has increased so has the maturity of the vines. We began by selling half the crop to neighboring vintners and experimenting in our own winery with the rest.

The 2007 and 2008 vintages we’ve called Red Table Wine to reflect the immaturity of the grapes and our evolving wine making style. But now that it’s time to bottle the 2009 vintage, all of us agree that the wine is ready to be labeled Cabernet Sauvignon. Indeed, we think we have hit on how to best treat these particular Cabernet grapes. The 2009 vintage will be available for purchase in late 2011.

We had the 2008 vintage and I must tell you that the S.O. loved it. And at $25 a bottle for a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, albeit from young vines, it is an incredible value. They only offered 100 cases of the 2008, so it will not last long, but consider picking some up to try and then, if you like it, get on their mailing list so you can buy some 2009 later this year. Click here to visit their web site.

You know it will make your S.O. very happy.

H2O Sushi

2011-02-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned earlier, the S.O. and I redeemed a certificate for dinner at H2O Sushi that she had purchased at an Art Center fundraiser. She had been holding it for six months and decided we better redeem it.

The certificate said "Dinner for Two with Wine Pairings." We didn't know what we were going to get but being food & wine people it didn't matter. Besides it would be interesting to see what wines they paired with sushi. Outside of sweet Alsatian wines, an occasional Viognier and Sherry, what do you pair with Asian cuisine?

When we first sat down the hostess didn't know what the protocol was for a wine dinner so she gave each of us the standard menu and drink list. Our waiter, Tony, came by a few minutes later and said the chef had instructed him to take the menus away from us! We were to just sit back and enjoy.

Love a dinner where I don't have to do any work but eat and drink.

The first course was Oyster Shooters paired with a Sparkling Saki. Didn't know there was such a thing as sparkling saki. Apparently made in the traditional "French appellation which shall not be named" style with a second fermentation in the bottle.

Saki to me always seems like very pure water with a delicate aftertaste. This was like that but with a little bubbly added in. Interesting, but not something I am likely to order. The S.O. loves sparklies but this wasn't her style. Not enough acid I figured.

The Oyster Shooters were raw oysters, each in their own shot glass with a raspberry garnish. The S.O. was game and chugged one, but left the rest of hers for me. Raw oysters are kind of fun if for nothing else than the squirms of your fellow diners as you slurp them down. I prefer my oysters cooked because the raw ones can often have an overwhelming taste of raw ocean water. As for the texture of raw oysters, well, that's what makes them fun!

The second course was somewhat surprising. They paired Kung Fu Girl Riesling, a sweet white wine from Washington state, with a Shrimp Taco. The taco was obviously South West in inspiration with adobo sauce and guacamole on top. It had a little heat but not enough to upset the S.O. She loved this dish.

Tony said the taco had only been on the menu for two or three days and they were hoping it would be added permanently since the customers were raving about it. This makes me think that the menu here is constantly evolving. And I am sure when we return if the shrimp taco is on the menu we will order it.

The Riesling was nice, but the interesting thing was that the S.O., who dislikes sweet wines, thought it was a dry wine. And I had to concentrate on the flavor to make sure it was a sweet wine. The spicy shrimp taco masked the sweetness of the wine, just as the sweetness of the wine neutralized some of the heat of the taco. Fooled the S.O. who normally would have hated this wine. Excellent job pairing wine and food.

Throughout the meal I noticed that the service was excellent, and not just for us with our wine dinner. Plates were removed promptly, water was topped up frequently. There were always people circulating through the room who would take care of things at our table, not just our waiter, Tony, who was delightfully entertaining.

The next course was a Winter Salad with duck confit, cashews, slaw, and mustard among other things, paired with Sineann Pinot Gris from Oregon. This was nice, but not all that thrilling to me. I am kind of picky with my salad fixings. Sineann does nice work with their Pinot Noirs and with this Pinot Gris as well.

The fourth course started with Duckhorn Decoy, an Alexander Valley Pinot Noir from a winery known more for their Merlots and Zinfandels. This was quite nice, even the S.O. enjoyed it. I starred this as my second favorite wine of the evening. If you are looking for a reasonably priced California Pinot Noir this would be a good choice.

They paired the wine with two dishes: Pork Buns, two slices of pork and a cucumber slice on a slider bun, with considerable amount of delayed action heat; and Lollipop Chicken Wings, small chicken wing drumsticks where the meat had been compressed on one side such that it resembled a lollipop. Fun.

You will notice that throughout this meal, even though the name of this restaurant is H2O Sushi Bar, that we had not yet been served a sushi roll or even one piece of nigiri sushi. With next course being the next to last, probably what you would called the main course of this six course, tasting menu style dinner, you'd figure that it would be some sort of special sushi roll, right?

Uh... no.

The fifth course consisted on ramen noodles with chicken, bok coy, kale and other tasty morsels in a rich, savory broth. Wonderful. The broth was rich and flavorful enough to stand alone. While we made a gallant try, we had to apologize to Tony for not finishing this course. We were stuffed. We had consumed enough food for four people.

The noodles were paired with Orin Swift's The Prisoner, a big California Zinfandel blend that you would normally think would not go with chicken and noodles, but the broth was so large that it stood up well to the wine. The Prisoner was, surprisingly to me, my favorite wine of the evening. I have had it before and not been impressed. This time, however, I liked it very much. I credit that to the influence of the food it was paired with.

The final course was dessert and we had already made up our minds just to nibble and call it a day. You can imagine, given the quality of the meal we'd been served, how that plan turned out.

Dessert was Cookies and Cream. Two oatmeal cookies loaded with everything (except raisins I believe) and decaf expresso whipped cream. Decadent. My note on this consists of one word: "Wow."

This cookie, I understand, used to be made with maple syrup, but now they use Shagbark Hickory Syrup, similar but unique to Indiana. I have purchased it at a local farmer's market.

So there you have it. The S.O. and I out for a fund raising wine dinner at H2O Sushi Bar. No sushi was served, so I do not know the answer to the question which wines (besides the traditional) do you serve with sushi. But believe me, we did not miss the sushi.

The S.O. said the meal reminded her of l'Explorateur, Neal Brown's former restaurant in Broad Ripple. It had the same small plate, questing style. This should not be surprising since Neal and Eli Anderson, the current owner/chef of H2O Sushi, both worked there under Greg Hardesty, the mad genius behind Recess.

I can highly recommend H2O Sushi. The decor may not be much but the food is wonderful. And when you are there, don't order the sushi.

Oh, okay. Order the sushi. But don't restrict yourself to just sushi. There is a lot more to this restaurant than just raw fish.

Hi! Long Time, No See.

2011-01-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

"You're probably wondering why I'm here.
And so am I.
So am I."
- Frank Zappa

Okay. That was quite a break. Sorry about that.

I have to admit. I had no real plans to resume posting on this blog. Blogs can be tedious and time-consuming. I would much rather be drinking wine and doing something important.

And you would probably be better off drinking wine and doing something important rather than reading this blog.

But such as it is, the Internet can be somewhat addictive.

I gave the blog up because it took up way too much time and caused way too much anxiety. I would spend time planning what I was going to write, write it, edit it, add photos, rewrite it, re-edit it. The holidays were upon me and I needed the time to visit family, buy presents, handle the end of year financial chores, etc.

I had been falling behind on several things that were much more important than blogging but I was spending a disproportionate amount of time working on this blog.

I needed to stop.

So I did.

You can't imagine how enjoyable a meal can be when you are not obsessed with taking crappy pictures of your food on your iPhone, making notes about the ingredients and your reaction to each dish, trying to assess the quality of the wine list and, in general, approaching dinner as a chore rather than an experience.

When you go to a party and the caterer thanks you for something you said on Twitter (which he learned about from another restauranteur) and knows your Internet handle, your blog has probably gone from a pleasant, time-wasting hobby into a full bore, egocentric excess of pretentiousness. Shades of Paris Hilton, I was becoming a celebrity!

I needed to stop.

And what exactly do I get from this blog besides promoting myself as some kind of epicurean dilettante. (Maybe I am the gastronomic equivalent of a canary in a mine shaft. If I don't die from the meal, it is safe for you all to eat.)

I don't get paid. I don't accept free meals. I don't have anything to sell. (Okay. I do promote some not-for-profit fundraisers from time to time. That's kind of selling.)

There's really nothing in this for me, except puff my ego and waste my time.

So I stopped.

Ah, freedom.

So... If you have stopped writing your blog, why are you posting this?

Ah, you caught that, didn't you? I always knew you were smart.

Well, it seems that the S.O. bought a dinner for two with wine pairings at an Indianapolis Art Center fund raiser last summer and we redeemed the certificate last week at H2O Sushi. She bought it because we had been to H2O Sushi before and liked it, and she thought this would be fun. We showed up, had an amazing dinner, and, by the second course, I had gotten a notebook from my pocket and started taking notes about the meal.

It was so good I wanted to share it with everyone. I've been telling people about it, but you just can't go into the kind of intricate detail the meal deserved in person. Takes too long.

Besides, who wants to listen to someone detail a dinner they had, even an amazing dinner, course by course?

Those of you who read this blog do, don't you?

So I have decided to revive the blog.

Sort of.

I am not going to review the dinner at H2O Sushi in this entry. That will be the next one. And I am not going to be blogging on a consistent basis. No once a week entries. Just when I have something to say. Like when I have a really amazing meal. But sometimes you just have to share, and let the appearance of vanity be damned.

Oh, and by the way, it was a six course meal, one of the best the S. O. and I have had in a long time, and, conspicuous by its absence at a restaurant called H2O Sushi Bar, no sushi or sushi rolls were served.

Are we having fun yet?

Wine Fools Day

2010-11-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Beaujolais Nouveau Day, or as I like to call it, Wine Fools Day. What started out as a clever marketing gimmick has evolved into a tedious exercise in form over substance.

Beaujolais Nouveau, for the uninitiated, comes from the Beaujolais district of Burgundy, is made from the Gamay grape, and is harvested, fermented, bottles, shipped and sold to the public in about eight weeks. This is as raw as wine gets.

The Gamay grape makes a nice, light red wine, usually called by the name of the region, Beaujolais. It is often compared to its Burgundy cousin, Pinot Noir, but is best chilled, drunk a little young (wait a year or two), and paired with dishes you would eat with a light Pinot Noir or a hearty white. Serve it with chicken and fish. It's great in the middle of the day with a salad.

It's a great wine to serve friends who only drink reds when they really should be drinking a white wine.

Beaujolais, like all wine districts, goes in and out of fashion over time. Several years ago, one of the Beaujolais producers got the bright idea to package up fresh Beaujolais wine, call it Beaujolais Nouveau, and truck it all over France to be delivered and sold on Beaujolais Nouveau Day. He made a celebration out of it. It was fun, fresh, and everyone had a good time.

Now, however, the novelty has worn off. Several producers fast track a Beaujolais Nouveau and ship it all over the world to be sold the third Thursday of November. The wines are young and raw and turn a lot of drinkers off Beaujolais altogether.

My suggestion is to bypass the Nouveau and go straight to the good stuff, Beaujolais-Villages, or, better yet, Cru Beaujolais, wines from the ten best areas in Beaujolais where the name of the Cru and not the word Beaujolais is on the label: Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly. My favorite is Moulin-à-Vent.

But today is Beaujolais Nouveau Day. Several local retailers are having celebrations, pouring tastes of the wine, hoping to sell it by the case.

For me, however, it is drink a foolish wine day. So tonight I am planning to open a Zinfandel I bought at Kahn's Diamond in the Rough sale for $4 a bottle and celebrate.

Cooper's Hawk

2010-11-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

It was Wednesday night and the S.O. said even though she had had a busy week, she could afford to take a night off and have a fun dinner. Besides, she had a new place to try, a wine bar up on 96th Street, near Eddie Merlot's. I didn't know there was a wine bar there, but then I rarely pass that intersection.

Turns out the place was Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant, located in what I believe used to be Bahama Breeze. It's a new chain out of Chicago, only five restaurants total. Obviously the people running it have worked for one or more of the large corporate chains, because it had that kind of feel. Large rooms, impeccable decor, well trained staff, all the possible points of sale (starters, alcohol, specials, wine club, dessert) covered.

Yeah, I said wine club.

Anyway, it's a small chain and we had a quite enjoyable experience, so I won't feel guilty about coming back and sending some of my dollars to Chicago. I don't feel bad about eating at Scotty's or Stone Creek, and when Neal Brown's soon-to-be Pizzology empire starts expanding, I won't feel guilty about eating there either.

The gimmick of this establishment is that it is both a restaurant and a winery. The actual winery is in Illinois, but they have a tasting bar and a winery style gift shop up front. You can purchase wine, even join their wine club ($18/1 bottle a month), without stepping into the restaurant.

The wine maker spent time learning his craft in Niagara and Virginia before coming to Cooper's Hawk in Illinois. The owner, after working in the corporate restaurant world, actually spent time learning something about the wine business at a winery in Illinois. Seems they both are driven to make this concept work.

Since this is a dual concept business, in order to succeed both the food and the wine are going to have to be good. A lot of people can do good food, and menus and chefs are quite easy to quickly replace, so the real question has to be, how good is the wine?

This is the gnome they are dealing with here. Wine is everything.

There are thirty-three wines on their wine list, not counting eight fruit (non-grape) varietals and three flavored sparkling wines. As you expect from a Midwest winery, there are several sweet wines, but the preponderance is dry wines. All the usual suspects like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, but also some interesting, not so usual varietals like Barbera, Malbec, Viognier and Gewurztraminer.

All the wines are Cooper's Hawk wines. No other labels are offered. None of the wines have vintages or appellations. I imagine they buy their grapes from many different sources and blend everything to match particular flavor profiles. They are not going for the wine connoisseur here, but for the average person who doesn't care about all that wine jargon, who just wants to have a nice glass of wine.

Like I said, they have a tasting bar up front, and they also will allow you to have a taste of up to two of the wines for free in the restaurant. We were so intrigued by the concept and the large amount of information to digest (the menu is twice as long as the wine list) that we decided to start with a taste of a couple of the white wines. The S.O. asked for their Pinot Gris and the gnome had a taste of the Viognier.

I am not sure what I was expecting. No vintages. No appellations. Private label wines. I was prepared to be disappointed.

The wines were decent. Not overly complex, but drinkable. Both the Pinot Gris and Viognier were varietally correct, made in a basic style to mimic the major brands. But not insipid, watery wines that you get when you scrape the bottom of the industry. The S.O. liked her Pinot Gris enough she had two glasses with dinner. She was even considering buying a bottle or two before she left.

I ordered a glass of their Winemaker's Barrel Reserve with our first course. They make a big deal out of it since it is poured from a barrel rather than a bottle. It is only available by the glass and not for sale in the store. Something of a gimmick, of course, since there's no aging going on in that barrel. It was a Bordeaux blend, had a nice Cabernet nose and decent flavor. Just a little tannic, it needed to sit in the glass a few minutes to reach its peak. Not a complex wine, but certainly drinkable with dinner.

For my second course I went back to the Viognier because that was the suggested wine pairing on the menu. They list wine pairings for every dish on the menu. Again, the Viognier was simple but nice. Went well with my soup.

Although I only tasted three wines, I would have to give them all a rating of 3, nice everyday wines that go well with most foods. I would expect all their wines to come in about the same since this obviously is the intention of the wine maker. All the wines we tried sell at the store around $15 to $20. The prices at the restaurant are $8 higher, which is a minimal markup for a restaurant.

They do have a few wines in the $30 to $40 range, "Lux" wines, also available by the glass. Next time in I will have to give them a try. Interestingly enough, they also have large format bottles available (Magnum, Double Magnum, Imperial, and Salamanazar) which are all 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. So they do reference vintages on some wines, just not those served by the glass.

Moving on to the food, they started by giving us some nice, complimentary pretzel bread. The service was attentive, maybe a bit over attentive at times, but never rushed and totally professional. We took our time trying to decide what to have. It takes a while to go all the way through a new menu, you know. Especially when you have a lot of other things to talk about.

We decided to split the appetizer Sampler plate to start. It's expensive at $18.99, but there was enough food on the plate to almost make a complete meal for two people. One person is likely to be overwhelmed.

(I forgot to take a picture. Sometimes, like always, I don't take this food blogging thing seriously. I rarely remember to take pictures until after I have finished the most interesting dish of the evening.)

The Sampler plate consists of two each of four different appetizers.

Over the Border Egg Rolls: An interesting mix of Southwest and Asian. The filling consists of chicken, corn and black bean relish, cilantro and three cheeses, which is then fried inside an egg roll wrapper. This was like having nachos in wontons rather than on tortilla chips.

Lobster Stuffed Potato Skins: Bits of lobster mixed with cheese and bacon on a potato skin. Very creamy and cheesy, although the lobster was not all that noticeable. I liked this and the egg roll the best.

Mini Crab Cakes: These were pretty much your basic crab cakes. Not highly seasoned for those who like them that way.

Tenderloin Sliders: One of four different sliders offered, this was my least favorite because it was just a slice of beef on a little bun. Rather plain. Not bad, just plain.

After we had enjoyed the Sampler, we both decided we needed a little more to eat, but did not want an entire entrée. The S.O. ordered the small Baby Greens Salad which consisted of mixed greens, candied walnuts, dried cherries, bleu cheese, pears and raspberry vinaigrette. The S.O. is always happy with salads, and while I dislike vinegar, my taste of the dressing wasn't too bad.

I ordered a bowl of Crab and Lobster Bisque. Lots of small bits of lobster, crab and shrimp made for a nice seafood bisque with quite a bit of of texture.

So, while we never got past the appetizer menu and stuck to ordering wine by the glass, we had an enjoyable, filling dinner. The next time we go I suspect we will stay with wines by the glass and move up to the entrées.

This restaurant already seems to be popular even though it is pretty new. They had a good crowd on a Wednesday. While we stick mostly to independent restaurants, this is on our list for a quick night out at a place close to home.

...pointless, incessant barking

2010-11-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here's how I feel right now about having to do a blog entry every week.

...pointless, incessant barking.

New Places and Renewed Places

2010-10-29T12:26:00.001-07:00

There has been a flood of new restaurants opening or announcing they will open lately. I intend to visit a couple of them in the next week and will write them up then, but I want to share some thoughts about some restaurants I haven't visited yet.

(Can you tell it's the end of a week in which I have yet to post a single blog entry?)

The first is The Green Room. It's inside the revamped Music Mill on the north side and has been around for a while. I hadn't really paid any attention to them because the last publicity I saw was touting their martini bar. It looked simply like a bar attached to the music venue.

A few days ago, however, they placed a sign out on 82nd Street advertising the Green Room as a new Southern style restaurant, open to the public. Sounded interesting.

I checked their website and it appears that their focus is on group parties. They are open to casual diners, but with their marketing emphasis on renting the room to groups, I am not sure if they will always be open. They might be booked for a private party the night I want to go.

Also, the website says they are open for "late lunch and dinner," but they give no hours. Doesn't say on the sign on 82nd Street either. When does late lunch begin? 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, a quarter of seven?

All in all their website did not make me eager to drop by and try them out.

Another restaurant that caught my eye recently was The Ripple Inn. They have making a lot of noise on Twitter and Facebook and seem to be getting some good initial reaction.

The Ripple Inn is located in the space formerly housing the Broad Ripple Steak House. What doomed the BR Steak House was poor service. It is encouraging that The Ripple Inn has hired someone from Meridian to handle the front of the house.

Today I noticed that The Ripple Inn has a free iPhone application. You can check their menu, twitter and facebook feeds, phone them from the app and even calculate your tip. I downloaded it to go with my West Coast Tacos app. (I now have a folder on my iPhone just for Indy Restaurants. And yes, I am counting WCT as a restaurant even though they are a truck.)

When I downloaded the app, I noticed that the software developer has several apps available for other restaurants in the Indy market: West Coast Tacos, iSushi, Zing, and Urban Element.

Yup, Urban Element, the cafe across from the Central Library that closed shortly after opening a clone of itself near Mass Ave. Word on the street at the time was that the owner just packed up and left town. I figure it was a case of overextending without sufficient capital. Not having a liquor license at UE2 must have hurt as well.

The most current word on the street is that someone else has purchased the place and is planning on reopening it with the same name and a similar menu. (Shades of Ruth's Keystone Cafe.) A commenter on Facebook says someone was painting the outside last week.

What caught my eye was the fact that the Urban Element iPhone app was released October 15, 2010. That's exactly two weeks ago, about two months after they suddenly went out of business.

Now it is possible that the app had been in the pipeline before UE closed and since it is essentially the same app as all of the developer's other restaurant products, it was no big deal to release it at the same time as they released several others. It might have been paid for up front.

On the other hand, it might be a sign that they are reopening soon. Let's hope so. I will be near there next Friday for the opening of the IDADA exhibition at the Arts Council's Gallery 924, so I will try to peek in.

Crossroads' Wine Cornucopia

2010-10-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

A wine tasting on steroids, Easter Seals Crossroads' Wine Cornucopia was held October 14th at the Montage. It cost $65 to get in the door, which bought you all the appetizers from Kahn's Catering you could eat and the opportunity to sample 183 different wines. For an extra $40 you could enter the Prestige Room where an additional 28 wines were available to sample, bringing the total number of wines poured to 211.

