Indianapolis

The city of states

Howdy y'all!  How have you been?  I've been great, thanks.  Fortunately, I have pictures from Indianapolis, as promised.  Unfortunately, you're not going to get much more than pictures.  I have an exam tomorrow.. and I've been napping all day.  Oops.  But you're not here to read, right?  Well, actually you're here for recipes, but do you think you can settle with some pictures of food for now?  

Let's begin our mini journey through Indianapolis - so keep your hands and arms inside the carpet, we're outta here! (Get the Aladdin reference?)

Friday night, we went to a pizza joint called Bazbeaux.  Interesting name, interesting pizza (our pizza had dollops of ricotta cheese). We had garlic-cheese bread and 4 cheese-bacon-mushroom pizza.  You can't get any better than bacon and cheese. And that is all I have to say about that.

beer number one.

waiting patiently for dinner. i was really, really hungry.

cheese bread. it was bomb.

pizza. 

crispy bacon and gooey cheese.
are you salivating?
because i am.

mikey.

the view from outside the restaurant. that little lady on the corner dances.
her name is veronica.

 The next morning, we had brunch at Hoaglin To Go & Marketplace.  While their daily grind is fine catering, they make a mean brunch.  I had the best omelette ever.  Seriously, I died a little when I bit into it. It was fluffy and filled with applewood smoked bacon, sauteed red onions, sun-dried tomato pesto torte.  I'm not even sure what a sun-dried tomato pesto torte is, but I can tell you that it is good.


Mikey had a stack of red velvet pancakes. Dessert for breakfast?  Don't mind if I do.

best. omelette. ever. 

the magical filling.

red velvet pancakes.

Then we went to Starbucks, 'cause brunch made us sleepy.  Why the heck is Starbucks so expensive?!  I spent $5 on a tall skinny caramel macchiato with soymilk.  Secondly, why the heck are the names so long?

almost broke the bank on these babies. 

 Then, the Indiana State fair!  It was a glutton's dream.  There were so many places to get food that we almost got overwhelmed.  But no worries, we put our fat hats on and braved the crowds.  Despite the abundance of food, we didn't end up eating very much.  It was just nice walking around with Mikey. But I did give in and try a deep fried Snickers bar with him.  He really liked it.  I, on the other hand, thought that I could have gotten the same effect by popping a Snickers in the microwave for 30 seconds. I mean it was good, but not $4 good.

$15 and 7 darts later, mikey won a prize for me!
 i shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy.

i found a wand.
and.... 

magic! i've always wanted a unicorn.

yes. that is indeed a burger between two doughnuts.
(we didn't try this one)

deep fried butter? deep fried kool-aid?
only in the midwest, my friends

and here it is. deep fried snickers.

The last day that I was there, we went to a cute neighborhood called Broad Ripple. There was a strip of pubs, and we ended up choosing Broad Ripple Brewpub because there was a stout there that Mike liked.  I had the fish and chips.  Silly me thinking that fish would be lighter.  I ate about a third of it and promptly became sleepy afterwards.  

fish 'n chips

And that was my weekend.  It was like you were there, right?  


Now that I have mesmerized you with these pictures, I gotta break some bad news.  I'm taking a short break from blogging.  I am moving soon, and I have to eat the random food that is left in my pantry.  And I don't think that you want to hear about canned soup, tortilla chips, and Chef Boyardee.  I'll be back full force in September.  Promise.

we're funny.

xoxo <3
Nhu-Y

Northstar Cafe

Nostalgia

Source: mywedding.com.
Do not be alarmed, this burger is supposed to be pink (it's the beets).

Hello friends!  As promised, a post!  But I didn't promise to write an awesome post :) (hey, it's hard to write award-winning material at this hour). 


Now you may be wondering why I titled this post "nostalgia".  Well, here's why - number one: today I went thrifting and sifted though tons of clothes from the 90s, shoulder pads and all. And since I am a product of the 80s, I remember the 90s (does that make any sense? I don't really remember the first five years of my life). Number two: On my way home, I heard a No Doubt song on the radio, and No Doubt makes me think of middle school days in typing class (where we'd listen to music and NOT type). And number three: I had a date with my long-lost cousin today!  


My sweet cousin just turned 18, graduated high school, and in a month she's leaving for college. Sad face. I'm so glad I had a chance to see her and catch up with her before she leaves.  It's been several years since we have seen each other (due to some parental issues), but I was delighted to see what a beautiful young woman she's grown into!  And the fact that she wants to be a doctor is pretty great too :)

Turkey Sandwich. Source: yelp.com. It was HUGE

We went to Northstar Cafe for dinner, and Jeni's for dessert but..... I forgot my camera!  So I am borrowing some images (and crediting the sources, of course).  I had the freakin' delicious Northstar burger, and my cuz had a Turkey sandwich with a wild rice salad.  

Source: fitsugar.com. I like mine sans the ketchup.

