Twix Triple Chocolate review

You know what I love? Chocolate.

You know what I love more than chocolate? Double chocolate.

You know.... er, you see where this is going.

Yup, Twix has a limited edition Triple Chocolate out there. Jumped into the grocery cart it did (sayeth Yoda).

What's different? The regular cookie is replaced with a chocolate wafer, and the caramel is now a chocolate caramel. Same milk chocolate coating. And, surprise it is good. But, really, it isn't better. Of course, the Twix bar was a landmark bar, and I distinctly remember when it arrived as a young boy (1979, according to this timeline). For my taste, no newer bar that I know of (not the Take 5, not the NutRageous, etc.) has become such a cultural confectionery mainstay.

But, the original is still better, in my humble opinion.

There's also this (with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, if that matters to you). I'm such a sucker for retro-packaging.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. We're going camping on what looks like a spectacular weather weekend. Irish Fest at Military Park downtown if you're staying in town.

Shanghai Lil review

After lamenting the erosion of quality Chinese restaurants, I feel like I've had a nice run lately. Shanghai Lil is often referred to as one of the best Chinese restaurants in the city, but this is a city in which i don't feel like the bar is exceptionally high for Chinese food.

From the website, which I had not really paid any attention to before, Shanghai Lil is owned by the group that has the Mikado Japanese restaurant downtown. And, most would know that their is a sushi bar at Shanghai Lil. I am not one to rightly review sushi as I don't have a strong affinity for it, and I tend to trend towards the more typical sushi rolls such as the California roll or the tempura shrimp roll. If a restaurant has a Godzilla-named roll, well, that does perk my interest, though.

Anyhow, Shanghai Lil (across from Keystone at the Crossing) is well established, well-reviewed, well thought of. So, I'm certainly not breaking any new ground in reviewing it. But, with our recent visit, I guess I just wanted to confirm feelings about the place.

Yes, Shanghai Lil is still very good. We went on a weekday evening, and the place was pretty quiet. This establishment was built under the notion that going out for Chinese and Japanese food was fine dining, not just a buffet. The table coverings are cloth, the lighting is low. The lighting was so low, that pictures were nonsensical, and I just can't bear the thought of using a flash for food pictures. The service was polite and efficient, but there were few competitors for our server's time. We started with a stuffed eggplant appetizer that was really the low light of the meal. The crumbled pork sauce that came with it was flavorful, but nothing remarkable.

We did share three entrees. The Shanghai Lil General's Chicken was a step above most places, lightly battered and fried, savory and spicy. The Moo Shu Vegetables were one of the best vegetarian dishes I've had in a long time, but I'm very fond of hoisin and/or plum sauce. Then, the Basil Ginger Chicken. This was one of the best things I'd had at a Chinese restaurant in a very long time. Overall, very high quality and great taste. A few dishes were a bit on the salty side, but that tends to be fairly true of many Chinese dishes. One major issue for me though is that I feel like the prices are a bit high, with most being more than $15 per entree. Maybe the buffet-trend has really damaged my value definition for Chinese food, but to spend upwards of $80.00 for three people and not getting any alcohol, that just seemed like a lot.

The verdict: 4 belly rubs (out of 5). A classic, high quality location, hits high notes, but a bit pricey.

Loughmiller's Pub

This is 2 weeks old already, but during the week leading up to Labor Day, we finally made it over to an Indian's game. I'm a football and college basketball type of guy, but baseball is dear to me as it was my dad's favorite sport, and we made a lot of little treks over to games that are very dear memories to me. We seemed to always be in minor league cities between Denver (pre-Rockies) and Indy, but I prefer the "intimacy" and pricing of minor league baseball anyhow. Our days in Denver were so much before they got a sniff of the Majors that we used to go see the Denver Bears, not even their next incarnation as the Denver Zephyrs.

Anyhow, we were meeting up with some good friends, but I got downtown early to meet up with the Better Half for a pre-game dinner. We walked from some free street parking and stopped in at Loughmiller's Pub.

Loughmillers (pronounced lock-millers) happens to be in one of my favorite buildings downtown. It is at first a rather inconspicuous building on Washington Street, across from the State Center, but... if you take just a little bit of time to look at it, I think it has some spectacular details. The Old Trails Building is only about 6 stories tall, but it has some very cool gargoyles on top of the building, and these neat old Indian heads on the building's facade. I just think it is a great little building, tho I can't speak for the interior of it.