As you might imagine, I felt it prudent to be picky on which wines I drank. (Sometimes I wish I could get into spitting, but where's the fun in that?)

There was a nice crowd at this fund raiser, but not as many as the organizers had hoped for. I understand that this tasting used to be a much larger event, but has been spotty recently. It certainly should have been better attended. Perhaps the cost of admission was too steep for some people. Maybe it needs more extensive marketing.

There was a silent auction which included a lot of interesting wine. However, most items only got a single bid.

I thought they had too many lots, and too many wines that appeal to wine connoisseurs and not the general public. They might have been better off soliciting wines from the distributors rather than collectors. Also, most of the auction lots were in an easily passed by side room and it was not clear when the auction ended. A lot of people like to wait to near the end to bid.

However, that is enough grousing for one day. On to the wines.

Three hours is not a lot of time to sample 211 wines. Professional wine tasters can do that many in a day, but I did have to drive home. Looking at my notes I sampled at least 38 wines. There are some that I am sure I tasted but wrote nothing down. Those wines obviously did not make an impression on me. Of course, on many wines, all I wrote down was a number.

I skipped anything I had tried before or anything that looked like something I might not like. (No Sauvignon Blanc. Yuck.) Still, that left a lot of wines I didn't get to because, well, there were too many wines to try.

I know. Too many wines. You should have that problem.

I rated a few wines at 4, wines I would serve at dinner parties, listed below in no particular order. Retail bottle prices are based on the prices given that night. I don't have the vintages for a lot of wines because they were not in the program and I didn't write them down. All these wines would be the current release vintages, though.

2004 Castiglion de Bosca Brunello di Montalcino. ($47)

2005 Chateau Plince ($58) Of the three 2005 Bordeaux being poured in the Prestige Room, this was easily my favorite. Interestingly, the other two retail for more than twice as much. (see Latour a Pomerol below)

X Winery Amicus Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. ($56) A full bodied Napa Cab.

Matsu El Viejo Tinto de Toro. ($66) 100% Tempranillo from Spain. My friend Tony Fese is modeling with this wine at the right.

Gode Il Rosso Toscano ($13) Terrific value on an Italian Sangiovese. The S.O. will love it.

Other wines that I rated at 3+, still very good:

Ratti Barbera ($19.50)

Columbia Crest Two Vines Pinot Grigio ($12)

2005 Chateau Latour a Pomerol ($120) Yeah, over $100. Light and clean, but not as nice as the Plince.

2008 Frank Family Vineyards Napa Valley Chardonnay ($32)

2005 Gustavo Thrace Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon ($66) Remember Gustavo in Bottle Shock?

Cousino Macul Cabernet ($10.50)

SI Soave ($10.50) A nice white.

Frogmore Creek Pinot Noir ($24) Pinot Noir from Tasmania!

Storm Bay Tasmanian Red ($15.50)

Toolbox Napa Valley Merlot ($15.50)

Novy Russian River Valley Viognier ($25)

Andrew Will Ciel du Cheval Vineyard ($70)

Durigutti Malbec Reserva ($24)

Watch for this tasting next year. It might be a little pricey, but the distributors bring a lot of nice wine, much at reasonable prices.

3rd Annual Charitable Cellar Tasting

2010-10-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Crown Liquors Noblesville's 3rd Annual Charitable Cellar Tasting will take place on Saturday, October 23 from Noon to 4:00 PM at Crown Liquors, 14235 Mundy Drive, Noblesville, IN. This tasting benefits the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Indiana Chapter. A minimum donation of $10, all of which goes to JDRF, is asked from each person wishing to sample the wines. It is always acceptable, however, to donate more.

I have made this tasting the last two years and it well worth of the time and expense to attend. They set up three or four tables in the store, each with seven to ten wines, each representing a different price point. The top tier of wines generally includes wines that retail from $30 to $70. Nice stuff. While heavily Californian, there have always been some nice Italian wines as well as wines from other regions.

Crown says "The tasting will feature many wines from our cellar that will not be available for tasting at any other time of the year."

As is typical at this type of event, they will be discounting the wines they are pouring. Last year I picked up a nice 2005 Mondavi Oakville Cabernet for less than $30.

Put this on your calendar.

Burgess Cellars at Tastings

2010-10-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday nights at Tastings has got to be one of the best values in town. At 6:30 PM and again at 8:00 PM, Tastings holds a $20 wine tasting with food pairings. Typically they pour five wines paired with five dishes.

The wine pours are fairly generous, better than you get in most winery tasting rooms. The dishes are anywhere from two to five bites each. Usually that is enough to make the evening meal for the S.O. and I, although sometimes I feel I need a bit more food to drive home. Fortunately I drink a lot of water.

Last Wednesday, the tasting was structured around the wines from Burgess Cellars, a California winery specializing in Napa Valley reds. All the wines poured were Cabernet Sauvignon, four from their Library release program (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) and the current release 2005. Interestingly, on their website they sell Cabs all the way back to the 1979 vintage! (I have a bottle of the 1980 Cab in my cellar.)

Since all the wines were Cabs, the food pairings were reconstructed "classic Steak House" dishes: Caesar Salad, French Onion Soup, Potatoes au Gratin, Steak Au Poivre, and Death by Chocolate. By reconstructed I mean, even though the ingredient list was similar, the recipes were rebuilt from scratch.

All were very good with the French Onion Soup being excellent. Unfortunately, all this dishes are made specially for the Wednesday tastings and are not available for purchase from their menu. (I really want that French Onion Soup again.)

Because we were comparing vintages, I saved some of each vintage to drink with the next wine so I could get more of a side-to-side comparison. The result was I let the wines hang around in the glass for a while and noticed how each changed over time. Each wine changed a bit over the fifteen to twenty minutes it sat in the glass. Sadly, not always for the better.

The first wine was the 1996 Burgess Cellars Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. This had a restrained but elegant nose and a wonderful flavor. I gave it a 4+ on the first taste. That only lasted for a short time, however, and it faded fast to a 3. (See the sidebar for an explanation of my numeric wine ratings.)

I would say, based on this one taste, that the 1996 is near the end of its life and should be drunk soon, over the next year. I would not decant it, but pour a full glass and drink it up. Wonderful wine, my favorite of the tasting.

The food pairing was Caesar Salad; bitter lettuce, a Parmesan-black pepper crisp and the rest of the usual Caesar Salad ingredients made into an anchovy vinaigrette. Very nice but my least favorite dish of the night.

The second wine was the 1997. It was more chewy (higher tannins) and less complex than the 1996. A 3 at first. Over time the nose opened up and the flavor really improved to merit a 4! But then it faded to a watery 3. This wine is also near the end and should be drunk soon. You need to give it a few good swirls and wait for it to open up, but it will reward those who drink it up.

The food pairing this time was "French" "Onion" "Soup." That is the way Steve, the chef, put it, using two fingers in each hand to make the universal "quote" marks in the air. "French" "Onion" "Soup." This was excellent, best thing on the menu. Too bad it isn't on the regular menu. I loved this dish.

The dish was described as thyme-braised mushrooms, swiss cheese-cipollini fondue and brown butter baby croutons. This was mainly a mushroom dish with the onion soup more of a broth that the other ingredients rested in. The cheese/onion fondue were a couple of white balls that dissolved in your mouth. The real hero of this dish was the mushrooms. Did I mention that I want this dish again?

The third wine was the 1998. The representative from Burgess Cellars made a big deal of pointing out that even though all the major critics have rated the 1998 California Cabernet vintage as poor, individual wines can buck the trend and outperform the vintage. I think he would have been better off not mentioning the critics' opinion at all. This wine disappointed.

The 1998's nose was okay, kind of in the middle between the 1996 and the 1997. When I tasted it, the first thing that hit me that it had a lot more oak than the other wines. By this I mean, they aged the wine in a lot more new oak than the other wines, giving it a lot more oak tannins. It was not nearly as elegant or as complex as the first two wines. It seemed as though the wine maker used oak to compensate for the quality of the grapes.

Over time the nose of the 1998 improved and the oak tannins faded, but there wasn't a lot of fruit underneath. I gave the wine a 3 on first taste but it diminished from there.

The food pairing was Potatoes Au Gratin: cream-poached fingerling potatoes with a 63 degree egg, cheddar & goat cheese mousse and crispy peppered bacon. All the ingredients mentioned were prepared separately and brought together in the dish. Very nice.

The description of a 63 degree egg was interesting. It's cooked at 63 degrees Celsius, or about 145 degrees Fahrenheit for, if I remember correctly, about an hour. Seems like a lot of work, but if you have a professional kitchen undoubtedly not a problem.

The fourth wine was the 1999 Cab. I found the nose restrained at first, but the flavor to be very good. I rated it 3+. Over time the flavor faded I found the wine to be bland. I would rate it above the 1998, but not as good as the others. One of my companions, the one who had had a pacemaker installed on a semi-emergency basis two days earlier (incredible but true), rated this as his favorite wine.

The pairing was "Steak Au Poivre," which contained no beef, but was instead herbs d'Provence-seared duck breast, cedar roasted garnet yam puree and cognac-shallot butter. Very nice.

The last wine was Burgess' 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a nice nose and nice flavor on the first taste, but was very young. It needs to age for a while. The fruit is currently hidden beneath the oak, but it is not over oaked like the 1998. I gave it a 3+ based on how it is now.

After letting the 2005 sit in the glass for a while it hadn't changed much, which says to me that it needs to be laid down for a few years, or spend some serious time in a decanter. Of all the wines served this is the one I would buy now, projecting that I would open the bottle in another five years. Of the rest I might buy a 1996 to open soon, but pass on the others. And considering that the 2005 was offered at less than a third of the Library wines, it was a hell of a deal.

The last food pairing was Death by Chocolate, described as a fluffy chocolate donut, Best Chocolate in Town truffles, warm homemade chocolate sauce and blackberry sauce. It was an overdose of chocolate (even though the portion was small,) so it was heavenly.

Like I said earlier, these tastings at Tastings are one of the best deals in town. The schedule for the rest of October: 10/13 Sun King Beer tasting; 10/20 Harvest foods; 10/27 Zinfandels. They sell out quick so make your reservations early.

Return to Napolese

2010-10-04T00:01:00.001-07:00

The title of the blog entry sounds like the title of a romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn, doesn't it? What? You never heard of Audrey Hepburn? [facepalm]

After giving Napolese. an outpost of the Patachou Empire, an indifferent review last June, the S.O. decided it was time for us to venture back and see how we felt on the second pass.

Reading back through my earlier review there was nothing I would change as a result of visiting the second time. We had the same wine, and I had the same pizza, and they were exactly the same as the last time I visited. However, this time we did change it up a bit.

We went on a Wednesday night, like last time, arrived a bit later in the evening, and did have to wait for a table for fifteen minutes. In the meantime, we sat at the bar and watched the cooks make pizza.

Fortunately, when the hostess came for us she had a table outside. Inside the noise is what OpenTable calls "energetic," which means you have to speak up in order to have a conversation. I am not sure in the winter I will be all that excited about dining here. Noisy is not my style.

I insisted on having a starter, because I wanted to try something other than just pizza. (And since I knew I would not be ordering anything other than the Meridian Kessler, which I had the last time. When it comes to pizza the gnome is a bore.)

We ordered the Wild Mushroom Ragout with Baked Pancetta and for a dollar extra we had a sunny-side-up egg on top. This was outstanding, very rich, very mushroomy. I thought we might eat some and take the rest home for later, but we almost competed to lick the bowl.

Both the S.O. and I thought that this dish plus a small salad would make a complete meal. The hostess, a real sweetheart originally from the Caribbean, convinced us that we might also want to try the lemon pie for dessert. So next time, we share a salad, ragout and pie.

I had the same pizza I had the last time I was there, and I had the same reaction. Love the toppings, underwhelmed by the crust. I think the crust competes well with most delivery pizzas, but not much more. Certainly not in the same class as Pizzology.

The S.O. had the special pizza of the day which had a vodka sauce, pepperoni, wilted arugula, and some other stuff I've forgotten. I did have a slice and it was pretty good. I preferred my pizza but that is strictly because I am such a bore when it comes to pizza. Sausage, mushrooms and cheese is pretty much all I order.

We ended up each taking half of our pizzas home to enjoy another day. Our hostess said reheat them in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes instead of the microwave. I will heed her advice.

I do have to say that one of the strengths of this restaurant is the service. Everyone that has waited on us at Napolese has been friendly, professional and goes to lengths to make sure you enjoy your experience.

One side note, The Barking Dog across the street had an almost full house, as opposed to the woeful patronage the last time we were at Napolese. I am happy for them and hope they do well.

Turner's at the Canterbury

2010-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

I was looking for dining reservations before the Colts/Giants game last week when I spotted a reservation opening at Turner's at the Canterbury on OpenTable. Since it was new and we like to support local business - the Canterbury was recently purchased by Turner Woodard - I jumped at the chance to have dinner there.

They were woefully unprepared for the crowd that overwhelmed them that night. The wait for food was so long, even the S.O. wanted to walk out. They did bring us some of our meal (that's right, only some) and comped what they did bring. We ended up having a cheeseburger at the game because we were still hungry.

What we did have was good, but they will have to get their act together if they want anyone but out-of-towners staying at the hotel to dine there.

According to The Dish, the chef left last week for personal reasons. Maybe it was fallout from the debacle before the Colts game. The Dish referred to the restaurant as "problem-plagued," so this might not have been an isolated incident.

We will wait a while before we try it again to give them time to right the ship. I would really like the Canterbury to do well, especially since it is locally owned. There is not enough of that around.

Reruns

2010-09-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

A catch-all post containing some thoughts generated by re-visiting various area restaurants.

Pizzology

You know you do too much writing on your iPhone when after you have typed just "pizzo" it suggests the word you are looking for is "Pizzology."

We stopped by about 7:00 PM on a Wednesday and got an inside table right away. It helped that it was a nice night and outside seating was full. Lots of families with kids. Pizzology is in Carmel after all.

We shared a chop salad with citronette dressing which was very nice. We then shared a wood roasted mushroom and fennel sausage pizza. You pay a little more to pick your own ingredients, sure, but we know what we like.

Neal Brown's place is still the best pizza around. When winter comes and the outside dining is closed there may be a long wait on weekdays, but not now. And when the second Pizzology opens I bet the wait there will be even worse. (There are a lot of families near Broad Ripple.)

The last comment I have to make about Pizzology is that the people who work there seem so enthused about working there. You always love to go somewhere where the people are happy to see you.

Tastings

Dropped in on a Tuesday evening. Not nearly as crowded as when they hold their tastings on Wednesday nights, several of which we have been to. (Will be there tonight, actually.) We also stopped in for a drink before the Colts/Giants game.

While slipping the card in their machines to get a taste of some wine you've never had is fun, it is an expensive way to drink wine. Not bad to just get a taste, but if you like a wine, order it by the glass or the bottle. Much too expensive to use the machine.

The second best part about Tastings is that it is a true wine bar with lots of different wines to try. Wine is probably the most differentiated agricultural product in the world with so many different flavor and aroma profiles it makes your head spin.

While you can attend numerous free tastings at retail stores, after a while you realize they keep pushing the same wines at you. Waiting for some store to pour samples of Gruner Veltliner from Austria, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Amarone from Valpolicella, or Pinotage from South Africa will probably take you at least a year, but you can get a taste of all of them at Tastings.

The first best thing about Tastings is that once you have discovered a wine you like they will sell you a bottle at near retail prices. I looked one of their wines up on the Internet after a recent visit and their price was lower than the best price in the country.

Corner Wine Bar

You know the gnome is all about wine, so it figures that he haunts the wine bars. The Corner Wine Bar in Broad Ripple competes with Tastings as the best wine bar in Indy. Of course, the Corner Wine Bar and Tastings are the only wine bars that have survived the recession.

While Tastings menu is all small plates, the Corner Wine Bar is really a restaurant disguising as a wine bar. Lately, when we just want to go somewhere to have dinner outside, we head down to Broad Ripple and alternate between Flatwater and the Corner Wine Bar. (I know I haven't written up Flatwater, but it is on the list.)

Our favorite dish at the Corner Wine bar is the cheese plate. Our favorites so far are Cambozola, Humboldt Fog, Old Kentucky Tomme, and Beehive "Barely Buzzed," hand-rubbed with Turkish coffee & French lavender.

I love Les Prawns, very rich shrimp appetizer stuffed with crab & wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon. And lately they have been featuring a "Pennywise" menu and "Manager's Bin" wine deals which lets you get out for less than $50 for two people.

But the best thing about the Corner Wine Bar is that the service personnel have always been extraordinary.

Recess

This is the high ticket in town, where you take people to impress them, where you prove your merit as an appreciator of the finer things in life. And so I recently returned to Recess with another couple in tow to make an unnecessary impression.

The dinner was magnificent as always. The first course was a green bean casserole disguised as a salad with the barest hint of its humble origins. The second and third courses were fish. I thought I would not like the first fish course because it was done in a Niçoise style with olives, but you have to learn to trust Greg Hardesty. Everything was wonderful.

I have noticed that there is an inverse relationship between the quality of the cuisine and the amount of bric-a-brac in a restaurant. Recess's decor is minimal, almost non-existent, while every inch of the walls of industrialized, chain restaurants like Fridays, Joe's Crab Shack and the Hard Rock Café are covered in distractions.

Needless to say, if you want to take a culinary adventure into the heights of what is available in Indianapolis, somewhere along the line you have to go to Recess. Sometimes I go to the website just to read the menu. (And their wine list stands up to any in the city, even the bloated ones at the steak houses.)

Patachou on the Park

After the Colts/Giants game we stayed downtown at the Crowne Plaza (loved sleeping in a train car) and had breakfast Monday at Patachou on the Park. This is part of what I frequently refer to as the Patachou Empire and the menu is the same as the more mundanely named outposts.

The bigger an enterprise gets, the more vanilla and industrialized it becomes. And while Patachou does have to maintain consistency across its many incarnations, I am still constantly attracted to Patachou for breakfast. Broken yolk sandwiches and their cinnamon toast are cravings that can not be long denied.

While there are competing restaurants delivering an artisinal vibe (Ruth's, Tulip Noir, Mama's), there is no denying that the Patachou Empire has mastered the art of providing a consistent yet unique morning meal that attracts even the most jaded among us.

Long may the Patachou Empire reign.

Spanish Wine School

2010-09-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Been very busy this weekend, so I am late in my blog entries. On the other hand, I have lots to blog about sometime soon. A couple of new restaurants. A couple of nice events.

Want to alert all you wine freaks, and anyone else who likes good value wines, to a tasting of Spanish wines at Hamilton Beverage in Carmel. Tony Fese of the newest distributor in town, Free Market Wine Group, is presiding and he has lots of nice, modest priced Spanish wines to pour. The tasting is Wednesday, September 15 at 7:00 PM. While the tasting is free, they ask you RSVP at 317-844-0872. Hamilton Beverage, 2290 E. 116th St, Carmel, IN 46032, part of the United Package Liquors chain.

Smee's Place Bar and Grill

2010-09-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

About a week ago the S.O. had lunch at Smee's Place Bar and Grill, 1454 West 86th Street, in a shopping center on the northwest side near Oakley's Bistro. There were not many people dining when she was there, 1:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon, even though she said the food was pretty good.

The S.O. tends to adopt places that she thinks are not getting the business they deserve, worry about them, and get after me to promote them so they stay in business. (As if being mentioned in this blog is going to materially affect the fortunes of any restaurant.)

So last Wednesday night we drove over for dinner. To our surprise, the place was packed. They seated us right away, but there weren't many tables open, and hardly any room at the bar.

We saw a friend of ours having an appetizer and a drink with a business client. He told us that the residents of the Overlook, a nearby condominium complex, "hang out" there. When we sat we noticed that it was half price bottles of wine night, but I did not see a lot of people ordering bottles of wine. (We did, of course, having a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay for $15.) So the crowd wasn't there for cheap wine.

It was an older crowd. We didn't change the age demographical at all by walking in as we usually do. I seriously doubt, other than employees, there was anyone under forty in the place. Maybe no one under fifty. There are a lot of these types of places around, but they don't get the publicity that the hip, date night, and/or foodie places get.

If the crowd Wednesday night is any indication of their business, Smee's doesn't need help from the blogs to stay in business. I seriously doubt the restaurant, which doesn't appear to have a web site, even knows that food bloggers exist. We are talking an old school, neighborhood restaurant, with a menu heavy in Midwestern pub food. (While the restaurant is not on the Internet, their menu is, courtesy of Urbanspoon.)

The S.O. ordered the Mary Lou, a spinach salad with peanuts, dried cranberries, bleu cheese crumbles and balsamic vinaigrette. She splurged by adding grilled salmon. I am not fond of vinaigrettes so I did not sample the salad. The S.O. is not fond of cranberries but she liked the ones in her salad.

