Dining

I'm no stranger to the allure of candy. I spent my high school days scooping up chocolates and sugar-coated treats at the local candy store (and sampling between customers). Many of my colleagues at IM feel the same. We had a sweet time preparing for our July 2012 Global Eats issue. Check out some photo outtakes here from the Japanese candy spread.

Lick’s creamy root beer vanilla bean ice cream from Eggshell Bistro (51 W. City Center Dr., Carmel, 317-660-1616), served in an old-fashioned parfait glass with tiny, cute spoons. The vanilla beans give the treat a true flavor boost.

Farmers markets are a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, but with so many vendors in one place, they can get a little...

The first thing you notice at Divvy, after you have strolled by packed communal tables in the bar and passed under raw-wood lampshades curved like Mobius strips, are the menus. Long, horizontal, and leather-bound like an old-timey razor strop, they contain sections upon subsections with suggestive monikers such as “Motion in the Ocean” and “Grazers Galore,” spanning more than 20 pages. You could dine here five nights a week, as some have, and never conquer the dozens of “Tidbits,” “Liquid Goods,” and “Mini Morsels” offered by this new foodie oasis in the shadow of Carmel’s Palladium. “The fun part was coming up with the names of the dishes,” says owner Kevin “Woody” Rider, the restaurateur who also brought Woody’s Library Restaurant to northside diners and helped open Bonge’s Tavern in Perkinsville.

Its salted caramels really do make our eyes roll back, but is Best Chocolate in Town's banned radio ad too racy for public consumption? Snicker, snicker.