Anyhow, since Loughmiller's is a smoking facility after lunch, we ate out on the patio. Now, patio seating is great, and having the skyline to look at its pretty nice, even if you are on Washington Street. Plus, Indy is such a mild traffic city downtown, that even on a game night for baseball, it is mellow and relaxing to sit on the patio. The service was attentive and we had no problem getting through placing orders, eating and being out of there in just under an hour without feeling rushed.

Anyhow, it was a first visit for both the Better Half and myself. We ended up trying the two specials, which were themed around summer and featured avocado. I had a California chicken sandwich which had some avocado slices and a bit of a mango salsa. It was decent. The salsa it came with was a creamy style and it too was decent. Same was true of the Better Half's meal. Decent. But, nothing about this meal stood out, other than being outside on a spectacular clear and not-very-humid evening in the waning days of summer. I've said before I'm not anti-chain just to be anti-chain. In fact, I feel like I'd have had a bigger, better sandwich at Champp's than I did at Loughmiller's. My suggestion to a place like Loughmiller's is - stand out in some manner. And, maybe they do with their beer, but to me nothing about the food I had or saw stood out. The fries were out of a bag, the buns were cheap and out of a bag, the sandwich was small and typical. Really, instead of comparing it to a chain, I should actually compare it to a major caterer like Aramark. And, really, I think you might well get a better sandwich at the Lilly cafeteria.

The verdict: 1 belly rub (out of 5). Nice setting, historic building, unremarkable food.

I do want to post this picture, too. I love Victory Field, it is such a nice stadium and it has such a nice view of our city. We met up with two sets of friends, and the two brother's of the respective families are both in construction. They were mixed on the new Marriott hotel that is being built. I like it. I like it a lot. Sure, it seems more like a Vegas style hotel with all the glass, and it does dominate the skyline when you are driving in from the West, but I just think it is a cool looking building and I'm glad it is here. I just hope they can keep it filled with lots of conventions and visitors.

Product Review: Chocolate-covered Halloween Peep

Trolling through the super market, I couldn't resist grabbing one of these chocolate covered Peeps, this one being a pumpkin. Of course, as you can see, once I opened the package, the product itself doesn't really resemble the item on the wrapper very well.

Now, I don't really care for Peeps. Being chocolate covered, it made this a lot more acceptable. But, once you bite through it, the marshmallow itself is a deep, rich, vibrant orange - and with one look, the Better Half no longer had an interest in tasting this one. Anyhow, it is soft, gooey, super-sweet. More than anything, it gives me an excuse to link to this fantastic gallery of the Washington Post's annual Peeps contest, where they seek submissions of creative projects using the marshmallow peeps.


And, if you happen to be a fan of ESPN's TMQ column, you know that his Unified Theory of Creep is about how stuff creeps in to stores earlier and earlier each year for holidays, most notably Christmas. With the potential for mid-80 degree days, it certainly seems summerish still, but this morning I biked in to work, and it was a crisp morning and I wore a fleece... so, I don't know if it is too early for Halloween junk or not.....

Some more links

I really enjoy New York Magazine's weekly "New York Diet" column. I have certainly not been to NYC that often, not been to basically any of the places that get mentioned, but I just find it interesting. Most are absolutely unattainable as a week of eating to me because the guest columnists are typically all from a higher tax bracket than me, but nevertheless they are usually somewhat interesting. Jeffrey Steingarten, who I mostly only know as a common judge on Iron Chef, had a pretty interesting one last Friday, especially for his comments on coffee geekism and Brooklyn boosterism.

This is one from Anthony Bourdain from earlier in the summer. From it, I was caused to look up the chef Gabrielle Hamilton, and I love this piece she wrote - mostly cause I just get really annoyed by the people who try to be so high minded and flowery about local food. Yeah, that's great, I get it. But, come on, I want strawberries in February, sweet corn in March and new potatoes in April.

Labor Day Weekend Recap

We ran up to Chicago to visit one of the Better Half's cousins and go to a wedding. The wedding was way up North in Libertyville, but we stayed in La Grange. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend with some splendid fall temperatures. We didn't do any special eating for the most part, sadly. The folks where we stayed seemed to have their own little war chest from Trade Joe's, so it didn't seem like this was the family to suggest a visit to Hot Doug's or Mustard's Last Stand.