I ordered the pan fried grouper. The waitress said they were out of grouper so they were substituting pollack. So I had pan fried pollack.

Entrées are accompanied by either soup or salad. I'm a soup guy so I had a cup of the soup of the day, loaded potato. The consistency of the soup was a bit thinner that I expected, but the flavor was very nice. Nothing better than getting something unexpected and discovering that you like it just as well or better than what you were expecting.

The pollack was a mild white fish covered in a rather thick breading. The fish was cooked properly. It had a nice flavor but I would have liked less coating, not because of the flavor which was quite nice, but because it adds calories and carbs.

The vegetable of the day was asparagus. The spears were very thin, which I like, and had been grilled with some nice charring and carmelization.

Smee's Place is a nice neighborhood pub catering to an older crowd. The menu is pretty much what you would expect with lots of salads and sandwiches and a good variety of entrées. Smee's seems to have perfected the art of preparing meals in the manner preferred by their demographic, so this would be a good place to take the baby boomers in your family.

Also, I like the sign out front, "Friends don't let friends eat at chain restaurants."

DIG*IN

2010-09-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we attended DIG*IN: A Taste of Indiana, a walk around tasting event featuring Indiana restaurants, breweries, wineries and agricultural producers. There were a lot of speakers and food related programming, but most everyone there was solely interesting in sampling the food and drink.

Several of the top restaurants in the state were represented including James Beard Nominees Restaurant Tallent and R Bistro, Joseph Decuis (who just recently served dinner at the James Beard House), St. Elmo's Steakhouse, H2O Sushi and Oceanaire. Even Pizzology was represented in that Neal Brown participated on the Farm to Fork Panel and I saw his wife, Lindy, walking around in cowboy boots in the 90+ degree heat! (If there is a pool on where Pizzology #2 is located, I am taking Broad Ripple.)

The organizers were expecting 3000 people to attend and the crowd looked to be every bit of it. Unfortunately, not all the restaurants were prepared to feed a crowd that size, and by the time we arrived, after 2:00 PM, a lot of them had already run out of food. Even the wineries ran out of several of the more popular wines.

Oceanaire, R Bistro, and H2O Sushi, just to mention a few, had closed up by the time we got to their booths sometime between 2:00 and 4:00. Since the event ran from Noon to 6:00 PM this was a major disappointment for us. We would have liked to sample those three restaurants and the rest.

Erin over at the Indianapolis Restaurant Scene blog has posted a good article on what was available. (link here) I have to agree with her choices, including her pick of the Peach Smoked Pork from Indiana Downs as the top dish at the event. The Tomato/Goat Cheese offering from Ivy Tech intrigued was. We loved the cheese. I asked how it was done and was told they just put Capriole's goat cheese in a blender and whipped it up.

Things Erin did not mention that I liked include Chocolate for the Spirit, Scotty's Lakehouse and Coe's Homemade Style Noodles.

Chocolate for the Spirit is from Shelbyville and was one of the booths that was unprepared for the large crowd. When we first went by they were telling people they were out of samples. We moved on. Later we were feeling like something sweet to finish off our feast and went back to buy some of the chilled chocolate bars they were advertising. They were all sold out. (Temperature in the mid-90's, go figure.) I did buy some very nice truffles and some decadent dark chocolate toffee. The price was about what you expect for artisanal chocolate, which means a bit expensive, but much better than what you get at the grocery. Look for them at the City Market starting October 25.

Scotty's Lakehouse was giving out sample of Burger #3, with fried egg, bacon, gouda and chipotle ketchup. Really tasty, but consider all the fat and cholesterol. Definitely something to order only after winning first place in your softball league. Scotty's appears to be a place for beer lovers. Their list of wine flights (3 each of red or white wines) includes White Zinfandel, Oliver Soft Red and a California White Riesling. On the other hand, their bourbon flight is Knob Creek, Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve ($6) and their Scotch flight is MacAllan 12, Glenfiddich 15, and MacAllan 18 ($14). I think whiskey pairings is the way to go at Scotty's.

Coe's Homemade Style Noodles is from Lynn, Indiana and their noodles reminded me of the homemade noodles I used to have at my mother-in-law's home from her old family recipe. You can get them at Marsh stores around Muncie. In Indianapolis you can get them at the New Day Meadery, the Indiana State Museum or Joe's Butcher shop in Carmel. An odd collection of retail outlets for sure.

We tried several wines from several wineries. Our favorite was Turtle Run Winery N.V. Dry Tortuga (3), a blend of 2008 Vignoles and 2009 Chardonel aged in Kentucky Oak. There were four of us so we tried to get a cold bottle to share. Unfortunately, all they had was a bottle that had been stuck in the ice just before we walked up. Still, all four of us - including our "big red" guy - enjoyed it. Doubt one could find it around Indy, but if I am ever near Corydon I will have to pay them a visit.

DIG*IN was a good time and a lot of fun. The group I was with suggested that they add a lot more places to sit down. The heat takes a lot out of you and getting a chance to sit, especially in the shade, helps us old gnomes a lot.

Given the success of this event, I expect it to happen again next year. I highly suggest you get there as soon as it starts if you want to sample everything. I doubt some of these restaurants, if they return, will bring any more than they did this time. They allocate just so much to these events and don't mind if the food runs out. They figure you will just be that more eager to try them next time.

St. Martin (Last Day on the Island)

2010-08-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

Our last full day in St. Martin started pretty easy. We slept in.

We had a late breakfast at the French bakery on the property. Did the pre-checkout. Packed some for the trip home. The S.O. downloaded email to her laptop.

For lunch we packed up the goodies we had left over from the night before and drove out to Baie Longue. This was a very long and almost totally deserted beach just over the line on the French side, that you access down a "private road" which is closed between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM.

There is a large hotel at one end of the beach where most of the people on the beach were congregated. The rest of the beach fronts a lot of very high end villas, some for rent.

There is no shade on this beach unless you bring your own or are staying at the hotel and get an umbrella from them. No helpful natives renting chairs and umbrellas. No beach bars to sell you beer and food.

It is a beautiful beach and we enjoyed walking along it for a while. We put a towel down and had our picnic, but it was too hot to stay for long, so we returned to the resort.

A lot of people we met at the resort stay here for three weeks or more in the winter. Some people originally bought one week and then decided they wanted more and purchased an additional week, but not in the same unit. So they have to move from one unit to another in the middle of their stay. The resort does send a porter to help you move if requested.

Some people live in their swim suits. I never saw them in anything else. They spend most of their time at the beach or the pool. You can do or get most anything you need at the resort without getting dressed up.

For dinner our last night we went back to Grand Case. The traffic was very heavy and I apparently forgot everything I had learned about driving on the island, taking two wrong turns that required me to turn around and back track to find my way out of the Dutch side.

We ended up at Le Pressoir, the S.O.'s favorite restaurant in Grand Case. Their main dining room was crowded, so they put us in the adjacent room which we had all to ourselves for a while.

Neither of us were up to elaborate, foodie dinners so we scaled it back a bit. We had had a glass of wine in our room before heading out (can't take open bottles on a plane!) so we ordered a half bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. They brought us the 2005 vintage rather then the 2004 that was on the wine list. I didn't object because happens all the time in restaurants, and besides, 2005 is a higher rated vintage.

I had fried frog legs, Provençal style with mirepoix and a mild sauce, to start and the S.O. had a mixed greens salad. For our entrées we both ordered tagliatelles (pasta), mine with seafood, the S.O. with vegetables. My pasta was rich with a lot of peppers, green onions and broth. The S.O. said her pasta had too much cayenne pepper in it. Neither of us finished our pastas. There were just too many carbohydrates.

For dessert we ordered Le Dessert du Pressoir: Poire Belle Hélène destructurée & son coulis fondant au chocolat Jivarha, Special Dessert of The Pressoir : Crispy warm marinated pear with vanilla ice cream served under thin chocolate shell with Jivarha chocolate sauce. (Sorry, no picture on the dessert.)

I believe that fruit can be an integral part of many, fine desserts. The S.O. adamantly maintains that fruit is not a dessert. Ice cream and chocolate are desserts, but not fruit. So while I enjoyed the wonderful harmony of the various textures and flavors, she contented herself with chocolate and ice cream.

The next day was Saturday, time for us to fly home. We spent the morning relaxing at the Marina Residences' pool, reading and resting. Then we turned our rental car in and boarded our US Air flight back to the states.

And then we sat on the plane for an hour while we waited for clearance from San Juan Flight Control to let us take off. We worried the entire time coming home that we would miss our connection. We barely had an hour layover and the flight was already more than an hour late. We had a Colts playoff game the next day! What would we do.

We needn't have worried. All the flights to Charlotte, our transfer point, were delayed. All the flights were US Air as well. In fact, when we arrived at the airport, everything was shut down, all the lights were turned off, except for the part where arriving Caribbean passengers disembarked, cleared customs and immigration, got their bags, rechecked their bags, went through security, and boarded their next flight. That was a lot to do, but when that is the only going on, it moves pretty fast.

None of the connecting flights were going to leave until all the Caribbean passengers had gotten on board. It was a mad rush with several flights arriving at once, but we happily arrived in Indianapolis about the time we were scheduled to. Only to find that it was still winter in Indiana. Even the prospect of attending a Colts playoff game was not enough overcome the bone-chilling disappointment of our return to winter.

We could have easily gotten aboard the next plane and gone right back.

Zoo & Zing

2010-08-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last night the S.O. and I visited White River Gardens for the Indianapolis Zoo's Naturally Inspired Silent Auction and Artists Reception. The Zoo had invited fifteen different artists to come to the Zoo in May and produce en plein air works of art. The reception was a chance to view the art and bid on them in a silent auction.

Seeing all this en plein air art, something usually associated with painting, got me thinking about how I could relate it to the kind of art I do, printmaking. It might be fun to go to the Zoo with a couple of plates for etching, draw on the surface of the plates en plein air with an etching needle, and then burn the plates back at the Art Center and print them. I might do that next week before my printmaking class starts.

Apparently, the Zoo had opened the bidding to the public starting in June and several of the pieces had already receiving substantial bids through this process. A bronze casting of a cheetah, perhaps the most polished piece in the exhibit, had a preliminary bid of $500. Two other works that caught my eye were the painting of a peacock, and an abstract by Nereus, the Zoo's twittering Walrus. There were several pieces by animals in the exhibit, all of them, naturally enough, abstracts.

I know that several charity auctions have started allowing bidding, especially over the Internet, for certain items before the actual auction opens. Those bids are then considered the opening bids at the actual auction. Only if no one at the event bids on the item will it be sold to the Internet bidder.

I have my doubts about this. If you do not attend the actual event, the odds you will be the winning bidder would seem to be pretty small. It only takes one bidder at the event to outbid you and you have no chance to rebid. You would have to enter in the maximum amount you were willing to pay if order to have any chance of winning. Once you realize this I would think the enthusiasm to bid would be diminished.

Having an opening bid, especially a substantial one like that on the bronze Cheetah, might appear to heighten the value of a particular item, but it might also have the effect of decreasing the perceived value of the other items, especially the ones which do not receive any Internet bids. You might get more money for one item, only to get less on several others.

The reception included some hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar, although each person attending got two drink tickets. We had the "house" wine, some nameless brand. I thought it was fun that when I asked for a glass of white I was asked if I wanted Chardonnay or White Zinfandel. I pointed out that White Zinfandel is not white. The server knew that, of course, but said that people who drink White Zinfandel often consider it to be a white wine. Imagine that.

After the reception we decided to stay downtown and go somewhere with outdoor dining, decent wine and small plates. Since we had already had some food we were not terribly hungry. We discussed a few choices and settled on Zing.

It was a perfect night for al fresco dining. The oppressive heat of the past few weeks was missing and the sky was clear. Zing has a balcony that wraps around part of the building. Not a lot of people were out there about seven on a Thursday night.

One reason might be because the setting sun shone brightly. The S.O. gave up facing the sun even though she had sunglasses on and sat next to me so her back could be to the sun. At about eight PM the sun went behind a building and there would be no excuse not to enjoy the balcony.

We ordered a bottle of Miner Family Viognier, one of my favorite white wines. The price was pretty reasonable, only $28. The retail on it I believe is about $20. We wanted a little more when we finished the Miner, but since it is not available by the glass, we ordered a glass of d'Arenberg Hermit Crab, an Australian blend of Viognier and Marsanne. Not quite as nice as the Miner but good nonetheless.

We ordered three items off the small plates menu: Mahi Mahi Tacos, Bison Sliders, and Zing Shrimp. The S.O. thought the sliders were great. The shrimp was a bit spicy for her. I loved everything, especially the shrimp.

This Week

2010-08-23T15:48:00.001-07:00

Things are getting busy this time of year. We just attended Artsparkle, which was great. My auction item went for close to $1000. I also bought some private Italian Sangiovese. By private I mean the wine is not available retail.

This Thursday the S.O. and I are attending the Indianapolis Zoo's Naturally Inspired Paint Out Silent Auction & Artists Reception. Several artists were invited to the Zoo to paint en plein air on May 1. These paintings will be on display and sold to the highest bidder that night. Should be great fun to see what each artist chose to paint.

Saturday we are going to Symphony on the Prairie for a picnic with friends. The entertainment, besides the friends, will be Classical Mystery Tour, a Beatles tribute band. We have seen the band twice before, once with the pops symphony, but for the S.O., Beatles anything is always up front.

Sunday is Dig-IN, aka Taste of Indiana, a walk around food and drink tasting event at White River State Park. Food samples will be served by most of the top restaurants in Indiana, including R Bistro, Recess, H2O Sushi, Restaurant Tallent, Oceanaire, St. Elmo Steak House, and Joseph Decuis. Not to miss if you are a true Indiana foodie.

Next week, the finale to our adventure last winter in St. Martin!

Artsparkle

2010-08-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Artsparkle is a party that the S.O. and I attend every year. This casual evening event features a walk around tasting (similar to Zoobilation) with food from several local restaurants and caterers, complimentary drinks, a silent auction, and late night dancing, this year to Henle and The Loops.

This is a major fundraiser for the Art Center which provides extensive support for local artists, art instruction for youth and adults, and is especially strong at bringing art education to disadvantaged youth.

The Art Center also has a strong exhibition schedule. This year during Artsparkle the annual faculty show will be on exhibit, along with work from the best in show and best in class winners of last year's student show.

Artsparkle is Saturday, August 21st, starting at 7:00 PM at the Indianapolis Art Center, 820 East 67th Street. Tickets are available on-line at the Art Center web site linked above, or call 317-255-2464.

Dress is casual summer chic and/or Moroccan flair. What is Moroccan flair? Here's a link: Art Center Blog.

New this year will be a silent auction item featuring wine from the gnome. Yes, your own gastro gnome is donating wine from his personal cellar. Here is the lot description (subject to revision, of course):

This is your chance to join Carter Wolf, C.E.O. of the Indianapolis Art Center, and his wife, Kim Gattle, in their home for a gourmet dinner prepared by one of Indianapolis' leading chefs, paired with wines from the private cellar of a local wine connoisseur. Date to be mutually agreed to.

This multi-course, gourmet dinner will be prepared by Chef Brad Gates of Brad Gates Catering and Events. Chef Gates is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City and has been the executive chef at Union Square Café and NYLA in New York as well as Wolfgang Puck's at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Most recently Chef Gates was the executive chef at Euphoria, the fine dining experience at Bugg's Temple.

Each dinner course will be paired with a different wine from the private cellar of Chuck Cooper, a local wine collector. Mr. Cooper's collection contains wines from Napa Valley, Oregon, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italy and many other fine wine regions. Mr. Cooper will emphasize mature wines that have reached their peak of enjoyment, as well as bottles from cult wineries which are not for sale in Indiana. The wines served will be selected in consultation with Chef Gates to complement and enhance the dishes in his menu.

This is worthy of serious bidding. In case you are concerned about the quality of the wines, here are some of the wines I am contemplating including: 2004 Stony Hill Napa Valley Chardonnay (yes, six year old Chardonnay; this wine is good out to fifteen years); single vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from Arista Vineyards (I have three vintages and several different vineyards); Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Larkmead, Robert Mondavi (the Reserve) or Spottswoode; and/or Bordeaux from the 1980's.

I hope to see many of you there.

Summertime... and the living is easy.

2010-08-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

The S.O. and I had something to celebrate so I was charged with finding somewhere to celebrate. I wanted something better than just dinner and something not as elaborate as the theater. I checked through all the event listings on the Internet and they all sounded dry and dull.

Suddenly it hit me. We had meaning to try out the Jazz Kitchen. They have live jazz every night and are reputed to serve a decent dinner. The S.O. loves music and the one time we happened into Manhattan when they had a jazz band she was ecstatic. This could be the place to have a small, private celebration. A good meal, a band, what could be better?

I checked the Jazz Kitchen's website and discovered that the entertainment for Saturday night was Tommy Wills Big Band Birthday Bash. Tommy Wills, a sax player with lots of vinyl in his resume, was turning eighty and celebrating by performing big band tunes. Sounded perfect.

I made a quick reservation through Open Table and we arrived at 7:00 PM, the time the show was supposed to start. (One aside: I had looked at several web sites on the Internet that mentioned the show - Metromix, Nuvo - and they all had different starting times. Only the Jazz Kitchen had it right.)

The main room was more than half full when we arrived but there were still a number of tables available. They collected the cover charge, $20 for the two of us, and gave us a nice, little table along the side.

We perused the menu. The wine list was not extensive and mostly wineries I am unfamiliar with. I decided to get a big red and I ordered the Calina Cabernet based on the flavor profiles on the menu. Turns out to be a Chilean Cabernet, something I never order, but wasn't bad. And at $23 it was pretty good.

The band started almost as soon as sat down. Tommy sat up front with his sax and played a mix of big band tunes, original songs and songs rearranged for his band. For instance, The Girl from Ipanema done as swing, rather than bossa nova. Tommy sang a little, played a lot of sax, and repeatedly invited the audience to the dance floor.

The crowd was somewhat older but I did see some twenty and thirty year olds. I imagine the crowd is considerably younger when the band leader is significantly less than 80. We, however, enjoyed the music and the show immensely. These were the tunes our parents played on the record player when we were growing up, and the same music I played during my short stint with the jazz band back in high school.

We started our dinners with a couple of simple side salads and then both had filets for our main course. The S.O. had bleu cheese on hers and I had mine Oscar style with crabmeat and a red pepper hollandaise. Both filets were tender and cooked as we liked, medium rare. I really liked the Oscar topping. Our sides were pretty standard -roasted potatoes and asparagus for me, rice and vegetables for the S.O. - simple and nice.

Tommy and his band were still into their first set when we finished dinner, so we ordered dessert, a decadent brownie and ice cream, decaf for the S.O. and a young Sandeman port for me.

We left before Tommy started his second set. We'd had enough and didn't want to order more alcohol. There were still people arriving for dinner and we figured they might still be able to turn the table over that night.

There is a debate: which is more important, the food or the service? We might have to add the atmosphere to that comparison since a lot of the attraction of the Jazz Kitchen is the jazz. However, while the food was excellently prepared and certainly very enjoyable, our service that night was better.

Our waiter, Annie, seemed to pick just the right moments to show up. She didn't hover or intrude but stopped by often enough to know exactly where we were in the meal and take care of us. At the beginning of the meal when many waiters press you to order or wait too long to return after giving you "a little time," Annie's timing was perfect. In a profession where often you just hope for friendly and competent, it's nice to meet someone who is a lot better than that.

The Jazz Kitchen is a great place if you like dinner and a show. You are not going to get some mellow jazz duo that blends into the background. The point of this place is the show. Check the calendar because they feature all kinds of jazz, from big band to neo-soul and hard-bop (what ever that is.) Thursdays are Latin dance nights.

Prices are reasonable. Entrees $16 to $30+, Pasta $12 to $16, burgers, salads and pizza around $10. Small but okay wine list.

The food's good and the music is lively. Not the place to go to have a quiet conversation. But recommended for a fun night out.

And I notice that Rob Dixon's playing tonight.

St. Maarten (Lazy Day Relaxing)

2010-08-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

Two days left in paradise, and we were feeling the effects of too much good food, sun, and sightseeing. So we decided to spend the day relaxing.

First up was breakfast. We drove to the end of our street, back to the main road around the island, and parked in the same shopping center where we had found Saratoga. We had to hunt around the several buildings in the center until we found a place to park.

Our destination was Zee Best. We had seen this breakfast/lunch place as we passed by about everyday and had heard that it was good.

When we arrived, the place was packed. There was no obvious sign of a hostess but we stood around for a minute wondering if we should wait or seat ourselves. Shortly a middle-aged, Dutch gentleman, who was apparently there to rendezvous with a younger man, intervened and told us to sit anywhere.

Ah, the islands.

I ordered a standard breakfast for me, two eggs sunny side up with bacon. The bacon was thin and chewy, but I love bacon any ways except brunt, old, or stringy, so it was good for me.

They pride themselves on their French style pastries. They gave us a small basket of various bread items with our meal. We worked our way through, liking the baquette best.

