The Dish

Edited by Julia Spalding

12.11.2007

Quick Bites

(Meridian) Street Cred
A stop in at Meridian (5694 N. Meridian St., 466-1111) last Tuesday revealed a parking lot that was packed and a newly restored restaurant that, less than a week in business, was already beloved by its neighborhood. Apparently, they're already serving over 110 guests or more a night—on weekdays! Restored to its old log-cabin character, the new restaurant is warm and exceedingly welcoming, with so much wood you almost think you've driven out to the countryside for dinner at the lodge. Highlights of Dan Dunville's menu included some chicken-fried oysters "Rockefeller" out of the shell but with a super-light coating, creamed spinach, Hollandaise sauce, and another spicy-sweet sauce in artful streaks across the plate. A bag of mini doughnuts with a demitasse of coffee sauce made for a very fun finish. We promised ourselves we'd stop back in soon for lunch, Sunday brunch, or a casual dinner at the bar.

Soft Sell
Neal Brown at L'explorateur (6523 Ferguson St., 726-6906) is launching an all-organic, gourmet baby food line in January. He wants to begin to develop babies' palates through dishes like carrots with a hint of curry, while also being mindful of babies' extremely sensitive taste buds. A whole new generation of supertasters with a hankering for hamachi carpaccio won't be bad for business, either.

Springerle Has Sprung
Hankering for an alternative and light holiday sweet? Now is the season to stop in at Heidelberg Haus (7625 Pendleton Pike, 547-1230) for some of baker and owner Juergen Jungbauer's special springerle cookies. Featured on the Food Network's Food Finds, these rarely made but dainty traditional German cookies are flavored with anise oil before being rolled out in antique molds to give them shapes of fruits, animals, and household objects. Larger ones are definitely pretty enough to be gifts—if you can get them home without nibbling on them—or even ornaments for the tree. These are best eaten fresh, but they also rank among the tastiest morning-tea accompaniments in zee verlt.

Sol Food
Just as winter was finally whipping in last week, we headed out to Costa del Sol (3839 Moller Road, 280-0480) to have a little late lunch and bask in the sunny vistas of its hand-painted murals. This Salvadoran place is short on atmosphere but long on cheer and flavor. Instead of telenovas, Bill Nye the Science Guy was playing in Spanish on a TV in the corner. While they were out of seafood soups, and we had to wait for a sweet stuffed plantain, we filled up on a nice breakfast of eggs over easy, nicely seasoned refried black beans, fried plantains, and sour cream. A vegetarian's dream, it was definitely a brunch dish that took us a little closer to the equator. Fluffy, tender tamales were also quite tasty. Even though a pupusa, the house (and a Salvadoran) specialty, was a little lacking in flavor, the tangy shredded cabbage and a drizzle of a rather thin salsa helped perk this up.

Take Your Trademark and Bake-off™
As reported on NPR yesterday, General Mills sent a letter to Potsdam, N.Y., residents stating that they could not call their 10-year-old, annual food pantry fundraiser a "bake-off" because the company owns the trademark to the term. Watch out, Indy competitive bakers (and that means you, local Brownie troops, county fairs, churches, and the Indy Raw group that hosted a "Merry Un-Bake-Off" at Georgetown Market last week): GM might have you in its nasty-letter-writing sights as well.

Succotash

King David Dogs (15 N. Pennsylvania St., 632-DOGS) has added a Pretzel Dog to its list of franks—which sounds like the best food combo since you got your chocolate in my peanut butter … Pass the special red sauce: Johnny Rockets opened its Greenwood Park Mall location on Saturday … The Southside can also look forward to getting its fair share of etouffe when Yats opens its US 31 location (just south of County Line Road), if not by the holidays then very soon after … We noticed a sign for a new Taiwan Tea House in the River Commons strip mall on East 82nd Street, which sounds like a nice way to wrap up a visit to neighboring Penzeys Spices (4026 E. 82nd St., 577-7778) … After wondering about the coming-soon status of Dish Dash Mediterranean Grill for months, we finally asked next-door neighbor Badaboomz Ale House & Grill (4930 Lafayette Road, 291-6932) what they know about the place. Turns out the Dish Dash deal is off, but another restaurant—possibly an Indian place—is already interested in the vacancy … Castleton's new Stir Crazy is opening its doors at 11 a.m. next Monday, inviting the general public to stop in for free food and cooking demonstrations. Sounds, well, crazy.

On Thursday, We Ate At …

Sawasdee, 1222 W. 86th St., 844-9451 
An ugly night outside made for a cozy night inside Sawasdee, where we supped on a sweetly hot panang shrimp curry and the city's best thom ka gai. The coconut soup—thick, rich, loaded with chicken, and seasoned with lemon grass—was so gratifying, in fact, that we didn't even miss our de rigueur Sawasdee order of pad thai. A starter of hot-and-sour soup (yes, more soup—it was cold out!), a crunchy egg roll, and a couple of cold Singhas thrown in for good measure—plus the usual speedy service—made for the loveliest possible way to while away a winter night.

Food for Thought

"A meal that does not cause an outpouring of memories is not a memorable meal." Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize-winning Serbian-American poet

The Guiding Bite

A select calendar of food-and-drink events you should know about.

Saturday, December 15
The Morris-Butler House Victorian Holiday Tea offers a primer in old-fashioned Christmas traditions and ends with an elegant afternoon tea provided by Tea's Me Cafe. $30. Call the Morris-Butler House Museum at 636-5409 for reservations. 1204 N. Park Ave.

Upcoming …

Thursday, December 20
The local group Greendrinks, which gets together every month for drinks and a casual discussion about ways to make Indy a greener city, is having a special food-focused event (a local-foods pitch-in and discussion) with Simple Living Group of Indianapolis and Indy Sustainable Food Alliance. 6:30 p.m. Wheeler Arts Community, 1035 Sanders St., 916-9375.

Contributors: Corrie E. Cook, Terry Kirts 

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