[Note - I mean the Mustard's Last Stand in Evanston, IL, right by the Northwestern U. football field. There apparently is a Mustard's Last Stand hotdog cart in Indy.... huh... Per Google, there looks to also be one in Denver. I assume none of these are related in any formal way, but I wonder if someone just found the name a good one to borrow? This might be a good case for some investigative reporting or.... nah.... whatever]

Anyhow, we did stop at Millennium Park on our way out of Chicago and over to the Skyway. Love the bean.

But, finally, on our way back to Indy, we did stop at the Portillo's in Merrillville. The Italian Beef there is just great.

Tiger Lilly

A commenter recommended Tiger Lily restaurant, on 86th Street between Meridian and Ditch. Prior to heading to Chicago for the Labor Day weekend, I met a friend there for lunch on Friday. From what I can tell, Tiger Lilly does not have a web page, but instead does have a very active public Facebook page. They also have a nice album of their food, which of course outdoes my self-conscious, quickly-taken iPhone pictures.

Tiger Lily has been open about a month, but it has gained a strong following. In fact, as my friend noted, they've already gained 7 reviews on Urban Spoon, and they're all favorable. That's impressive to me, especially in such a short amount of time.

I've only made one visit so far, but I will definitely be going back to introduce the Better Half to this spot. I really liked the lunch menu, with two of us eating for $14.17 including tax, but with only water to drink. As many other reviewers have noted, the ingredients seem and look fresh, and are not from bags of frozen vegetables. The dining area is modern and well decorated. The sauces are light and yet full of flavor. The management is local and cares, and the wait staff is attentive and efficient. I didn't inquire too much, but our server did mention that these owners used to previously have a restaurant in Brownsburg, and after a move have returned to Indy and opened Tiger Lily.

The special of the day on Friday was the Chicken Bulgogi, which my friend ordered and I sampled. This dish is indicative of a fusion focus within the menu. From the album, they also have a stir-fried pork with kimchi dish that excites me, because I just love the Korean influence. Now, the chicken bulgogi didn't really seem to be the traditional soy-sesame-scallion-sugar concoction, but included more of a chili sauce which may have been the Korean sauce gochujang. Regardless, it was tasty, moist and a nice level of spice.

I had the orange peel chicken, and it had a tasty, tangy sauce over lightly battered, still-moist fried chicken pieces. It was a rather familiar taste, but well prepared and solid execution. I liked the dish, but next time I'll go deeper into the menu (lunch and dinner).

I didn't have a chance to spend a lot of time with the dinner menu, but the lunch prices were very affordable. The serving sizes are ample, but they won't leave you full. For $7 you'll likely get 40% more food at a place like Panda Express. But, the variety of the menu is great at Tiger Lily and the food is a welcome addition to the local Chinese offerings.

The verdict: 4 belly rubs (out of 5). Great taste, well prepared, average sized portions, but good value.

Looking Ahead: Weekend Plans (Sept. 10-11)

Hopefully you have a full Labor Day weekend planned. But, if you're looking ahead, there is a lot of great art-based events on the calendar for the weekend of Sept. 10-12 that you might want to consider.

The Penrod Art Fair is a fantastic event, with hundreds of booths from artists all over the country. It is a one day art fair, on Saturday, September 11th. And, it is on the grounds of the lovely Indianapolis Art Museum. Some locals that will have booths that I hope continue to get more attention there are Gayla Hodson and Ben Johnson.

The night before, on Friday, Sept. 10th, the Indianapolis Art Center in Broad Ripple has their annual open house. Currently on exhibit, you can see works from the IAC's instructors and winners from the student division in the main gallery (check out Lisa VanMeter's monoprints and woodblock prints). I especially appreciate Matt Kenyon's glass (scroll to find Matt and check out the slideshow) and Susan Hodgin's paintings (Gayla Hodson is also an IAC instructor). Yats and BRICS will both have booths at the open house!

This weekend, well you'll want to root for Purdue to hopefully spoil Brian Kelly's debut at Notre Dame.

Italian Gardens Restaurante

Out on East Washington Street, near the old L. Fish furniture store, you'll find the venerable Italian Gardens Restaurante. While I tend to not often crave Italian, we wanted to get over to this stand-by for many for an updated taste for a review.

What stood out immediately upon entering the establishment was.... the smell. In the little lobby/anteroom, the place just smelled old. I'm not sure you can buy or import that smell, but it certainly smelled like the dust-embedded furniture in your great-aunt's place. Once within the restaurant itself, the smell improved drastically, with all of the age covered in the smell of the food, so that was an immediate upgrade.