It was a pretty good breakfast, but nothing extraordinary. Certainly independent breakfast specialty places back home do as well or better.

We spent the day on the resort's beach, laying under a large thatch umbrella, reading books. It rained off and on that day and we scooted in and out from under the umbrella. Out of the sun, out of the rain, out of the sun, out of the rain, etc.

Lunch came from the resort's beach bar. A mahi-mahi sandwich with fries for me.

The resort's beach bar was adequate. Not as good as Gus's at Baie Rouge, and not as good as the beach bar at the neighboring resort, but it was on the beach so they can be forgiven for being just adequate. Also, the bar was covered so we sat out of the rain while we had lunch.

Near dusk we took a sunset cruise on the Lambada, a catamaran that harbored near the resort. It sailed down the coast to Baie Longue and motored back.

The sun did set, somewhere behind the clouds. Again, we dodged in and out of the rain. The tropics are like that. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. But we didn't really care. All we had to do was think about what the weather was like back in Indiana in January and we were happy with a little rain now and again.

For dinner we stopped by the convenience store at the resort and bought some turkey slices, gouda, a baguette, mayo, grapes and ice cream bars to take back to our room. Like I said, we were feeling kind of piqued from our week of high living and decided to take a break from the rich (and expensive) dinners we'd been having.

We did have a nice bottle of wine for dinner, though, 2006 Chateau Grand Bateau (3+) we bought at Le Goût du Vin in Marigot. Grand Bateau is a sister property to Beychelle. The wine was 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. And went very well with turkey sandwiches and grapes. Not to mention ice cream bars.

to be continued...

A Tale of Two City Chains

2010-07-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, it was the kind of cuisine that should not be inflicted on anyone over the age of twelve, it was the kind of cuisine that was so addictive and fattening you couldn't help but eat too much.

With apologies to Charles Dickens.

When you have twelve nieces and nephews (including spouses) and seven grandnieces and grandnephews (with another on the way), eventually you will find yourself hosting a pack of them in your home for a week or so. Such was my fate a short time ago.

I will spare you the details of how this came to pass and the various adjustments to my lifestyle that were required. It was actually a lot less painless than you imagine. However, when it came to the nightly repast, once we ventured out of the house to dine as an extended family at some local establishment, the lowest common denominator, the children, prevailed.

Thus I found myself partaking recently of the cuisine at two "kid friendly" national chains near my abode: Joe's Crab Shack and Bonefish Grill. (PS. Both websites automatically start playing annoying music, so click at your own risk.)

Joe's is the kind of place kids love. Funky decor, playground, wait staff that periodically group sing and line dance to music, rustic wood tables with a bucket for your crab shells in the middle, paper towels for napkins, and kid friendly food (too much fat, too much salt, too much sugar, etc.) This is a place where you stick pretty much to fried food because frying usually makes things taste good (massive injection of fat) regardless of what the cooks started with.

Having forgotten my own conclusions from being here before (each time with the same set of extended family members) I ordered pan seared mahi-mahi with green beans and roasted potatoes. The fish was seriously overcooked, the broth it sat in was as briny as the Atlantic, and there was almost as much bacon in the green beans as beans. The roasted potatoes were okay.

The last time I was here I concluded that the best dish to order was the fish and chips. How can you screw that up? After all, they probably just take them pre-breaded out of a bag, and drop them into fat. Timer goes off, they are fished out and that's it. My niece ordered some and said the fish tasted off. Probably been in the freezer too long.

As is my wont I teased my grandnephew by stealing a couple of his French fries. (I learned this behavior from my father, don't you know.) Way too much salt. Kids probably like them, but I found them to be virtually inedible.

The Sam Adams draft was pretty good, though.

The next night I was buying and we went to Bonefish Grill. This chain is owned by the same people who own Outback I believe, and it was a much better culinary experience. No playground, no dancing waiters, no kayaks lashed to the ceiling, but while "kid friendly" this is a more adult restaurant. Also like Outback, no lunch, only dinner.

The S.O. and I both ordered Imperial Longfin, pan-seared talapia, stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab meat and lemon caper butter, and then baked. It came with zucchini and carrots and I ordered asparagus as my side.

This time the fish was cooked right. The stuffing was very rich and delicious. The vegetables pretty decent. This is one of their most popular dishes, but something my waist line can only afford to have maybe once a year.

Neither wine list was exceptional. I went with beer at Joe's. At Bonefish I played it safe with always reliable Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.

Doing some research on the Internet and reading some remarks by former employees, it appears that Bonefish assembles and cooks everything while Joe's microwaves a lot of frozen, precooked meals. This seemed obvious to me from the two meals I had.

Bonefish Grill is more elegant, has better, healthier recipes, and even while a corporate chain, is a good place to go, especially with a large diverse group. Joe's Crab Shack is a lot more fun for kids, but the food is dumbed down to their level and I can't recommend it, especially if you have any sort of dietary issues.

Best Wine Bar in Indianapolis

2010-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Every year the local media conducts Internet polls so you, their adoring public, can select the "Best Of" a whole range of local shopping experiences. I am sure that all the companies nominated are given special opportunities to advertise in the respective publications.

If you are on anyone's email list you are well aware of these polls since the establishments in the running email you numerous reminders to vote for them!

I got an email from Tasting asking me to vote for them in the category of Best Wine Bar in the Indy Star "Metromix" poll. Their link, interestingly, took me to the Indy Channel's A-List Best Of awards. Same concept, different venue.

What I found humorous is that of the four nominees, only two are still open for business: the Corner Wine Bar, and Tastings. This contest could end up with a restaurant that is closed winning the Best of Indianapolis. That would be pretty embarrassing.

I looked back at the 2009 contest and only one of the five companies nominated is still open. Gone are d'Vine, the Artist's Vineyard, Deano's Vino and the Scholar's Inn.

It must be tough running a wine bar in Indy.

Villa Maria Tasting at Tastings

2010-07-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended a wine tasting at Tastings, the wine bar inside the Conrad Indianapolis. This is the place where you stick a card into a wine dispensing contraption and pour your own wine.

On Wednesday nights they have structured wine tastings. They set you up around the chef's station in the center of the restaurant and pour tastes of several wines paired with samples of several chef prepared dishes. Of course, the chef and a wine expert - last night it was Rob Smith from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates - describe what you are being served. (And, of course, bottles of the wines are offered for sale at a discount.)

If you are like me and like to keep the size of your meals small, this was a pretty good deal. For $20 a person we sampled five wines - a bit more than a glass total - and five small plates. This about filled me up. When I got home I had just half a cornbread muffin.

All the wines poured were from the portfolio of Villa Maria Estate, a major New Zealand winery.

The first course consisted of poached shrimp and diced apples paired with 2009 "Private Bin" Pinot Gris. (3) This was a nice summer wine that would be good chilled sitting on the deck during warm days and nights. The diced apples were an interesting match to the shrimp. This combination worked well.

The second course was a scallop with grapefruit-cucumber gazpacho paired with 2009 "Cellar Selection" Sauvignon Blanc. (2) Now I have to say that I am not a fan of grapefruit and don't care for very tart wines, so this combination didn't work for me. I ate and drank it all because it wasn't really that bad, but given a choice I will choose anything but a Sauvignon Blanc.

"Private Bin" and "Cellar Selection" refer to wine tiers within Villa Maria's portfolio. Private Bin are their basic, least expensive wines, and Cellar Selection is the next step up. They also have 'Reserve" and "Single Vineyard" tiers but they didn't pour any. Private Bin wines were listed at $22.00/bottle and Cellar Selection for $25/bottle.

The third course was the most successful pairing of the evening: green curry, roasted Dover sole and deconstructed guacamole paired with 2009 "Private Bin" Chardonnay. (4) The guacamole was replaced by a tomato based sauce and an avocado based paste. Those flavors really enhanced the Dover sole. It was something you might expect at Recess. The Chardonnay was unoaked and I thought it was very interesting, rather dense and complex. It was my favorite wine of the night.

The fourth course consisted of five spice roasted rainbow trout and "Mac and Cheese" paired with 2008 "Private Bin" Pinot Noir. (2+) I thought this was a mismatched pairing. The wine was light and the food was heavy, especially the mac and cheese which had been baked into a loaf. I didn't feel that the wine held up to the food. I would have rather had the trout with the fifth wine rather than the Pinot Noir. The wine was okay. It had typical Pinot Noir aromas and flavors. It was light, did not have a big fruit component, and was more acidic than I like. I have had better New Zealand Pinot Noirs.

The last course consisted of Ahi tuna, roasted beets, and parsnip puree paired with 2008 "Cellar Selection" Bordeaux Blend. (3+) This wine's major component was Merlot, and as you would expect it was pretty accessible. Not a lot of tannins although it did take a few minutes to open up. I would not want to lay it down for a long time, maybe two to three years at most. The tuna and beets were good, but I would have paired them with the Pinot Noir.

All in all a good time was had by all. Unfortunately, the S.O. was not there because she would have loved it. Instead it was a boys night out with an old friend from high school was loves big, bold wines. I'm afraid the Sauvignon Blanc was lost on him as well.

Next week Tastings is doing a Riesling tasting which should be interesting. Most people think Rieslings are sweet but they run the compete gamut from totally dry to sugar bomb. And in August they are talking about doing a blind tasting. Those are always fun.

St. Maarten (Philipsburg)

2010-07-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

After surviving the sales pitch, we had lunch at the French style bakery and café on the resort property. We decided to spend the rset of the day in Philipsburg, the capitol of the Dutch side. We had some shopping to do, wanted to revisit a place where we had had lunch the year before, and have dinner at the over-the-top cute French restaurant, l'Escargot.

We had been warned away from Philipsburg by our resort host, Dino. This was not the day to visit he had told us. There were six cruise ships in port. Some were mega-ships with 3000+ passengers. Because we had limited time left in the island, we decided we would chance going. How bad could it be?

You think that last sentence was a set up, right?

The tourist maps show a parking lot along the north side of the island highway with the city being between there and the beach. The parking lot is basically a long narrow vacant lot. You park wherever your car fits. We parked on the far west side of Philipsburg and walked in.

The commercial section of Philipsburg consists basically of two streets, Front Street and Back Street, and the boardwalk along the beach. All the shops, at least all the tourist trap shops, are located along these venues or the connecting streets between.

I wanted to get some cigars for a friend back home, so we stopped at the Cigar Emporium on Front Street. The first floor of the shop was a standard jewelry/electronic/etc. duty free shop. The second story was basically a large walk in humidor.

I know nothing about cigars (other than they dull your senses of taste and smell) so I asked for some help from a man who appeared to be either the owner or the manager. I had specific instructions about what types of cigars were acceptable (ring size, wrapper, etc.) and the man showed me a couple of cigars. He said if I wanted to buy a box he could make me a good deal. I said I was happy just buying two cigars for my friend. Two cigars cost me $50 so I am glad I didn't buy a box.

The S.O. purchased some limoncello and a raku plate at an art gallery we had visited last year.

The tourists off the cruise ships were in town, but we showed up late, after 3:00 PM, and it wasn't as packed as you might imagine. Lunch time was probably crazy, but the tourists were drifting back to their ships and we were able to shop quite easily. If you come into town when there are no cruise ships in port a lot of the shops are closed.

We wanted to have a drink at the Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House. It spans Front Street and the beach near the east end of town. When we walked down Front Street we found it easily, but walking down the beach I couldn't find it. We had to go back to Front Street.

Once we found the beach side bar and sat down I realized why I couldn't find it. The property next door was being renovated and the construction site, including a large crane, partially hid the guest house.

We sat down and ordered glasses of wine, Pinot Grigio for the S.O. and Chardonnay for me, and watched the cruise ships begin to leave. There were six of them, lit up like Christmas trees, each ponderously leaving berth and moving off to the next destination.

It was very relaxing sitting at that bar. The air was warm. There was a nice breeze. We had glasses of chilled wine. And the ships provided us with nice show. I could see myself sitting here most afternoons all winter and being perfectly content.

After we had drunk most of our wine, our waiter brought each of us a second glass. I wasn't intending to order a second glass, but apparently it was two for one happy hour at the bar, so we each enjoyed a second glass while we lazed by the beach.

Dinner was at l'Escargot, a funky French restaurant in Dutch Philipsburg. The outside is painted with lots of happy snails and the inside walls are stacked with snail figurines and lots of other funky collectibles. It's a museum to someone's tastes and they are not shy about sharing it.

It was starting to get dark and the car was parked fairly far from the restaurant away from the commercial sector, so I left the S.O. in the capable hands of our waiter, jogged to the car and drove back to the restaurant's parking lot. About twenty minutes total. When I returned, the S.O. was finishing a glass of wine and I had the feeling she was deep into a conspiracy with our waiter.

We ordered a bottle of 2006 Clos des Religieuses Angeline, Puissequin Saint Emilion (3). This was good, tart, not as good as St. Emilion but decent.

We loved our waiter, Vernon, but when it came time the owner took our order. He was very French and very humorous. He wanted us to return Friday night when the restaurant had one seating and a musical show. The owner and his wife dress up like Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. The rest of the show consists of female impersonators. We asked Vernon if he was in the show and we got an emphatic "not a chance."

For our starters we each had snails (what else do you order at l'Escargot?) Les Escargots en Pots aux Croutons, snails baked in garlic pots with a crust on top, and Les Escargots sur Champignons, snails baked in fresh mushroom caps and garlic butter. Each order came with six snails. They have seven different preparations of snails and you can order a sampler.

You can't go wrong with either choice, but the mushroom snails were better than the crouton snails. The croutons added crunch to the classic French preparation. However, the mushrooms added a meaty quality that I liked.

For our main course the S.O. ordered the fish of the day and I had lobster thermidor. The local fish tasted good with butter and light seasoning, but the S.O. paid for it later when the fish didn't settle well with her. It could have been a case of just too much rich food for a week, but it may have been that the locally caught fish was a wee bit toxic.

My thermidor included crab as well as lobster and was very nice. Comparing it to what I had had earlier in the week, the Pineapple Pete thermidor was rich and creamy, while l'Escargot's thermidor tasted more of cheese and herbs. I would say l'Escargot's was a more classic French preparation and Pineapple Pete's was geared more for American tourists.

For dessert we ordered the house specialty, La Mousse au Chocolate Blanc et Son Coulis de Framboise, white chocolate mousse with raspberry puree. This was light, airy, and sweet.

I ordered an Armanac as an after dinner drink. While I know it is a cousin to Cognac, it reminded me of single malt scotch.

Then back to the resort with only two full days left in our vacation.

to be continued...

St. Maarten (The Sales Pitch)

2010-07-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

We were spending the week in St. Maarten courtesy of a friend who had overindulged in timeshares and was now divesting himself of them. We had the use of a one bedroom condo complete with beach access, beach towels, all the kitchen and bathroom necessities, and concierge service.

Of course, you know timeshares make their money selling hotel rooms for the price of billionaires' mansions, one fraction at a time. The Pelican Resort Club was no exception, and we were invited to a free breakfast with our assigned host to discuss the possibility of us becoming one of the fortunate many to dispense with the need to plan our vacations for the next thousand years.

The breakfast was at the resort's Italian restaurant, right on the waterfront. Our host was amiable and we enjoyed talking with him about the island, our plans, what he liked about living in St. Maarten, etc. The breakfast - we had omelets - was good and the resort did pick up the bill.

Well, they paid for breakfast, but they didn't pick up the tip. I had to leave a few bucks cash for the waitress. (I thought this was an odd place to suddenly go cheap.)

Our host gave us a tour of the newest addition to the resort, the Pelican Marina Residences. Everything was new and attractive, contrasting to the rooms we were staying in at the Pelican Resort Club which were nice, but dated and worn.

Finally we went back into the management company's offices, got a quick presentation about how much it costs to vacation every year at a resort hotel, and had a last little chat with the host before being turned over to the closer.

While the host is like the bartender who wants nothing more than to chat you up like an old friend, the closer is more like a used car salesman who has alloted a limited amount of time to sell you the biggest car on the lot, or, failing that, at least some car on the lot.

We got the full pitch about how these timeshares are great for vacations, wonderful investments, keep increasing in value, limited in supply, able to be traded for rooms at other resorts, and the kickers: cheaper than paying for the equivalent accommodations at a resort hotel, and if we ever wanted to sell they could sell the place for us.

He presented us with an offer for a two bedroom unit for two weeks a year in the Pelican Marina Residences. Top of the line stuff. Each side of the unit is a self contained unit with kitchen or kitchenette. We could utilize two sides at once sleeping four or squeezing in six, or split off one side, trade it to RCI or Interval International and have two weeks somewhere else.

Note, in essence we would be buying four weeks, not two.

Too rich for us we said, so the closer went back to his computer and came back a while later with an offer for two bedrooms for one week a year. This was from an owner who wanted to sell, so they offered us a discount off the original price. Still expensive.

Finally, after he rechecked his "inventory" he found a unit by an owner that wanted to sell every other year. We would be able to vacation in St. Maarten every other year, or we could split the unit into two units and trade one side for a unit in the off years. Since this arrangement was a bit unusual he was willingly to give us a really nice discount off the price the owner originally paid for the unit, which was substantially less than what the units were currently going for.

Great deal, right?

We said we would have to talk about it and he reluctantly gave us until 9AM the next morning to think about. After that the offer would go back into "inventory" and might be snapped up by someone else.

We talked about it. It was tempting. We really love St. Martin, especially the French side. (The S.O. speaks French.) But we passed on it. We really did not want to tie ourselves down.

I knew there had to be a catch somewhere in the pitch. The closer was too slick. And I could just imagine him going back to his office to "check inventory," doing anything but checking inventory, and grabbing the offer from the top of his second or third offer stack. This was the process of high pressure sales. Get the signature now. Sort out the money later.

After thinking about it for a while, and crunching the numbers, I think I found the flaw in the calculations.

They compared the price you pay for the timeshare to what you would pay at a resort hotel. The numbers make the timeshare look like a slightly better deal. But the bonus is that your rate is fixed, while hotel rates can be expected to continue to rise, notwithstanding the current recession which should be temporary.

What they do not include in the calculation is the "maintenance fee." You are billed this each year you own the timeshare (or every two years if you take the every other year option.) Given the costs we were using, the maintenance fee was the equivalent of three nights at a resort hotel.

So instead getting seven nights with your timeshare payment, you are really only getting four nights. Not that great a deal. Plus the maintenance fee will go up each year which would mitigate some of the benefit you get by having a fixed price. Once you have paid the "mortgage" off you won't have to make further principal payments, but you are locked in to the maintenance fee in perpetuity. A bit short this year and want to take a "staycation?" Still have to pay that maintenance fee.

They made a big deal in the beginning about how the timeshare is a great investment, how the value of the property goes up over time, and how they will help sell your property if you wish it.

The deals they offered us for timeshares being resold on behalf of an owner, were all offered, they said, at less than what the owner paid, less than the price for unsold rooms. The value of the property may go up over time, but if they are not going to offer them at a premium over the original purchase price, then how can you say they are a good investment?

Additionally, they never offered us one of the older rooms in the property where we were staying, the Pelican Resort Club. They only made offers of the newest property, the Pelican Marina Residences, the one that was recently built and from which the management company, presumably, makes a greater profit. If they build an even newer property down the beach somewhere, will they stop trying to sell the Pelican Marina Residences?

All these questions came up in my mind and made me feel better about our decision to pass on the timeshare. Besides, we now have our eye on a rental (no long term commitment) on the French side which might be cheaper than even just the maintenance fee on the Dutch side. If we were locked into timeshares we would not be able to take advantage of this deal without having to pony up for a second week on the island.

But from the pictures you can see that it was very, very tempting.

to be continued...

St. Martin (Harmony Nights)

2010-07-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

After our day in Marigot we drove back to Grand Case for Harmony Nights. This festival occurs each Tuesday night from about mid-January to sometime in April. Parking can be hard to find, but we were told there was free parking with a shuttle bus at the airport close by. I got pretty turned around trying to find a place to park, and ended up on the street really close in. The trick was getting there early, before the festival started at 6:00 PM.

There's one thing I have to say about parking in St. Martin. It's wherever you can. There are very few marked parking places, and equally few no parking signs. I got used to finding a vacant spot along a street somewhere and just parked, locked the car, and walked away. Everyone else was doing it. During Harmony Nights, I even saw cars pull up on the sidewalk to park.

Harmony Nights is a street market and a parade. Well, sort of a parade. It's a bunch of guys with drums and conch shells and some pretty girls in skimpy costumes. It came later in the evening while we were eating dinner so I'll tell you more about it then. (There's video.)

Tables lined both sides of Boulevard de Grand Case. Some of the tables were filled with tourist junk but there were a fair number of local crafts and even some rather nice art. I talked to a print maker who had had a press shipped in from the mainland by freighter. The S.O. bought a purse that was essential one, long zipper, and a necklace made from sea glass.

Believe it or not, we actually wished we had more cash; we would have bought more art. There were a couple of pieces I would have liked to buy. The printmaker was represented by a gallery we visited later, but they didn't have any of the newer art I liked a lot. Since we were going to have to pay the tip for our dinner in cash, I hoarded what few bills I had left.

Naturally, all the art galleries and restaurants were open for business. The street was packed with tourists and quite a few locals, although most of them were selling out of one booth or another.

We had dinner at Bistrot Caraibes. This was the restaurant we saw our first night in Grand Case with the "cute French" maitre d'hotel. They had a lobster tank out front, almost in the street, and a modernist decor. The cute French guy was there and seated us in the back. Even though we were pretty early, the place was virtually full.

I was worried, being in the back, about seeing the parade. I needn't have worried.

Our starters were Cassolette d'escargots for the S.O. and Salade César for the gnome. My salad was fine. The S.O., however, was in heaven. She loves her snails. This was the traditional French preparation with lots of garlic and butter. She sopped up the sauce with bread. I was half expecting her to smack her fingers.

We went with the recommendation of the waiter on the wine and again they brought us Bordeaux. This time 2005 Angelique de Monbousquet from Saint Emilion. This was a pretty decent Right Bank Merlot. It was the second wine of Chateau Monbousquet which gets decent points from Parker.

For our main course, we both ordered Marmite de Vivanneau, braised red snapper with vegetables in a creamy mussel sauce with saffron.

I thought this dish was exceptional. The flavors meshed well and the fish was perfectly cooked. I know you can't see the fish in the picture but trust me, it is there. It was cut up into chunks in the middle of that wonderful, rich sauce. Probably the best single dish I had the entire trip.

Between dinner and the dessert the parade showed up. We got up, left the table and walked out into the street to watch, along with most of the tourists in the restaurant. Outside we were joined by most of the tourists in the other restaurants as well.

The parade consisted of several men playing drums and conch shells, and three ladies in elaborate yet revealing costumes. They performed with great enthusiasm. They were surrounded by a swarm of tourists, all armed with cameras and video recorders. The S.O. took some video on her Flip which you can see below.

The fact that the S.O. took the video rather than the gnome probably accounts for the majority of the video concentrating on the drummers rather than the scantily clad females.

After the excitement of the parade, we returned to Bistrot Caraibes for dessert, Profiterolles. Vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce is always good, but the pastry really made this dish outstanding.

Harmony Nights was great fun. I highly recommend visiting Grand Case on Tuesday nights in the late winter and spring when it is being held to soak up the atmosphere and browse the wares along Boulevard de Grand Case, and to have a fabulous dinner.

While it can get quite crowded since the street is rather narrow and there are tables lined up on both sides, it is a great party with several hundred of your closest friends, and some really nice, local art and crafts for sale.

to be continued...

Cheating

2010-07-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

One of my goals for the year was to post something every week. I was able to do that, even when I was out of town for a week to attend a wedding in California.

However, since coming back, more pressing matters have made it difficult to find the time to write something up. So I didn't this week. Unless you count this post. But that might be cheating.

But, I am working on the next St. Martin post, and this one includes a video taken by the S.O. You'll like the video. Promise.

Napolese

2010-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

A free night in the middle of the week and the S.O. suggested we try Napolese, the artisanal pizzeria extension of the Patachou empire. (The link takes you to the Cafe Patachou web site. Just click around and you will find info on Napolese and even a pdf of their menu.)

We arrived around 6:00 PM and found the interior of the restaurant to be completely full. There were still a couple of tables available on the sidewalk and after debating a while we took one. Why the hesitation? Because right next door, in front of Cafe Patachou, two nasty looking Bobcats were tearing up the sidewalk and parking lot, ripping out huge chucks of concrete. The S.O. decided they weren't noisy enough to warrant insisting on an interior table.

We went straight for the pizza, the heart of the identity of the restaurant, not fooling around with side issues like salads or starters. We both ordered a Meridian-Kessler pizza - Italian sausage, aged provolone and mushrooms. That's kind of our pizza we have had from almost every pizza joint imaginable, just your standard sausage and mushroom pizza.

We also ordered a bottle of Barone Ricasoli Chianti (3), a Sangiovese wine from Tuscany. Nice wine, varietal correct, but no more than just nice. Given the wine list the Ricasoli is a good, inexpensive choice to go with pizza. The expensive reds might be a tad over-the-top served with a humble pizza.

They brought us a dish of olives as a complimentary appetizer. Ever since the gnome was bitten by an olive when he was three years old, he has steadfastly refused to touch the things. The S.O. was quite happy because that meant she got them all to herself. Have I ever mentioned just how big an olive freak the S.O. is? Not as big an obsession as the Beatles, but pretty massive nevertheless.

Sorry about all the pictures of food showing the dishes mostly eaten. This blog is not what you call professional employment, more like a lark. My first thought is to eat the food, not to take pictures or to make notes for the blog. I'd tell you why I do write this but it falls into the category of what the S.O. calls "TMI."

Interestingly, from where we sat I could see The Barking Dog across the street. While there were people waiting for tables at Napolese, The Barking Dog was virtually empty. There was one couple dining al fresco and two wait staff standing behind their table. All four stared at Napolese with puzzled expressions like they couldn't understand why people were waiting for tables at Napolese when they could get immediate service at The Barking Dog.

It's cachet. Years of building the Patachou brand paid off by making anything new Martha Hoover does be the "it" thing. (More people did patronize The Barking Dog later, but I don't think it was ever more than half full.)

Our pizzas were tasty and nice. The Italian sausage was good and not too spicy. The mushrooms were whole buttons, a fun and interesting presentation. The toppings and the sauce were good.

But...

The crust was limp. It was soft and soggy and when you picked up a slice it flopped over and some of the toppings fell off.

After dining at Pizzology and having their Neapolitan pizza and then coming to a pizzeria named Napolese, I was expecting a crisp, Neapolitan crust. The pizza was certainly the irregular shape you expect from a Neapolitan pizza, but the crust was not the same. I don't think they use the same ingredients as Pizzology and probably not the same wood fired, 800 degree oven.

Those nice, round, little mushrooms? They had the disturbing habit of rolling away when you picked up a slice. This was not a pizza you ate with your hands. This was a pizza you ate with a knife and a fork.

It was pretty good pizza. I liked the toppings, especially the mushrooms. I actually liked them better than Pizzology's fennel sausage and wild mushrooms. I guess that is because the Napolese toppings were more like what I am used to. But the crust was not as good. To me, the crust more then the toppings is the true measure of the culinary artistry of a pizza kitchen.

Still, both of us finished our entire pizzas. To their credit, Napolese describes their pizzas as "artisanal" not as Neapolitan. We were just expecting something better.

When we left I noticed a lot of people waiting for something on the west side of Pennsylvania, just across the street from Napolese. They were standing around or sitting in front of a branch of the Bank of Indianapolis. And most of them appeared to be families with young children. I was puzzled.

The S.O. figured it out. They were waiting for tables at the Noble Roman's next door to the bank.

Seems that Napolese draws the adults and Nobel Roman's draws the families with children, and in the neighborhood around 49th and Penn, there are more families with small children than not.

Maybe The Barking Dog should take note.

Edit: See the comments for the real reason families flock to 49th and Penn on Wednesday nights. I stand corrected.

St. Martin (Marigot)

2010-06-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Martin last winter.

Tuesday morning we drove back to the French side for a day sightseeing in Marigot, the capitol of the French side, and dinner in Grand Case once again.

We had originally planned to take the ferry to Anquilla for the day. It's a short ride from the ferry terminal in downtown Marigot. However, the main (and almost only) attractions in Anquilla are the beaches, none of which are close to the ferry terminal. You have to take a taxi to a beach and then take a taxi back to the ferry. Sounded like a lot of work just to do something we had just done in St. Martin.

So we spent the day in Marigot.

We started the day driving up there, discussing our options, kind of looking around the bay area and then deciding where to have lunch. We choose L'Oizeau Rare on the eastern edge of the waterfront. Located in a cottage slightly elevated above the street, L'Oizeau Rare (The Rare Bird) was a lovely French bistro.

As in normal for us when we are in France we had a glass of wine with lunch, a Chardonnay for me and a Pinot Grigio for the S.O. A glance at the specials menu showed a lot of interesting French dishes, although I don't think you will find a lot of Black Angus ribeyes or kangaroo tenderloins in France.

The S.O. ordered Salade de chèvre frais au basilic toasté sur pain baguette, goat cheese salad on a toasted baguette off the regular menu. I ordered Tartare de salmon a l'avocado frites, salmon tartar with avocado and French fries. Both these dishes were very good, and perfect for a hot day when you want something light and refreshing for lunch. (I know. French fries are not light and refreshing, but the tartar was very good and made up for the fries.)

After lunch we climbed up the steps next to the restaurant to the top of the hill to visit Fort St. Louis.

It was quite a ways up in the hot sun, but was worth it. The fort may be a ruin now, but you can see why they built it on top of this hill. We had a wonderful panoramic view of not only Marigot and its harbor, but all along the coast near Marigot, even most of Simpson Bay Lagoon.

Next we wandered through some shops away from the waterfront. There are a lot of signs about extolling the art of Roland Richardson, so we visited his gallery. He mostly does plein air impressionist paintings.

I bought an old etching of his, a self portrait of a younger self. I do etchings as well as woodcut prints, and I was fascinated by detail in his beard and hair. I showed the print to my instructor when I returned to the States and his comment was that Roland didn't wipe his edges. Only a printmaker would make such an observation!

Roland's wife was minding the store and she told us a bit of Roland's history and also the history of the buildings which housed his gallery and studio. Part of it was originally built as barracks for the troops stationed at Fort St. Louis. It was fun to be able to tie in the gallery to what we had learned from our visit to the fort. It was also impressive that the buildings had held up so well for so long.

We worked our way down to the marina on Simpson Bay Lagoon - it spans both the Dutch and French sides - dropping in see the library since the S.O. is a book publisher and loves libraries. At the marina we stopped for a glass of chilled white wine at La Belle Epoque. Did I mention that it was hot?

Right on the marina La Belle Epoque had a large bar and a menu suited for lunch and snacking. And, of course, taking a break with a glass of wine. We had great fun watching a restaurant nearby get everything set up for dinner.

After our much needed break - we were on vacation after all - we searched for and found what appeared to be the premier wine shop in St. Martin, Le Gout du Vin (website in English or French.) It was a small shop but with a very broad selection of French wines. They run retails shops on three islands but wholesale wines to most of the eastern Caribbean.

We had a nice tasting and bought an inexpensive bottle of wine - I don't remember what - to drink in our room.

Finally, as we walked back to the car along the waterfront we stopped at Sarafina's Bakery, a large open air market. I bought a chocolate croissant to help balance against the wine I had drunk and we watched the locals come in and buy bread and other baked goods. You know you are in the right place when you see the locals shopping there.

We had a good day in Marigot. There were several other shops and galleries we would have liked to have visited, but we only had a day. And we mostly had only the afternoon. A lot of the shops closed up during the afternoon, closing for lunch and not opening again until 5 or so. Partly it is the French lifestyle, partly the heat of the Caribbean. Regardless, there is plenty more for us to see on subsequent visits.

After we retrieved our car, we headed back to Grand Case. This was Tuesday and Tuesday nights from January through April are Harmony Nights, "les mardis de Grand-Case." The main street is blocked off from vehicular traffic, arts and craft booths line both sides of the street, there is a parade, and, of course, all the fine dining establishments are open. We couldn't miss this.

to be continued...

Cabernet Tasting

2010-06-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

I hosted a Cabernet Sauvignon tasting recently. Unlike most tastings where you sample different wines from different vineyards and wineries, this tasting featured several wines that were almost completely identical.

The first set of wines were from Moffett Vineyards and featured their 2007 Napa Valley Reserve. The grapes were from the same vineyard, picked the same day, fermented at the same time, and aged for the same length of time in identical barrels. The only difference between the wines was that one bottle contained exclusively Clone 6 and the other Clone 8.

If are wondering what that means, remember that wine is basically an agricultural product, the result of growing plants in a field. When you go to store to buy tomatoes you might see many different types of tomatoes. A clearer example might be when you go to a nursery to buy flowers, you will find many different containers of the same plant, say Impatiens, but with different colored flowers.

We call these different versions of the same plant "hybrids." Growers spend a lot of time cross breeding plants to get particular characteristics they find desirable. Once they have a hybrid they like, they then grow more from seed.

A similar thing happens with grapes. Growers cross breed grape varieties or different versions of the same variety to get particular, desirable characteristics. Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance, is a cross of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. A lot of the wine grapes grown in Indiana are crosses between French varieties and native American grapes, yielding grapes that taste somewhat like their French ancestors but can survive in the harsh Indiana climate.

However, once wine grape growers get a desirable grape, they do not collect seeds to grow new plants. Instead, they take cuttings off the original plant and graft the cuttings onto root stocks. This means that each subsequent plant has the identical DNA of the mother plant, or what agriculturists call clones.

So what we tasted was wine made from two clones of Cabernet Sauvignon that was destined to be blended into Moffett Vineyards Reserve, but drawn off and bottled separately. Each person attending the tasting was given a glass and the instruction to taste each of the wines and see if they could tell the difference. There was a sheet for them to record their observations.

The main observation of the tasters was that they were surprised there was so much difference between the clones. These wines came from the same terroir, were treated in the vineyard and the cellar exactly the same, but tasted much different.

The tasters preferred Clone 6 by 2-1. Those who preferred Clone 6 remarked that it was "smoother," had "more flavor," "softer," and "more rounded." Clone 8 seemed to be more tannic, but had a better "bouquet" than Clone 6.

So obviously if you need more tannins and structure in your wine, you might want to add some Clone 8. If you are looking to soften the wine and add more flavor, you might add some Clone 6.

This begs the question, however, is the difference between particular wines due to the vineyard, or due to the clones used in the vineyard? So much is made of terroir, that blending of geography, climate, and oenological practices of the winemaker, but could the choice of clones be a greater factor in the ultimate quality of a wine?

Our second tasting was also of wines from Moffett Vineyards, this time barrel samples of their 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet. Each wine was from the same batch of Cabernet, but were being aged in different barrels. We had one bottle each from American Oak, French Oak, and Hungarian Oak barrels.

The first comment from our tasters was an almost uniform, "I've never heard of Hungarian Oak."

Most of the tasters could tell the difference between the American oak and the European oaks, but most thought the Hungarian and French were very similar. Comments about American oak included "harsh," and "vanilla." Comments about French oak included "smooth," and "more delicate." Comments about the Hungarian oak included "more complex," and "harshest."

All of the tasters preferred one of the European oaks over the American oak with a slight edge to the French oak. Interestingly, at the end of the tasting there was only a little wine left in the French and American oak bottles, but almost half of the Hungarian oak was left.

The final science experiment involved four identical bottles of 2007 Larkmead Vineyards Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

The first bottle was opened just before the tasting and the second one was decanted about five hours before the tasting. These were our "control" bottles.

The other two bottles were also opened just before the tasting, but one was outfitted with the Wine Clip, and the other with an aerator, in this case one from Rabbit. There are several different styles of aerators available. Both of these devices are supposed to moderate the tannic nature of young wines, making them smother and more accessible.

Virtually everyone preferred the wine in the decanter as you might expect. In fact, the decanted wine was probably the favorite of the entire tasting, being the first (and besides the two Moffett clones, the only) wine completely drunk.

We asked if the Wine Clip or the aerator improved the taste of the wine "a lot," "a little," or "not at all." Everyone thought that at least one of the devices improved the flavor "a little," but more than half thought at least one of the devices did "nothing at all." There was no consensus as to which device was better than the other, each receiving the same amount of votes.

We didn't try combining the two devices - put the Wine Clip and an aerator on the same bottle - but might in a later tasting.

My feeling is that neither the Wine Clip nor the aerator improved the wine's structure enough to justify their cost. You are better off decanting young, tannic wines, or storing them until bottle age has improved them.

Canal Bistro

2010-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Lunch time on Memorial day after a walk on the Monon, we found ourselves in Broad Ripple. Choices were somewhat limited because it was a holiday. But the Canal Bistro was open for business with al fresco dining along the canal. Perfect.

I always considered Canal Bistro to be a Greek restaurant, but it is a bit more cosmopolitan that that. They advertise their cuisine as Mediterranean. The owners/chefs are from Egypt and Lebanon. I am ignorant of the difference in the different styles of cooking but no matter. We were willing to experiment.

One disappointment. The last time we were there, a year ago or so, they had several Greek wines available. Apparently they did not go over too well because the wine list was pretty much California. The S.O. had a couple of glasses of Frei Brothers Chardonnay.

I decided to try out their ethnic beers. First I ordered Almaza, a Lebanese pilsner. I found it to be pretty ordinary. A lot like drinking Budweiser. When it came time to order a second beer, I switched to their Greek beer, Kea, from the island of Cyprus. This was a much more interesting beer with a bit of bitterness on the finish and more heft in the palette.

For our lunch we each ordered the Kafta Kabob Sandwich. Our were ground lamb rather than beef, with parsley, tomato, onion and Mediterranean spices served in pita bread with tahini sauce.

These were nice although Mediterranean cooks seem to like to scorch things on the grill, so there was a blackened, overcooked note to the meat. Still, the combination was pretty tasty. The sandwiches came with French fries and we both ruined our diets by eating them all.

When it comes to Greek/Mediterranean cooking I stay away from gyros because I do not like the yogurt and cucumber based tzatziki sauce used. Tahini is based on sesame seed paste and much more to my liking.

Outside dining is wonderful but the inside dining areas are beautiful. Recommended if you are interested in discovering Mediterranean foods and nicely situated in Broad Rpple just north of the canal.

#indyzoob

2010-06-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

#indyzoob was the tag to use if you tweeted about the Indianapolis Zoo's Zoobilation fund raiser last Friday night. I used it once during the day just so I could add to the hubbub about the event. Fund raisers, even ones that sell out months before the event, can use all the promotion they can get these days.

Zoobilation is a tasting buffet with sampler plates from eighty different restaurants, an open bar with boxed wine and a few premium spirits, five different stages featuring local acts I've never heard of (but surprisingly good) all set within the confines of the Indianapolis Zoo. Most of the animals take the night off but there are always some about.

We got VIP tickets which let us in 5:30 PM, an hour and a half earlier than those who purchased regular tickets, free access to the new exhibit (Cheetahs) and the (new) VIP restaurants which closed at 7:30 PM, and an air conditioned retreat inside the Dolphin Pavillion.

The best feature of VIP tickets is that you get a chance to visit some of the restaurant booths before the main crowd shows up and moving around becomes difficult. By 9:00 PM the pathways in the Zoo resemble the corridors of the old RCA Dome during halftime.

This is one of the biggest and best parties of the year. We arrived early and left early (we are as old as dirt), leaving the into-the-wee-hours frolicking to the youngsters. Fortunately, the thunderstorm came early and there was no rain during the event. You could see some lightning in the distance when we left, but nothing near the Zoo.

Our first stop - after picking up glasses of the inexpensive, boxed Chardonnay donated by Octavin Home Wine Bar, which specializes, apparently, in cheap, boxed wine - was the Cheetah: Race for Survival exhibit. Chardonnay and Cheetahs are a perfect pairing.

This new exhibit is permanent and currently features three females and two males. There is a glass wall between you and the females so you can get up close to the cats.

They didn't seem interested in my faux cheetah tux vest, but they were very interested in ladies wearing cheetah print dresses. One of the cats tried to sniff one of the women through the glass!

The cheetahs are at the far end of the Zoo in the African Plains exhibit. Usually this part of the Zoo is closed for Zoobilation but they opened it this year so we could get to the cheetahs. They were very active, constantly pacing back and forth, the females constantly walking past the window. I understand that mid day the cheetahs like to take extensive naps. Cats!

To get to the cheetahs we walked past the elephant exhibit. A mother and baby were out. We also saw several fancy birds, and later penguins and sharks in the Oceans building. There is a shark petting pool in the Oceans building and there is one particular shark which seems to crave being petted. And yes, I did stick my hand into the water with the sharks.

New this year several restaurants and caterers had booths in the African Plains area and were only open until 7:30 PM when that area closed down. Among the participants were Recess, H2O Sushi, Goose the Market and Zing.

Zing had the single best dish of what I tried this year. I sampled their Duck Tostada with Papaya Cole Slaw and Honey Jalapeño Dressing. Wicked good.

But they also exemplified one of the more frustrating practices of restaurants at this event. Sometimes the chef wants to match the food to the theme of the event, so they serve a dish that is not on the restaurant's menu. Last year there was a plethora of Asian dishes because the signature animal was the Kamodo Dragon. This year I noticed a lot of duck. Not sure how that relates to cheetahs, if at all.

I asked the people at the booth if the duck tostada was on Zing's tapas menu. They said no, but were thinking about adding it. Seriously, add it to the menu. Several hundred people, at least, got a taste of it and lots of us will want to order it the next time we are there.

On the other hand, Tulip Noir was also serving samples of dishes not on their menu. But they said the items would be on their summer menu which begins on June 15. That sounded like smarter marketing to me than what Zing was doing.

We visited several other booths, skipping some if we were familiar with the dishes they were serving. Of the dishes we sampled, these restaurants stood out.