We were there on a Tuesday night, and it was pretty slow. The wait staff was casual, friendly, but prompt and attentive. The decor seemed to be themed around vintage clutter. But, I kind of liked all of the old, decorative glass in the window as I prefer structural art objects over 2D. And, I really like how much detail they used to put in some of the old bottles.

Anyhow, we had great service the whole time. I think this restaurant gets a LOT of return customers with a long standing history with the place, and that says a lot. One thing that stood out to me is that the salad dressings were very tasty and they definitely seemed to be made in house. I had the Mediterranean salad before my entree (there are 4 salad choices) and you could taste the honey in the dressing that was used to sweeten it. The Greek dressing was also great. The bread was a bit more dense than I'd prefer, but they were coated in a fine glaze of garlic butter.

We had three entrees delivered to our table - shrimp scampi, spinach ravioli and creamy pesto with chicken over linguine. I had the creamy pesto, and it had a rich, deep, textured flavor that I really enjoyed. The sauce was liberally dispensed, however as the sauce cooled, the olive oil separated more and more from the cream and left unappealing oil pockets throughout depressional areas in the bowl. Regardless, this was a really taste pasta dish that I would not only have again, but I might go back just for the dish. And, I tend to order new items, not necessarily do many repeat items at restaurants.

The ravioli was nice, but the dish again was liberally coated in sauce. Somewhere beneath the surface (below) are several nicely made and tasty ravioli.

The shrimp scampi was a disappointment to look at. The shrimp themselves looked like they came from a bag of frozen shrimp from Kroger. They were okay, but definitely paled in comparison to many other versions of this dish. The accompanying pasta was fine, but not noteworthy.

Overall, the prices seemed a bit expensive to me, with all of these entrees in the $15 range. I may not be giving enough credit to what goes into the labor of the food, but the location strikes me as being pretty reasonable rent if it isn't owned outright. But, often, I find that pasta tends to be overpriced - so maybe it is just my bias.

The verdict: 3 belly rubs (out of 5). Some quality notes elevate from the vintage (musty?) surroundings.

Maybe the most humorous part of the evening, for me, was when I picked up on the music at one point. And, yes, Frank Sinantra was singing "Old MacDonald".... Now, I'm not up on the Sinantra discography, but this cracked me up. When I pull up the song on YouTube, I realize he had re-done the lyrics, so it made more sense to how it would be a Sinatra song, but... still, found it pretty funny. We also were treated to some Dean Martin, so the music fit the decor quite well.

Product Review: Whoopie Pie (from farmer's market)

Working from the downtown library yesterday morning (a.k.a - Indy's most expensive homeless daycare facility), and stopped by the downtown farmer's market. Picked up some sweet corn, an eggplant (made baba ganoush last night), a seedless watermelon, and some cherry tomatoes. But, I was also wanting to pick up something sweet, and decided to pick up a Whoopie Pie from the booth from Kuns Kountry Kitchen (appear to be Amish or Mennonite folks that have this booth).

I then picked up a friend who I had introduced to Papa Roux, and we made a dash out there for a ginormous Po Boy (by the way, Papa Roux is now open for supper on Thursdays as well as Fridays). So, later in the afternoon, I stopped at the downtown Border's to grab some Wi-Fi, and I tried the Whoopie Pie.

Before talking about the baked good, I do need to mention that I just don't really get the quaint charm of misspelling, like with the word "Kountry". And when your initials come out to K-K-K, well.... I think that is something I'd try to avoid and keep to the correct spelling. Now on to the Whoopie Pie.

This thing is SWEET. I mean it is literally really sweet. The cake is tasty and was fresh, but my goodness... the cream filling was light in consistency, but it was like pure powdered sugar in creamy foam form. I love sweets, but this was actually a bit too much - I couldn't even finish this palm sized morsel. It was certainly the best whoopie pie I'd ever had, but... it may well have been the first I've had.

A tasty treat, for sure, but more than really wanting to rate this item, I just want to give a shout out to the farmers market. I'm not some big proponent of purely local and organic - more so, I just like the sense of community that these little markets bring to a city. And, again, more than being militant about "organic", I'm more a fan of foods that are fresh and whole.

Did you realize that there is a Whoopie Pie Festival? It's over in Pennsylvania, and if a state can be underrated, it is Pennsylvania. The place is just rolling and beautiful from border to border, and so much history that dates back to our birth as a nation.