Capital Grille - Kona Crusted Dry Aged Sirloin with Shallot Butter (I get this every year.)

Columbia Club - Wild Mushrooms with Rosemary Sauce

Country Mouse City Mouse - Mama Jo's Romesco with Goat Cheese, Garlic Crostini and Pea Shoots

El Sol de Tala - Cochinita Pibil, Salpicon de res and Guacamole

Fogo De Chao - Ribeye

H2O Sushi - Compressed Watermelon infused with Tequila and Mint (I think it was mint. My note is all smeared.)

Harry & Izzy's - Filet Sliders

Hoaglin To Go Café - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich

Sweet and Savory Catering - Mini Louisiana Crab Cakes

In addition to lots of food and alcohol, there are five stages with almost non-stop music. You can't be in all places at once, so we only heard a few bands. A couple stood out.

John David Webster was a solo act, singer with acoustic guitar. He did a lot of post-folk and classic ballads and some acoustic adaptations of rock songs. Apparently he has a trio but was performing alone at Zoobilation.

The other band we enjoyed played on the main stage, Tastes Like Chicken. They do 70's to present day Rock, Motown and R&B. If they dipped back into the 60's I think this might be the perfect local band for the S.O. Great party band.

We had a great time at Zoobilation like we do every year. While it is really geared for party people under 50, us old folks enjoy it, too. If you missed #indyzoob this year, remember that it sells out quickly in February. Order tickets early.

Silver Oak

2010-06-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

I have been to two retail wine tasting recently that poured the current vintage of Silver Oak, Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. One was a large tasting that featured several moderately high-end California Cabernets; I got a nice price on some Mondavi Oakville. The other was a routine Saturday tasting at Kahn's that featured three value wines - sparkling, white and rosé - and the Silver Oak.

Silver Oak is one of those big California Cabernets that always seemed to retail around $70 to $100. At a restaurant you will pay more than $100 for a bottle.

The thing that struck me was that you rarely see such a high priced bottle poured at a routine tasting. Usually these tastings feature value wines, less than $20, or the stable of wines from distributor's or winery's portfolio. They are the wines a distributor is promoting at the moment, the wines they want to move.

So I am thinking that the distributor is wanting to move Silver Oak. It's no longer a wine that sells itself.

I have been reading about how the top end California wines - top end in price anyway - have fallen on hard times. There are a lot of bottles backed up at the wineries and distributors that just can't be sold. Allocation lists that were impossible to get on are opening up for the first time in years. Lots of discounts to move lots of cases. (The Silver Oak was being sold for less than $60.)

I've actually benefited from this glut of wines, having purchased some decent Napa Valley wines direct from the winery at half price recently.

So it appears Silver Oak is a victim of the recession in sales of high-end California wines. They are having to give away samples at routine retail tastings to generate sales. Hopefully, there will be more high-end wines being sampled in future tastings.

If anyone hears of some store pouring Screaming Eagle please let me know.

Corner Wine Bar

2010-06-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

We took off early on a weekday night to visit Broad Ripple. I wanted to visit The Bungalow because they are such a big supporter of the Indianapolis Art Center. The S.O. wanted to visit Chelsea's because they have such cute animal shaped fans in their windows.

After we had perused the retails stores, we found a sidewalk seat in the shade at the Corner Wine Bar. It was very hot that day and I was pleased to find Miner Family Viognier (4) on their wine list at a reasonable price ($36). It is one of my favorite white wines and a nice chilled wine is just the thing when it's 85+ degrees out.

The bottle we got was the last of their 2006's, the last vintage with a cork. The 2007's have screw caps. The cork proved dicey, falling to pieces as it was extracted. Our waiter, Mike, was able to extract the pieces without getting cork into our glasses and the wine itself was just fine.

I did notice that a lot of people around us were having wine flights. They got smaller portions each of three or four different wines. We ordered a bottle because we pretty much know what we want. Wine flights are great if you are still exploring wine styles to see what you like.

We decided to start with a cheese plate and then see how hungry we were before we ordered more. We got three cheeses with bread slices: Cambozola from Germany, a blend of French soft, triple-cream and Gorgonzola; Capriole Farms' "Old Kentucky Tomme", an aged Indiana goat's milk cheese; and Beehive "Barely Buzzed" from Utah, a full-bodied Cheddar rubbed with Turkish coffee and French Lavender from grass fed Cow's milk.

This was a great choice of cheeses. We picked the Tomme because it was from Indiana and the Beehive because it was rubbed with coffee. The Tomme was good but the Beehive was better. If you order it, make sure you cut the cheese so you get some of the coffee rub in each bite. The coffee is what makes it outstanding.

My favorite, however, was the Cambozola. I love soft, rich cheeses like Brie and triple-cream. Adding a subtle bleu cheese flavor by blending in the Gorgonzola was a brilliant idea. The next time we return to the Corner Wine Bar, assuming these cheeses are still on their list, I am definitely ordering the Cambozola and the Beehive.

After we finished the cheese we were still a little hungry so we ordered a bit more food. I ordered Les Prawns off the appetizer menu and the S.O. had the appetizer Crab Cakes and a house salad.

The S.O. found the house salad to be good, but she was disappointed with the crab cakes. Too dry, she said.

I found the prawns to be very nice, just the thing for a carnivorous male. Four really large "jumbo" shrimp on a skewer, stuffed with crab meat, and wrapped in apple wood smoked bacon. What guy wouldn't go nuts over this stuff?

The crab meat stuffing, probably the same formula used to make too dry crab cakes, worked well with the prawns. The soft stuffing contrasted with the firm shrimp creating a harmonious texture Goldilocks would love.

The dish included a "horseradish" sauce on the side which I dipped the prawns into liberally. I put quotes around "horseradish" because this is not St Elmo's horseradish. There wasn't any fire to it at all. Yet I thought it gave the dish a creaminess that enhanced it for me.

A very nice dinner at a good, established restaurant along "adult" dining row (Westfield Blvd.) in Broad Ripple. We will be back again soon.

St. Maarten (Saratoga)

2010-06-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

The continuing adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in St. Maarten last winter.

In the guide books, the Saratoga Restaurant in Simpson Bay is listed as one of the better restaurants on the Dutch side. It features international preparations and seafood with a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America.

It also was very close to our resort. So close we could have walked there, although the roads in St. Maarten are, for the most part, not made for walking. No sidewalks, no crosswalks. And near our resort the road had several steep grades to transverse. We elected to drive even though it was close and the shopping center's parking lot was terribly crowded.

The restaurant is situated in the back corner of a strip center on the main highway through Simpson Bay. Actually it is the main highway for the entire island.

You walk along a brick entry way down the side of the strip center to a wrought iron gate that leads into the restaurant. Saratoga stretches out along the back of the center and has a fabulous view of the Simpson Bay Yacht Club, which is part of the main marina for the island.

We had heard fabulous stories about millionaire's and billionaire's yachts that had been tied up in the lagoon. Our table was on the veranda and we could gaze longingly at hundreds of thousands of dollars of yachting luxury all lit up like a boating fashion show.

The inside of the restaurant is nice with tablecloths and lots of wood trim. It is what you would expect for a fine dining experience.

Our waitress, surprisingly from Brazil, was lovely and her attitude was infectious. We always enjoy establishments with wait staff who are up beat and fun.

We ordered a Burgundy for dinner, 2005 Bouchard Pére & Fils Savigny-Les-Beaune "Les Lavieres," a nice, modestly priced Pinot Noir that went well with our seafood centric dinners.

The S.O. ordered the Sesame, Squid and Seaweed Salad with cucumbers and sweet soy. The S.O. said it was very Asian and the soy sauce nicely harmonized with the vinegar.

The S.O. liked this so much she said she could have had two of them and called it dinner.

I had a large bowl of lobster/shrimp bisque. Very nice with lots of shellfish flavor in the puree and a good number of nice sized chunks of seafood.

The S.O.'s entrée was Mahi-Mahi with black beans, fried Plantain and vegetables. I didn't write any notes about how she liked the dish, but she must of enjoyed it because I definitely would have noted if she hadn't. I was, of course, a bit too concerned with my own meal.

I had ordered the Salt and Pepper Fried Whole Black Sea Bass with Asian fermented black bean and ginger sauce and scallion Basmati. Now I should have realized that the use of the word "whole" meant that you got all of the fish, but I was not prepared for what they placed in front of me. I was expecting, you know, a filleted fish, like the Mahi-Mahi the S.O. got. Instead I got this.

Kind of spooky looking isn't it? Like Steven King was back in the kitchen, chortling.

I know a lot of people can't eat food that is looking back at them, but I have never had that problem. As a kid I used to go fishing in the summers at White Lake in Michigan, catch a mess of pan fish, scale them, gut them, chop off their heads and tails, and have them for dinner. So fish that looks like a fish doesn't really disturb me, but, boy, it is a shock when you aren't expecting it!

The "X" on the fish was a cut so I could dig inside and get at the meat. The fish obviously wasn't filleted so I had to work around the bones. It was more work that I would have wished for, but the flavor was good and the Asian preparation was wonderful. While I make fun of the presentation, it really was a great dish. But make sure when you are ordering at a continental oriented restaurant to check for the word "whole," or any other clues as to the preparation.

Next time I will make sure I order a filleted fish, but that is just because I don't like picking around the bones. It is definitely a great dish if you don't mind the preparation.

For dessert we shared Chocolate Grand Marnier Mousse Cake with Espresso Crème Anglaise Sauce. it sounded rich and delicious and it was. That's our lifestyle anymore. Order something rich and only eat half of it.

The S.O. found one of her current obsessions, Limoncello, on the after dinner drink list, so we had to have drinks. I ordered an Island Alexander: rum, cream, Kahlua, cocoa, and nutmeg. It was creamy, cool, a bit watery with a chocolate aftertaste.

In my notes I described our dinner at Saratoga as a "lovely experience." It certainly was. I can't say the dinner was better than the other fine dining experiences we had, but it certainly held it's own. The atmosphere was relaxing since we looked out over the marina and quieter than the active street life in Grand Case. And the waitress was lovely and infectious. Just what you want on a vacation.

Just be careful when you order the fish.

to be continued...

St. Martin (Baie Rouge)

2010-05-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the adventures of the S.O. and the gnome in the Caribbean last January. Yes, Doug, this is kind of like a flashback. We are not really in St. Martin right now.

Monday promised wonderful, sunny skies, so we headed to the beach. Our friend, Kelly Teller, told us that Baie Rouge was her favorite beach on the island, so we went there.

Getting there we had to traverse the worse roads on the Dutch side around Cupecoy, but the road smoothed out once we got to the French side. However, once we got off the highway at Baie Rogue we encountered an unimproved dirt road that led to a dirt parking lot, all of it seriously eroded by rain with huge ruts and holes to navigate.

In the middle of the parking lot was what appeared to a lifeguard chair with three locals sitting in it. One approached us and asked if we wanted to rent an umbrella and chairs. Of course we did.

He led us to the beach and pointed to a gray blue umbrella with two empty beach chairs. There were several diffferent color umbrellas. Each appeared to belong to a different entrepreneur. We paid our benefactor his bounty and assumed ownership for the day. Since no one challenged us, we assumed this was legit.

The beach was warm and sunny and we relaxed for most of the day. While there is quite an expanse of beach, all the umbrellas and activity were confined to a small area near the parking lot at one end of the beach. The rest of the beach was pretty empty.

Later we took a walk down the beach and discovered it fronted several expensive beach homes and harbored a few male sunbathers who took France's penchant for "clothing optional" beaches seriously. Most hastily donned swimming trunks as we strolled by. I guess only tourists actually take a walk on the beach.

At midday we decided to have lunch. There were two beach bars from which to choose: Gus' and Chez Raymond. The S.O. left the choice up to me and I selected the one that it appeared most obvious that they had food, Gus' Beach Bar and Grill.

I played it safe and got a cheeseburger, the S.O. ordered a Red Snapper sandwich. While my cheeseburger was fine, the S.O. said the Red Snapper was about the best fish sandwich she had ever had. The fish must have been very fresh. She thought grilling the fish to order and serving it on a baguette had a lot to do with it, too.

I continued my tradition of drinking Caribbean beer and had a couple of Caribes. I could get into this full time, sitting on a beach when it is sunny and warm, eating grilled sandwiches, and drinking island beers. I need a way to pay the bills, of course, but the rest of it suits me just fine.

While we were sitting there, a young man who worked for Gus brought out a sign board with their menu and daily specials on it and thrust it upright into the sand. Pretty soon a young Frenchman came out from Chez Raymond and thrust his menu board into the sand close by. After a few minutes the Frenchman moved his sign a bit closer and then even a bit closer, obviously trying to find a way to upstage Gus' sign.

Thus began the war of the signs.

Pretty soon a large black gentleman appeared from somewhere behind Gus' stand and opened a verbal sparring match with the Frenchman. It was pretty obvious to us that this was Gus and he was asserting his territorial rights. The Frenchman gestured to the invisible line dividing the beach between them. The argument continued.

Finally Gus picked up his sign and, in a defiant gesture, slammed it deeply into the sand right on the line and stormed off. The Frenchman raised his arms in exasperation and stormed off as well.

After a few minutes had gone by, the two young women who actually ran the counter and the grill told the young man who had put it out in the first place to move the sign. The young man picked it up and put it where he thought they wanted. They gestured no. He moved a few feet in the direction they pointed, thrust the sign into the sand and looked back for approval. They gestured for him to move it another direction. Back and forth he moved the sign until it was back in the same spot where it had started before the war of the signs. Finally they were happy.

I guess the lesson learned here is that the owner might be the boss, but the people who actually do the work are the ones who know how things should be done. Or maybe the lesson is that after the boss has asserted his rights and stormed off, the people who actually run things put will stuff back where it belongs. Same thing, really.

This was a good day on a beautiful beach that was not overrun with tourists. After we had soaked up as much sun as our internal temperature sensors and sunscreen could handle, we packed up and drove back to the resort.

That night we had reservations at a highly touted Dutch side restaurant and we were looking forward to more local fish and good wine. I also learned something about ordering fish in the Caribbean. But that's for the next post.

to be continued...

St. Maarten (Disappointment and Joy)

2010-05-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday in St. Maarten we elected to stay at the resort and enjoy their wonderful beach on Simpson Bay. It, of course, rained off and on all day, so we got little sun and hid under a huge, thatch umbrella.

We did split a Mahi Mahi sandwich and some fries from the beach bar at the neighboring resort. And I had a Carib beer. Lazy day.

That night we stayed on the resort for dinner. They had been touting one of the resort's restaurants as a high end destination, The Stone. Their specialty was hot stones on which you sear raw meat or fish at your table. We have had this presentation at other restaurants, mostly for appetizers, and thought it would be great fun for our entrées.

We ordered Salmon Spring Rolls for a starter, two entrées - salmon and yellow fin tuna - and a bottle of wine at 6:30 PM.

They brought the spring rolls at 6:45Pm and then proceeded to ignore us. The girl who took our order apparently forgot to turn our order in and was so embarrassed about it, she refused to even look in our direction.

At 7:15 PM we were able to flag down a different waiter and told him to cancel the bottle and just bring us a couple of glasses of wine.

At 7:45 PM. after inquiring a couple of more times with the other waiter as to the status of our dinner, we finally got our entrées. (Seriously, how long does it take to prepare raw fish?)

At 8:15 PM, an hour and forty-five minutes after we had ordered, we finally got our check, paid (no tip) and left.

This was a major disappointment and our worse dining experience on the island. If I wasn't on vacation and had the S.O. constantly reminding me to relax...

After dinner we headed back to Pineapple Pete's and spent the rest of the evening at The Alley, Pete's nightclub. We had gotten a flyer at dinner the night before promoting a concert by Terry Sylvester (the Hollies) and John Ford Coley (England Dan and John Ford Coley.) Since the S.O. is a 60's rock music fanatic, this was a must. And we just stumbled into it because we wanted to see the football game the night before.

We found ourselves seats at the bar while we waited for the concert to begin. The stage was in a small room next to the bar and we could see it through the bar.

Along a shelf that ran along the top of the bar were rows of liquor bottles. About everything you might imagine was up there. However, as I looked around I couldn't see any bottles of single malt Scotch, the S.O.'s drink of choice.

Our bartender, Jonesy, asked me what I was looking for. When I said I was looking for Scotch, he apologized and said that the evening's concert was being paid for by a liquor distributor and he could only serve that company's products that night. Arrayed on the table in the middle of the bar were lots of bottles, mostly tequila and vodka.

There were a couple of bottles with interesting, whiskey-like shapes and I asked what they were. Jack Daniels Single Barrel and Gentleman Jack. We told Jonesy that Jack would work and we each had a glass of the Single Barrel. Jonesy apologized again when he found out that each glass was $9.00. We told him we were okay with that.

I am sure he would be shocked to learn what I once paid for a glass of MacAllen 12 and another of Knob Creek at the lobby bar in the downtown Indianapolis Marriott.

Jonesy kept our glasses topped off that night, put several bottles of water in front of me after I switched to water (We didn't have far to go but I did have to drive back to the resort), even took my camera, went up to the stage, and took several flash pictures of Terry Sylvester and John Ford Coley.

While we met a lot of wonderful people on the island, none of them were better than Jonesy. He had one of those warm, friendly personalities that makes you think you have already been friends for life. And he was a pretty darn good bartender to boot. Fortunately, I had a chance to tell the manager how lucky they were to have Jonesy before we left.

The concert was pretty cool. Just two guys about our ages, up on a tiny stage with an acoustical guitar, a keyboard, and occasionally a bass guitar, singing a bunch of songs we heard on the radio in the 1960's and 1970's.

The crowd was energetic. The liquor was flowing freely. The singers were in good voice and enjoying themselves. They sounded really good, too.

The S.O. was in her element, immersed in sixties rock and roll, and the gnome found himself tapping his foot a lot and singing along from time to time.

And so, what started out as a really crappy evening with a terrible experience at dinner, turned into a joyous occasion.

Music, particularly when it is your music, the music you grew up with and which defines your cultural roots, transcends time and place.

No matter where you are, Clowes Hall, Conseco Fieldhouse, or some hole in the wall nightclub in the Caribbean, whenever your music finds you, you are transported out of your current reality into the emotional state you found yourself in when the music was new, when it filled you to the brim of your soul, when all you needed was that music and the air that you breathed, when you thought you might burst because of all the rumblings the music set off inside you.

Those feelings are profound, and when they come you simply embrace them, and are grateful you had the chance to experience them once more, as if they were new all over again.

Of course, it helps if Jonesy is your bartender and he keeps topping off your Jack Daniels.

to be continued...

GVC Survey

2010-05-22T11:58:00.001-07:00

The Wine Guy at the Grapevine Cottage sent out a survey with his last email newsletter. He was asking about restaurants and weekend trips. I took the time to respond, which is something I rarely do. Not that I don't have an opinion. I don't have time.

Here is what I sent back (with a couple of minor revisions.)

1. Where do you find the Indianapolis area's "Best Breakfast" ? And, what makes it good?

My favorite breakfast place is Tulip Noir. They give a small sample of the tea of the day and have a large selection of teas. For coffee lovers they use French Press coffee pots that they place on the table so you can pour it yourself. The menu changes with the seasons and they always have a number of interesting brunch items.

2. What is your favorite casual Indianapolis area restaurant (most entrees under $20)? And, what makes it good?

My favorite place to go when I don't want to clean up is MCL Cafeteria. Every entrée is under $20! I usually get my whole meal for around $10. They do try a fancy dish or two from time to time, but what everyone goes for is the comfort food: fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, rolls, pies.

It is one of the few places in town where you can get a variety of sides (not just potatoes and "chef's vegetables.") They also have reduced portion plates, lots of salads, and occasionally one of my favorite, chicken livers.

3. What is your favorite Indianapolis area fine dining experience (most entrées over $20)? And, what makes it worth the big bucks?

The best restaurants in town are R Bistro and Recess. Both have limited menus with very high quality preparations and presentations. Recess's prix fixe concept is great for people who are culinary adventurers. In neither place are you going to be served something you have had many times before, but everything you are served is exceptional.

4. Who has Indianapolis' best "alfresco" dining? What combination of ambiance and food makes it work?

Sangiovese on East 82nd Street. Very well prepared Italian food with a decent wine list. They have a deck in the back that overlooks White River. You wouldn't know it is there unless you have been inside the restaurant. Instead of looking at traffic or parked cars or the air conditioners on the tops of office buildings, you see the water and the river banks and lots of foliage. Highly recommended on a beautiful day.

5. Who makes Indianapolis' best burger? And what makes it good?

I rarely eat burgers out. But I used to be partial to Steak 'n' Shake. Their burgers remind me of a hole-in-the-wall burger joint I used to eat at in college, Crazy Jim's Blimpy Burgers.

6. What is your favorite weekend get away destination? Where should we stay and where should we eat?

Brown County. We stay either at the Story Inn or rent a cabin from Hills O' Brown. Story Inn has an excellent restaurant, but it is not too far to go into Bloomington to eat at Tallent or Farm or to go to Columbus and eat at Fork at 542.

We go each October and do the Back Roads Artists Studio tour. We also will go to the Story Inn for one of their wine dinners and stay the weekend. Other things to do include visiting the shops in Nashville, Brown County State Park, winery tastings, and just relaxing doing nothing.

Or are there any other good ideas you want to share with us?

A couple of other good weekend trips:

Go to Bloomington and stay at the Scholar's Inn's Bed and Breakfast and have dinner at Tallent or Farm (or both.) Always a lot of activities at IU to build the trip around.

Go to Roanoke and have dinner at Joseph Decuis. Be extravagant and order the tasting menu. For overnight accommodations, Joseph Decuis has a bed and breakfast. Or rent the Haynes House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, not too far away in Fort Wayne.

Slow Week and Wine Brands

2010-05-21T09:49:00.001-07:00

Maybe I should say it's been a busy week (my point of view) rather than a slow week (your point of view) to explain why there wasn't a posting earlier this week. Blame it on the Broad Ripple Art Fair which, in case you missed it, was great this year. Lots of great art.

To compensate, let me recommend this blog post by Blake Gray on the difference between wines and brands. I like to tell people that what they are drinking is not wine but a wine-like beverage. I am glad to see the difference so well explained.

Broad Ripple Art Fair

2010-05-12T14:13:00.001-07:00

This weekend is the Broad Ripple Art Fair, one of the premier art fairs in the country and one of the big "three" in Indianapolis. This fair is exceptional because the artists hand produce all the art displayed. No knockoffs imported from China.

I volunteer each year as the volunteer captain in the "Artist's Field," which is the Optimist Club's Opti-Park just on the south side of 67th Street opposite the Art Center. I will be there from before the fair opens until after it closes. If you get a chance, come by and say hello.

This year the fair should have more new artists than in previous years due to some changes in the rules. Plus, I just noticed looking at the program (download the pdf) that the kid's area has been moved to a previously unused area on the grounds so there are more artists booths in the field than last year.

The fair hours are 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Saturday, May 15, and 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. If you come on Saturday visit the Art Center tent in the Artist Field to get a wristband that allows you to return on Sunday for FREE!

What is there to see and do at the Art Fair? Original art from 225 Artists, four stages of entertainment (think really good local bands), plenty of great food, beer and wine tents, activities for kids of all ages at Marsh Kids’ World featuring the Prizm Creativity Tent and the WFYI Kids’ Stage, a medley of short films from the Heartland Film Festival, cultural organization displays, art demonstrations and much more.

Free parking and shuttle buses are available at Broad Ripple Park, Broad Ripple High School and Glendale Mall lot at Rural Street.

St. Maarten (Pineapple Pete and E.S.P.N.)

2010-05-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the adventures of the gnome and his S.O. in the Caribbean last January.

Those of you who are astute you will notice that I changed the spelling of the island's name for this post. That's because we were now on the Dutch side, and there the island is Sint Maarten. Pronounced the same, just spelled differently.

Our goal this evening was to enjoy a nice dinner at a tourist friendly restaurant and then watch the Colts play the Ravens in a nearby sports bar. The obvious choice was to dine at Pineapple Pete and then go to E.S.P.N. which we were told was nearby.

Pineapple Pete is located in a strip mall (sort of) along the main highway between the airport and Philipsburg, not too far from our resort. The main dining area is long and narrow. It appears to have been the space between two buildings that was roofed over. One end fronts the highway and the other end is a boardwalk along Marina Simpson Bay.

E.S.P.N. and The Alley, a nightclub owned by Pete, are next door to the restaurant and occupy a similar long narrow space. A narrow strip a little wider than the pool tables that fill the space connect those two.

Pineapple Pete caters to American tastes. Nothing on the menu is too exotic. There is just enough of an island touch to a few dishes (Rum Jumbie Coconut Shrimps, Conch Fritters) to remind you that you are in the Caribbean, but most of the menu will remind you of a seafood and/or steak restaurant back in the states (Grilled 12oz Rib-Eye, Herb Crusted New-Zealand Rack of Lamb, Crab Stuffed Shrimps, Crab & Spinach Crusted Grouper, Grilled Mahi Mahi Filet.)

On our waiter's recommendation we ordered a bottle of wine, 2004 Fort Simon Shiraz (2) from Stellenbosch, South Africa. I didn't make any particular notes about the wine, but I remember it as being pretty unremarkable. It was drinkable but nothing we would order again.

We decided to share three of their signature dishes: an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. Our appetizer was the Crab Stuffed Shrimp. I don't think the picture does justice to just how large the shrimp were. There was a lot of crab in the stuffing and the dish overall was very rich. An excellent preparation guaranteed to put on the pounds.

For our entrée we shared a Lobster Thermidor. This was a classic, old school, seafood dish. The lobster shell was split in half long ways, the lobster meat cooked in a light cream sauce with mushrooms, peppers and onions, and then spooned back in the shell halves for serving.

The waiter said that this was a large dish and we could order a half rather than a whole, but because the lobsters in house at the moment were huge, even a half was still a lot to eat. We split a half and it was all we could do to finish it.

This was delicious with large chucks of tender lobster and very rich cream sauce. Elsewhere on the island we ordered fresh local seafood, but this night we went with the over-the-top, fattening tourist dish and loved every bite of it.

I didn't get a picture of the thermidor because when it came I was mostly concerned with splitting it up between the two of us and then scarfing it down. The picture linked above is from the restaurant's web site and shows a full thermidor with both sides of the lobster. I think the picture understates how large the dish is, though.

For dessert we had Dark Rum Crème Brûlée. This was the classic steak house dessert with caramelized dark sugar on top. The addition of rum gave it kind of an alcoholic lift that made it better than the standard crème brûlée. The S.O. loved it.

We adored our waiter, Andrew. He told us that Pete's ambition was to take over the entire strip mall. He already had a good start with the restaurant, sports bar and night club.

We also picked up a flyer for a special concert Sunday night by Terry Sylvester (The Holllies) and John Ford Coley (England Dan & John Ford Coley) at the Alley, Pete's night club next door. The S.O., who is a huge 60's rock music fan, was terrible excited so we agreed to return the next night for the concert. But tonight our objective was to walk over to the sports bar and see the NFL playoff game on a large screen TV.

We exited out the back of Pineapple Pete onto the boardwalk went next door to the sports bar. Everyone called it ESPN. and it turned out that stood for Entertainment Sports Pete's Night Spot Cafe.

It consisted of a room with a large bar, about a half dozen tables, sports memorabilia on the wall and one large screen television. The marina side was open and the bar spilled out onto the boardwalk with a few tables and a wall mounted TV.

This was not a glitzy tourist hangout but rather a local bar with a sports theme. Most of the memorabilia on the walls were shirts from American teams. We saw a Colts t-shirt up there.

We found a table under the big screen TV and ordered drinks. I had a Red Stripe and a Johnny Walker Black. I was trying to get into Caribbean beers but the Red Stripe didn't do anything for me. I much preferred El Presidente and Caribe. The S.O. had coffee with Kahlua and cream.

I wore a Colts t-shirt. I was on vacation in the Caribbean so I didn't see the sense in bringing a lot of fan gear with me. Just more stuff to carry around. One t-shirt to show the colors seemed appropriate to me.

Not so the fans of the team we were playing, the Baltimore Ravens. Two separate couples in full Ravens regalia, complete with Ray Lewis and Joe Flacco jerseys, came in after us. (They had to sit at the bar since we had already claimed the last table.)

There was one other visible Colts fan in attendance, a local wearing a Colts hat. The S.O. also met a man from England who was engaged to a woman from Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis. You go so far just to meet someone from your own neighborhood.

The Colts won the game, 20-3, and the Baltimore fans had exited by the beginning of the fourth quarter. We had some decent sliders and French frys in the second half and tried to be magnanimous winners while wishing the Ravens fans better luck next year.

E.S.P.N. had a fun local vibe and is a great place to watch your home sports team if you are in St. Maarten. Everyone was friendly, even the Ravens fans.

The service staff here, as at all of Pineapple Pete's places, were excellent. The food we had in both places was well prepared and would have been right at home in a Midwestern restaurant/bar. Recommended for people who need a touch of home.

to be continued...

Petite Chou

2010-05-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

The S.O. and I had a dinner at Petite Chou, the Patachou Empire's outpost in Broad Ripple. We usually think of Patachou as a breakfast place but they serve dinner at both the Broad Ripple and Clay Terrace locations.

We made pre-theater reservations at 6:00 P.M. on a Friday night. We needn't have. Broad Ripple isn't an early dining destination and the Clowes Hall crowd appears to prefer Meridian.

I started dinner with the Country Pate, liver pate in the shape and texture of meatloaf. It included stone ground mustard from Local Folks and house made croutes. The croutes were the best part of this dish. The pate was dense and heavy and much too big. I would have preferred a lighter, creamier pate that could have been spread on the toast.

The S.O. ordered the Warmed Mushroom Duxelles, described as locally grown mushrooms served over toasted country bread. She let me have a taste and I was wondering if I suddenly pointed off to the left and said loudly "What is that?" and switched appetizers while her head was turned, if she would notice.

These mushrooms were the kind of thing expensive steak houses only dream about serving at twice the price. They had an incredible mushroom flavor that would not stop.

They have a short but decent wine list, especially if you look at the wines beyond those sold by the glass. Most of the bottles are priced between $30 and $50. About half of them are available by the glass. We ordered a GSM blend from Sonoma, A by Acacia. It was medium bodied and pleasant.

For my entrée I had the Seared Indiana Duck Breast, served over a warm green lentil and bacon salad with a Pinot Noir sauce. The duck was very nice, medium rare and still warm, but I was not thrilled with the lentil salad. Again, it was heavier than I liked. I felt that the lentils were too rustic for the duck, which to me is a more delicate fowl than chicken or turkey.

The S.O. had Petite Chou's "signature dish," Paillard, a seared flattened chicken breast with lemon-scented pan sauce and shaved Parmesan. You can get it on top of pommes puree (mashed potatoes to us Philistines), under a bed of baby arugula, or both. The S.O. went with just the greens.

When they brought her plate I thought they had brought her just a salad by mistake, but the chicken was hiding underneath all the shrubbery. She said the chicken was good but nothing to get terribly excited about.

Something you should get terribly excited about is dessert. Petite Chou devotes half of their dessert menu to sweet crêpes and you would be foolish to look further. (I am sure their other desserts are wonderful but we were not foolish and looked no further than the sweet crêpes.) There are Nutella crêpes, chocolate ganache crêpes, ricotta and honey crêpes, and even Crêpe Belle-Hélène (house-poached pear with a touch of crème anglaise, wrapped inside a crêpe and topped with chocolate ganache.)

We went with the advice of our waiter and ordered the French Crêpes Fines Sucrée with vanilla sugar. (The picture on the right already has a couple of bites taken out of it. Sorry.)

This was a light crêpe, like a very thin, light pancake folded around a filling of butter and vanilla flavored sugar. This was so good that the S.O. who swore she would only have one bite was competing with me to see who could inconspicuously eat the most.

I am sure that Petite Chou's French Crêpes Fines Sucrée is what the ancient Greeks were referring to when they used the term Ambrosia, the food of the gods. If I were a god, this would be on the menu.

Okay, so maybe that was a bit over the top, but that crêpe was wicked good.

We had an enjoyable evening at Petite Chou. Not every dish was exceptional, but a couple of them were. I have a new favorite appetizer (Warmed Mushroom Duxelles) and have discovered a wondrous dessert (French Crêpes Fines Sucrée.) Once I find an entrée that curls my toes (gnomes wear pointed shoes for a reason, you know) Petite Chou should move up to that list of restaurants that I just can't live without.

[Editor's Note: The gnome insists on referring to the local chain of restaurants owned by Martha Hoover as the "Patachou Empire." We are not sure exactly why he insists on this. We apologize for this lapse in manners on his behalf. We blame the cheap brand of bourbon he drinks. He blames Microsoft Windows. He always blames Microsoft Windows. He's a Mac guy.]

Wine Styles/Leland's

2010-04-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Ventured out midweek with the S.O. to explore a new wine shop - new to us anyway - up in the 146th Street area of Carmel. We actually had been to a Wine Styles in suburban Chicago a couple of years ago, but this was the first time we had been to the one in Carmel.

The shop is small with plastic wine cupboards along the wall that invoke the feeling of Spanish adobe. In the center of the shop are tables with a wide array of wine accessories, some of them quite cute. Certainly a place to go get an unnecessary hostess gift for that wine lover you know.

Two things that set it apart from a lot of wine stores are the café and the fact that they always have some bottles open for tasting.

When we walked in, one of the staff approached us and asked if we would like to try some wine. We selected the white and she handed us a tasting of Miner Family Viognier. Now this happens to be one of my favorite white wines. Any place that will serve the gnome Miner Viognier without being prompted is definitely tops in my book.

Later they gave us a tasting of the red they had opened, Biltmore Estates Cabernet Franc. Biltmore does some nice wines and the Cabernet Franc was accessible (which means it was drinking well now and probably won't improve by being cellared) and smooth. I might have bought a bottle if I had seen it on the shelves. (I am sure it was there but I missed it, which is good because I don't need more wine.)

I imagine the Cabernet Franc came from California even though Biltmore is in North Carolina. They do have vines on their property, but source much of their wine from the West Coast. They often do not list the source of their grapes on the label, which can be very frustrating. You aren't quite sure what you are getting.

The café has pizza and salads and sandwiches. One of my friends says they have a nice lunch. They sell several wines by the glass, so this would be a good place to have that French style lunch with friends.

They also have cheese and cured meat from which you make your own selection to create a plate. If you are just stopping in for a glass of wine this is quite nice.

The wine selection was pretty good for a small store. They didn't concentrate solely on value wines from value regions. You could pick up a bottle of Opus One if that is your wont. They were also not as California and big brand centric like say groceries. The S.O. was even able to pick up a bottle of Prosecco.

And as I said they had Miner Viognier and Biltmore Estates, so the selection was interesting. Definitely worth coming back.

We skipped the cheese plate at Wine Styles and elected instead to visit Leland's at Cool Creek for dinner again. Our last trip had been in September so we were overdue for a visit.

I started with the soup of the day, Crab Bisque. I like thick and creamy soups, and am fond of bisques as long as they include some chunks of seafood. This soup was excellent with a rich cream base and a generous supply of shredded crab. One of the best soups I have had in a while.

For my entrée I had broiled Boston Scrod, a large fillet of a firm, mild white fish with just a dusting of spices. It came still sizzling on a plate by itself - no puree or sauces underneath, no stacked vegetables on top. For my side I chose snap peas and carrots prepared in that challengingly ambiguous state of crisp-tender.

The scrod was simple but scrumptious and the vegetables satisfying. This was good basic food, well prepared, ingredients as fresh as you can get in Indiana in April, and delicious enough for any but sardonic food snobs.

This might not sound like a gourmet's dream - it is not - but it was perfect for me as I had just started a new diet. In hopes of losing fifteen to twenty pounds, my trainer has put me on a diet high in proteins, vegetables and fruit, low in carbs and fat, with as many as six low calorie meals a day. (We are not talking about my wine intake. Not yet anyway.)

Except for the soup (I am allowed to cheat a little for time to time) the fish and vegetable main course fit well in my diet and was much better than anything I could prepare at home. I was very happy by the time we left, a good meal out with no diet guilt!

Makes me think that we will have to make this combo of Wine Styles and Leland's a regular fixture in our weekly gastronomical adventures.

St. Martin (Moving Day)

2010-04-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

I am not sure that I mentioned that one of the reasons we picked St. Martin for a winter vacation is because some friends of ours had a "banked" time share they could not use before it expired.

They had offered it to us for the cost of the annual fee and exchange fee. This meant we use a condo most anywhere in the world for a week for about $250. (The kicker on time shares is how much you pay upfront plus the annual maintenance fee. But that's a topic for later in this series, when we were offered a time share of our own.)

We picked St. Martin because we visited the year before on a cruise excursion. It's warm, it's beautiful, it is a foodie paradise, and part of it is French.

What I thought was strange when I was making arrangements, but makes sense when you are there, is that all the time shares are on the Dutch side. There are none on the French side.

The reason is that the Dutch side is very American, very built up, lots of high rise time shares and resorts. Everything on the Dutch side is American centric. Everyone speaks English first, not Dutch. Even though the official currency is Guilders, the default currency is dollars. Even the ATMs give out dollars. This is a vacation spot designed for Americans.

The French side is very provincial. Resorts are tucked away. No time shares. They cater to French and European visitors expecting a laid back, very old world experience.

Sure, the majority of tourists are Americans, but you have to make at least some effort to assimilate yourself into French culture. While everyone takes dollars, the default currency is Euros. If you use a credit card the cost will be converted into dollars at the then prevailing exchange rate by your bank.

If you are visiting the French side, learn the basic phrases of French: "Bonjour, "Bonsoir," Oui," "Merci." Know how to order a cup of coffee and ask for the check.

If you make an effort to speak French, they will immediately know by your accent that you are American and speak to you in English. And from that point on you needn't speak another word of French. But they are so appreciative that you at least made the effort, that we never encountered a surly French man or woman. Everyone was very nice to us. (This was true of France itself.)

The French may have a reputation for being unfriendly, but it is undeserved. They are only rude to people who don't make an attempt to respect French culture and their language. Like a great many Americans.

Anyway, the point of all this is that our time share in which we were going to spend a week on St. Martin was on the Dutch side, not the French. So on our third day, we had to pack everything up and move to another resort for the rest of our vacation.

We started that day by walking back into Grand Case for breakfast. Because the S.O. loved the place so much, we had breakfast at Le Ti' Provençal, the restaurant where we had had lunch the day before.

The same Frenchman who greeted and waited on us for lunch, waited on us for breakfast. I got the feeling that he does everything, was probably even the cook. Regardless, we shared a cheese omelet for breakfast and enjoyed the view of the harbor.

After checking out we drove down the main island highway back to the city of Marigot, the capitol of the French side. In Marigot we stopped at Match, the French supermarket chain, to purchase provisions for the week. The S.O. in particular wanted to stock up on French coffee.

Traveling on, our destination was the Pelican Resort Club on Simpson Bay, across the water from the airport. It looked really nice from the description on the Intervals International web site, included a lot of amenities: a beach, restaurants, on site access to excursions, a casino, etc.

Since we had time, I wanted to take a scenic route and go by way of Sandy Ground, Cote d'Azur and Cupecoy. This is a long peninsula which wraps around Simpson Bay Lagoon and eventually passes by the airport. This would give us the chance to scope out Baie Rouge, Long Bay, and other potential beach excursions.

I got turned around in Marigot and ended up taking the cross country route back towards our resort rather than the ocean view route.

The nice thing about being on an island, if you get turned around, just find the ocean. It's never too far away. Once you find the ocean just decide if you should turn left or right. Make the correct choice and you will eventually get where you are going. Make the wrong choice and you will still get to where you are going, it will just take you a bit longer.

We turned around and found our way back onto the right road.

I tried to drive slow since the scenery was beautiful, and could for the most part achieve that since this was the road less traveled. When I got to the Dutch side, however, I had to drive slow because the road was terrible.

I mentioned this early that the roads are better on the French side, but no where on the island is the difference more noticeable than around Cupecoy and Maho. There was a high rise resort under construction and the construction traffic had torn up the road something fierce. It's a toss up whether you keep your eyes peeled to the road looking for craters the size of Volkswagens, or on the brake lights of the vehicle in front of you.

Despite my attempts to lose us, we made it to the Pelican Resort Club. This is a vast complex of one and two bedroom condos that are sold as weekly time shares. There is a new complex called Pelican Marina Residences which is still being actively sold, but we were in the older complex.

Most of the people we met at the resort had owned their time shares for many, many years and came back year after year. A lot of them owned more than one week.

For most of them this seemed to just be a second home. They weren't on vacation. They had their haunts, their favorite places to get an inexpensive meal, save money on essentials. They spent most of their time at the resort, taking advantage of the beach, the pools and the other inclusive amenities.

They could have easily been back in New York or Indiana. They just had less responsibility here and weren't freezing their posteriors off.

We, of course, being newbies had much to learn about living in paradise on the cheap, and weren't inclined to learn. After moving into our nice but dated accommodations, we headed down to orientation to find out just how much more of our money we could spend at this resort.

We have to give the resort credit. It was run with the efficiency of a cruise line. If the ground had moved beneath our feet we would have thought we were on Princess or Royal Caribbean.

They assigned us two employees, a concierge and a salesman. I forget exactly what titles they used, but that was what they were. Except we never saw the concierge after the first few minutes. The salesman was our main contact with the resort.

(To be fair, we could call the concierge number at any time, talk to whomever answered the phone, and get whatever we needed without hassle. We made restaurant reservations this way, no problem.)

I will talk more about the salesman later (we loved this guy) but our main concern our first night at the resort was finding a good place to watch the NFL playoffs. The Colts were playing the Ravens in the post season and we had stupidly booked a vacation instead of going to Lucas Oil Stadium to see the game!

Our salesman told us we should be able to get the game on our room TV (we could have), or watch it at a local beach bar. But the best place to watch it would be at ESPN, a sports bar. I thought, "Cool. Disney has a bar down here. That will be the perfect place to watch. Full of American sports fans. Wonder if it will be packed?"

ESPN was next door to a restaurant lauded in the guidebooks, so we headed out there, Pineapple Pete, for dinner. After dinner, we'd watch the game!

to be continued...

KFC Double Down

2010-04-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

KFC has a new dish they are advertising heavily called the KFC Double Down. It consists of two slices of bacon and two slices of cheese between two fried boneless chicken breasts. That's right. Instead of putting the sandwich on a bun, they have substituted fried chicken for the bread.

I'm sorry. Does anyone not understand why Americans have a serious problem with obesity?

There is an aspirin commercial featuring an extremely obese woman who had a heart attack on an airplane saying that she is now taking an aspirin a day because her doctor told her that it was the easiest preventive regimen you can take.

The easiest. Doesn't mean it's the best. Doesn't even mean it will work. She is on it because it is the easiest!

Hello! Lose the weight, lady!

Aspirin isn't going to save her life if she remains terminally obese. Her heart is going to fail despite the fact she is thinning her blood with aspirin. Everything you see on TV is just propaganda designed to separate the gullible from their money.

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Yankee Tavern

2010-04-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

The S.O. and I saw Yankee Tavern last weekend, the current play at the Phoenix Theatre. It runs through May 1st.

The play was written by Steven Dietz, the playwright who also wrote Becky's New Car, which just concluded its run at IRT. We saw that play a couple of weeks ago and were excited to see this thriller by the same author.

Yankee Tavern is an intimate drama which takes place in a New York City bar. One of the characters, Ray, holds forth on a wide range of outlandish conspiracy theories, most of which concern the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy, the ghosts upstairs in a shuttered hotel, and the "other" moon - the one you can't see.

The bar owner and his fiancée humor Ray and even tease him a bit. Ray seems to enjoy being the center of attention and dispensing nuggets of hidden knowledge, even when it is obvious he is making a lot of it up.

Then a man walks in and orders beers for himself and his "invisible" friend. He appears to take Ray seriously and eventually you begin to realize he may have been part of a 9/11 conspiracy.

From there the conspiracy theories get convoluted and begin to entangle the characters personally until finally Ray, the man whom no one believes, is left on stage with "proof" and no one to whom to show it.

As we were walking out, I muttered out loud, "Maybe someone can explain that to me." The S.O. said she wanted to look up what the author had to say about the play (the author says conspiracy theories are "catnip" to a playwright) or maybe read some reviews on the Internet.

Thinking about it for a while - and this play is designed to make you think and talk about it - I came to the conclusion that it is fashioned like a conspiracy theory. You are given enough information to form some opinions, draw some conclusions, perhaps even outlandish ones, but you are not given enough evidence to be able to say one way or another what the truth is.

Too many things are unexplained and you inevitably fill in the missing information with whatever biases you have, and in the process create your own conspiracy theory about what happened. Just as the characters create conspiracy theories about 9/11.

So go be part of a conspiracy and see the play before it closes.

On the whole, though, I liked Becky's New Car a lot better.

Neil Gaiman

2010-04-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

Last Friday the S.O. and I attended the 33rd Annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture presented by the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Foundation. This year the author honored was Neil Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman is a prolific, versatile author best known for his work in fantasy and graphic novels.

I had the chance to meet and speak to Neil at a reception before the lecture. He is nice and personable, and charmed everyone in the room, even the heavy hitter donors who had never heard of him.

I think of everyone in the room my age or older, I was the only person who had read one of his books. My favorite (so far) is Neverwhere.

I didn't glean any inside dope. You have to know the right questions to ask. However, a couple of young men, huge fans of Sandman, asked if there would be any more in that series. Neil said maybe, since the folk at D.C. Comics were being especially nice to him lately. But Neil doesn't own the Sandman series like he owns his other works, so when faced with the choice between working on something he owns and something someone else owns...

One other note about the reception. Neil asked that members of the Naptown Roller Girls be invited to the event. Either he is a big fan of woman's roller derby or is researching a story.

We were told by a Foundation official that Neil considered them to be his "peeps," and the gentleman wondered out loud, probably disingenuously, what a "peep" was and how one got them. I deliberately misinterpreted his words and explained that they are marshmellow treats in the shape of small chickens and you get them at the drug store.

Regardless, Neil seemed delighted that they were there and spent some time talking and having his picture taken with them.

The lecture which was held at North Central High School was packed. One introducer said that for the first time in the 33 year history of the McFadden Lecture there were more Generation-X, Generation-Y, and Generation-Z attendees than Baby Boomers. (This raises the question, What comes after Generation-Z? Generation-0? Generation- AA? 2012?)

Neil Gaiman is a tremendously polished and entertaining speaker. He beguiled us talking about his art, and reading four excerpts from his work. One story he read had been written only a month ago and was not yet published.

Neil took several questions. The cutest one was from a young girl who asked how many children's book he had written. Neil says he is never quite sure just how many books he has written. He counted out loud with some help from the audience and decided he had written ten.

Or was that eleven?

A man in the back asked for some advice on a book he had written and offered to recount the story. Neil mercifully declined and gave a rather good bit of advice. He recommended that one finish the story, even if it means writing some terrible, horrible prose. The writing can be fixed in editing and revising, but it in imperative that you get the story down first.

I guess I have to get back to working on the novel, huh?

A parting note: I gave the S.O. my copy of Neverwhere to read since she had never heard of Neil Gaiman, and she said she found it too creepy. She was fully expecting not to like Neil Gaiman. But not only was he charming when we met him, but his lecture was so intriguing and enthralling for her, she decided she should try to read something else by Neil Gaiman, something "not so creepy."

I sent her a copy of a not-creepy Neil Gaiman story, "Chivalry" from Smoke and Mirrors, a short story collection, and she loved it. Now she wants to get some of his children's books and read them. (She is a children's book publisher, by the way.)

I went out the next day and bought the first in the series of eleven Sandman books. This might be my first D.C. comic since I was a kid.

Columbia River Gorge

2010-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

The S.O. and I recently visited Portland, Oregon. She had been out there the preceding week for a trade show, so I flew out to join her for the weekend. We had two days to look around, which is not nearly enough time.

I had set up a tour and tasting at Domaine Serene on Sunday, so we knew we would be touring wine country that day. However, Saturday was up in the air. We made plans to either go to the Pacific coast, visit Mt. Hood, or just stay in Portland. It would depend on the weather.

Saturday's weather was gorgeous, so we scrapped all those plans and went to the Columbia River Gorge instead.

The gorge is amazing. The river was there before the mountains, according to the tourist leaflet I read, so instead of the river originating in the mountains, the river runs through the mountains.

The sheer sides of the gorge were carved out when the dam created by some ancient glaciers broke and water rushed through the mountains, carrying along boulders and other debris that sliced away the mountain sides.

The gouging out of the river valley left sheer cliffs that produce many magnificent waterfalls. Some are close to the highway (there is even one with a parking lot in the center of the interstate) and some are a hike in from the road.

If you go, even on a nice sunny day like we had, take an extra pair of shoes because the ones you hike in are likely to get pretty muddy. Or you can just limit yourself to the state's most visited tourist attraction, Multnomah Falls (both pictures above), the second tallest waterfall in the USA. There is a paved path all the way up to the bridge you see in the pictures and beyond.

And yes, that little waterfall you see below the bridge in the second picture is the same one that is in the picture at the top of this blog entry. Now imagine just how tall the big waterfall is!

We left Portland on Interstate 84, and got off at Troutdale to follow the "Historic Columbia River Highway." The highway was built in the early Twentieth Century and opened up the gorge to tourism and commerce. Today, some of its more picturesque features have been replaced by more practical (and safe) modern counterparts, but this still is a beautiful drive through a fantastic scene.

Of course, in terms of commerce, the highway has been replaced by the Interstate, but as far as tourism goes, the historic highway is something you have to do at least once.

Now, I had read my tourism guide, Frommer's Oregon, and had some idea of what I was doing, but really, we just followed our noses and stopped whenever we saw a state tourist sign. Since there really is only just the one, two lane highway, this is a place to just wander without a plan and without a timetable. To rush through the gorge would be just sad.

Our first stop was the Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint, also known as Chanticleer Point. From here you have a magnificent, panoramic view of the river. On clear days you also have a wonderful view of Mt. St. Helens.

A short ways down the highway from Chanticleer Point the highway begins to drop down to the level of the river. And by drop, I mean the road goes through a series of hairpin turns and switchbacks. Remember that the gorge has steep sides hundreds of feet tall and you have to negotiate that to get to the valley floor.

Right is the middle of this labyrinthine passage is the Vista House, a state run information center that is perched almost directly above the river. Here there are equally magnificent views, but because of the house's exposed position, you also encounter correspondingly magnificent winds!

Even on such a nice day as when we chose to visit, it is hard to stand outside at the Vista House. You would have thought we all had been drinking the way we staggered across the parking lot. Fortunately, once you get to the valley floor, and especially once you are in the forests, you won't notice the wind.

After leaving the Vista House and working our way down to the river, we encountered our first water fall, Latourell Falls, which is just a short walk in from the highway.

The first thing you notice is just how green everything is. Given how much it rains in Oregon I guess this is to be expected, but I couldn't get over all the moss covering the trees. At times it was like stepping into a fantasy novel, something out of Tolkien or Le Guin.

Our next stop was at Bridal Veil Falls, a double falls that starts just under the highway. The modest hike to the falls takes you by the river. This was the S.O.'s favorite falls, probably because we were able to walk well up to the pool beneath the falls (everywhere else was too muddy or misty to get too close) and because it wasn't nearly as crowded as some of the others...

... like Multnomah Falls, the big tourist attraction in the gorge.

As I mentioned, there is an exit on Interstate 84 which only takes you to a parking lot for Multnomah Falls, a lot which lies between the two sides of the Interstate. And the only exit from the parking lot is back onto the Interstate.

Needless to say, this place was crawling with people.

I have to admit, though, Multnomah Falls is impressive. It's a double waterfall. The taller of the two is the second highest in the country, second only to one in Yosemite. What I think really attracts people is the bridge over the lower falls that overlooks the pool beneath the higher falls.

We walked up to the bridge and stood out on it for a while. Most everyone went further, up to the pool and even beyond, but we stopped there. The mist was in our faces, getting us slightly damp. No matter where else we might view the falls, it would not be any more majestic or impressive than from the bridge.

Besides, we had places to go and things to see. We only had two days in Oregon after all.

Our next stop was Elowah Falls, an out of the way and less touristy water fall. It was just a "short" hike from the parking lot.

The odd thing was that, in two of the groups that were returning from the falls, the men were busily changing their shoes. I figured they were experienced hikers with "special" shoes, because what tourist brings extra shoes?

The short hike took us a while. The path was narrow, steep and rocky. And when we got close to the falls, it started to become more and more muddy. We stepped around the mud until finally we were confronted with a large patch of muck that was impossible to get around.

Now I knew why those people were changing shoes. To go any further would mean forgoing wearing our shoes until at least we got home and could run them through the washing machine a few times.

We could see the falls, and I took a picture to prove that we had been there, and proceeded to trudge our way back to the car.

Our last stop was at the fish hatchery and dam. We had had enough of hiking through the wilderness for one day.

The fish hatchery was interesting. It was obviously a working facility which had added some viewing windows for tourists. Not a Disney attraction by any stretch of the imagination.

At the hatchery they had a sturgeon was was monstrously old and about ten feet long. They also had a number of rainbow trout which they do not raise to release into the rivers, but are pretty and fun for the tourists to watch.

The dam has a fish ladder that allows the salmon to get upstream past the dam. We stared through the viewing windows for a moment, but no fish came by. We did discover the chart that documented how many fish, on average, pass by every month. March, the month we were there, is the worse month for viewing fish. Almost none come by. The best month is September. Oh, well.

At this point we were pretty exhausted and took the Interstate back to our hotel in Portland.

After a short rest back at the hotel and before dinner, we were able to squeeze in a visit to Powell's City of Books, an amazing independent book store in downtown Portland. The store takes up an entire city block and parts of it are three stories tall. All retail book space, selling both new and used books. And all their technical books and home and garden books are handled in other locations!

Powell's publish maps to their store. There was even one in our hotel room along with a "Walking Map of Downtown Portland." You need a map; it's that big.

We had a great time perusing the shelves. We, of course, bought several books and had them shipped home. I picked up some out-of-print books on print making and a couple of novels. (I shouldn't have had both novels shipped home as the novel I picked out at the airport to read on the flight home was dreadful.)

One thing that fascinated me was The SF Post. Powell's has any science fiction writer who does a book signing at the store autograph a column in the Gold Room where all the science fiction books are. Being a SF reader from way back (we are talking the 1960's here, folks,) it was fun to see all the names of authors I knew. As well as a lot of authors I don't know.

We did more in Oregon than just visit the gorge and Powell's. We ate at several restaurants and visited several wineries. Those will be the subjects of two future posts.

St. Martin (Le Pressoir)

2010-04-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

Our second dinner in Grand Case was at a restaurant we had scoped out the night before, Le Pressoir. It was in a beautiful old house at the north end of town, close to where we were staying.

The restaurant is named for the antique salt press on display across the street.

Salt was an early product produced in the Caribbean for export to Europe. Salt production is no longer of any meaningful economic impact in St. Martin, the main and almost only business is tourism. The salt press hasn't been used in half a century.

The tour and restaurant guides you pick up around the island tout Le Pressoir as having the best hospitality on the island. The serving staff were certainly well trained and very nice (and as the S.O. pointed out, almost exclusively attractive young women) but nothing deserving awards and universal acclaim.

Then the chef's wife (and co-owner) showed up and started going from table to table enthusiastically greeting the guests. Then the reason for the awards for Best Hospitality became clear.

Dinner began for me with Rosace de Saint-Jacques, rolled sea scallops in a mango butter sauce. The scallops had been sliced and the dish resembled potatoes au gratin. The mango sauce was sweet.

The presentation of this dish was something of a surprise, but quite tasty. There was more food there than I was expecting.

The S.O. ordered Tartare de Thon, raw red tuna with a lime emulsion, for her starter. My notes don't say, but I can't believe she didn't love this dish. Especially given her assessment of the restaurant when we finished.

As will be the norm in my reminisces about St. Martin, I don't have room for all the pictures, so click on the links to see pictures of the dishes which are not shown in the blog. And if you click on the pictures that are in this (or any) blog entry, you can see a larger version of the picture! This is especially good for the picture of the halibut dish below.

For our wine, we again relied on the advice of our server and were served another Bordeaux. This time it was 2005 Marquis de Bellefont, the second wine from Chateau Bellefont Belcier, a St. Emilion Grand Cru. It was pretty pricey compared to what this wine goes for in the states, but considering that we were on an island in the Caribbean, I guess we paid the going rate. It was, of course, lovely.

For our dinners, we both ordered Filet de flétan, grilled wild halibut with a saffron emulsion. The purple stuff on the left is mashed smoked potatoes, and the orange stuff on the right is mashed sweet potatoes with ginger. It was served on a wood plank which was still warm when set on the table.

This was as good as you can imagine.

The black wafers in the picture are sliced black truffles. The S.O. passed on them because she doesn't like the smell of truffles. I should have passed on them because I discovered I can't taste or smell truffles. (Just like I can't smell a corked wine, I guess.) But we were on vacation, it was a French restaurant, and I was going for it all. So I ordered the truffles.

However, they don't just put truffles on the plate. Oh, no. Truffles are a table side service at Le Pressoir.

The server brought a large black truffle to the table along with a scale. She allowed me to sniff the truffle. I, of course, faked being impressed since I horrified to discover that truffles don't have any aroma for me. She then proceeded to slice the truffle very, very thinly and weigh it out a gram at a time.

Grams are very small measures of weight by the way.

I confess I wasn't paying close enough attention when the server first explained this procedure to me - I blame her French accent - to know what I was getting into. Truffles are really expensive right? That's the main attraction of truffles, isn't it, that they are difficult to find - you have to train a pig to sniff them out - and very, very expensive.

So as she was slicing this truffle up and weighing it out, I kept imagining my bank account draining away gram by gram. Was it a dollar a gram, ten dollars, a hundred dollars?

And since everything on the French side is priced in Euros, does that mean that my money is being siphoned away even faster than interest piles up on a credit card?

I stopped her at two grams, not so much because I knew what I wanted, but because I was scared of just how much this was going to cost me. Any more and I might have to borrow money from the S.O.

Turns out, two grams of black truffles was four Euros, less than six bucks. Not quite enough to force me into bankruptcy.

Still, I have to ask, are truffles really that special, or are they just the over hyped, super celebrities of the food world? Culinary Milli Vanilli.

Regardless of what you think of truffles, fresh fish in St. Martin is to die for, and the halibut was great.

For dessert we had a marinated pear with vanilla ice cream, a thin chocolate shell and chocolate sauce. You don't need to be told how good this is, just look at the picture.

I had a 10 year tawny port with dessert. I am big into tawny port, although I prefer 20 year bottlings. The S.O. discovered limoncello on the dessert drink list, and this set off a great hunt for limoncello while we were there. She even risked bringing home a bottle in her checked baggage.

I confess limoncello doesn't do much for me, but I'll have my port and she can have her fermented lemonade and we get along just fine.

Le Pressoir was the S.O.'s favorite restaurant on the island. I considered this the second best meal I had. (The best meal comes later.) In fact we liked this place so much, it was the only place we visited twice for dinner.

One last word. About tipping.

In Grand Case, you can charge your dinner on your credit card, but you can't charge your tip. Tips have to be in cash. On the Dutch side you can charge everything, but on the French side you need some cash.

Since we were eating at some rather pricey establishments, I ran low on cash pretty quickly. I hadn't expected I couldn't put the tips on the card.

Another complication, there are no ATM machines in Grand Case. In Europe there were ATMs all over the place. A lot of people in Europe use the ATM exclusively to bank. The only ATM around was at a gas station a mile out of town.

So next time time we are in St. Martin, I am going to start off with some more cash.

Fortunately, on the Dutch side, there are lots of ATMs, and there were no fees to use them. Not even fees imposed by my bank. But that's the Dutch side. The Dutch side is designed to accommodate Americans.

But we started on the French side. And on the French side, we Americans have to accommodate the French.

to be continued...

Becky's New Car

2010-04-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to accompany the S.O. to see Becky's New Car at IRT. The play's run ends this weekend so if you want to see it you best hurry. And I recommend you do.

This comedy is literate, smart, humorous, wry and thought provoking. It concerns a woman facing a midlife crisis, confronting choices that everyone believes they could handle correctly, but would you really?

The play was commissioned by a couple in Seattle who discovered, while attending a concert, that it was possible to commission a composer and a symphony to create a new work of art. They thought, "Why not the theater?" and commissioned a play which first opened in Seattle.

We are fortunate that they chose Steven Dietz to write the play and that James Still, IRT's resident playwright, saw the play and decided he wanted to bring it to Indianapolis and direct it himself.

It must be cool to be be able to commission a play. I imagine it takes a lot of money, especially when you see what the money produced. Becky's New Car is certainly worth whatever they paid. Even if it was too much.

I would love to be able to commission a play someday. I think I should make that an ambition. At the moment I might be able to commission a line. Well, maybe two lines, but not much more.

The actors in this play are superb. This is the kind of production that will spoil you for future performances. You will compare those actors to the actors in this production, and find them wanting no matter how good they are, just because they are not Constance Macy, Robert Neal, Nicholas Hormann, Adriano Gatto, et al.

One of the unique features of this play is how the audience is worked into the show. It is very interactive. Becky brings audience members up on stage to help her do a costume change and Joe asks some one in the audience if he would like a beer and then brings it to him.

The interplay with the audience turns out not to be strange, but very organic, and very funny. The audience feels like they are part of the show, and they are.

Brilliant.

In terms of plot, let me say that the play involves several romantic entanglements that approach Shakespearean proportions, and the resolution is satisfying without being trite or melodramatic or coy. The playwright does a good job of keeping the material fresh and real, while still making it playful and comedic.

Did I say this is the last weekend and that you should go?

If you do attend the play, just imagine how much I am going to enjoy driving with the S.O., coming upon a succession of billboards, and being able to say, "Walter Flood, Walter Flood, Walter Flood." It will be a pleasure to hear her laugh hysterically as this triggers memories of the play.

Interestingly, the IRT and the Phoenix Theatre coordinated their schedules and brought in plays by the same playwright, Steven Dietz, at the same time. Dietz's Yankee Tavern, a "conspiracy theory" thriller, opened last night at the Phoenix.

The Phoenix promotional copy says: "Alfred Hithcock meets Oliver Stone in this fascinating and quirky thriller set in a dusty old New York City bar. The young owner just wants to pour beer, marry his financée and live happily ever after. When a stranger walks in and orders a drink for himself and his invisible buddy, a thriller is set into motion that grips you until the very last word."

Given how good Becky's New Car was, I can't wait for Yankee Tavern.