At this point, I would talk about the food, but it's quite late. All I'll tell you now is that the Northstar burger is not the kind of burger you think it is.  Mikey ordered it a while ago, expecting a nice juicy beef burger, and he was quite upset when he took a bite and didn't get beefy goodness (he obviously did not read the menu, typical man thing to do).  The Northstar burger is a veggie burger.. but it's not the kind of veggie burger you're used to either!  It's made of rice and beats, and maybe some sort of legume.  I'm not sure.  I think it has some sort of mystical ingredient mixed in, 'cause it is damn good. I ate it so fast that I hardly had time to analyze the flavors, so excuse me for this hasty "review".  Sorry..  But at least you know it tastes good!  And is good for you too.  And besides, I think that the Northstar Burger is something that you just have to experience. 


Here are some (borrowed) pictures from Jeni's.  Interesting fact: my cousin's friend works for Jeni's kitchen, and she labels the containers by hand.  And when they misspell something, the pint is deemed a reject and the employees are free to do with them as they please.  I'm sure glad I don't work at Jeni's, because I would be rather fluffy (read: fat).

Source (for both images): dishtip.com

Eeek, it's late!  I need to get up in 4 hours, so I will say goodnight for now. 


Goodnight.


xoxo<3
Nhu-Y

Betty's

Hope everyone is having a happy Sunday, because I sure ain't.  Still feeling sick from a few days ago, and now I feel like vomiting my brains out  >_<.  I finally came back to my apartment and I had some grand plans to clean, do laundry, cook, etc, but all I did today was cuddle on the couch with my pup.  Mike left for Indianapolis today and I'm sadder than I thought I would be :(  Gotta be strong though. We're only going to be apart for a few months though, I can handle it!  Hopefully I will have more time to hang out with my roomie; we haven't been at our apartment together for more than 2 days at a time for quite some time!  

Ok, enough ranting, let's talk food!

Last night, Mikey and I went to the Short North district for a date night.  I looove the Short North - it's a little gem within Columbus, with art galleries, vintage shopping, and lots of great non-chain restaurants.  We did a little shopping before we ate to build up our appetites and I found a cute vintage yellow purse for only $19!  The strap is a little short, but for less than 20 bucks, I couldn't pass it up.

Oops, still haven't mentioned the food yet!  So I know in my last post, I said that we were going to try something new, but we ended up going to one of our favorites, Betty's.  It's a really tiny restaurant with no more than 15 tables smooshed into a long and narrow space and you usually have to wait for 40 minutes, but definitely worth it.  Betty's is super kitschy with pin-up girls covering the walls and crazy ceramic cats on the bar - by no means a "sophisticated" place - but it's really fun.  


For our drinks, Mike ordered a beer called Abita Purple Haze.  It was a wheat beer that had raspberry puree added after filtration.  Mike didn't like it much and said that it tasted watery.  I ordered the Mini Van - rose wine, sugar saturated raspberries, and soda.  Sweet and I could barely taste the alcohol, I loved it! (I'm a light-weight - it's an Asian thing.)

We ordered fried plantains served with a zesty yogurt sauce for an appetizer.  When it came out, I was less than impressed with the plating.  There were 5 or 6 pieces of plantains on a giant plate.  I thought that they would be immature and taste like potatoes, but they were nice and sweet like bananas. They weren't too greasy and tasted pretty good.  But I don't think I will be ordering it again because it was $8 for a teeny portion.

For our entrees, we ordered mac and cheese and meatloaf.  Both were wonderful.  We already knew that the mac and cheese was good (it was the reason we went to Betty's in the first place).  Their mac and cheese isn't the run of the mill mac and cheese! It has poblano peppers, sweet corn, and red onions.  OMG, so good.  And the cheese! The cheese is sooo creamy.  They must use evaporated milk or some sort of processed cheese, but I don't even care :).  The meatloaf was a recommendation from one of the docs that I worked with last year.  It was a good choice - Thanks Dr. Wexler!  Very moist and a hint of sweet from the bell peppers and it was even better with the ketchup sauce. Not much else to say about that, I mean how many words do you need to describe meatloaf?

Overall, we love Betty's.  It's not fancy, but it's good food and a fun environment.  Plus, there's a Jeni's like 2 blocks away.  No pictures of that unfortunately.. we started eating before we even paid!  But here's a picture of a crazy ass ride that we took while we were waiting in line for Jeni's - it's called the Cycle Tavern.  A pedal-powered bar-hopping tour.  I really can't describe it because I've never seen anything like it before, so take a look at their website. 

Whoa, this post is way longer than I thought it would be.  I'm starting my radiology rotation tomorrow, so I'll be back in a few days.  Talk to you then!


xoxo <3
Nhu-Y

Ohio Deli

Greasy Spoon

photo from singledigitdining.com

Mike and I really love to watch food TV.  I like to watch the Cooking Channel and the Food Network and Mike watches the Travel Channel.  Well, one day Mike saw an episode of Man vs. Food in Columbus and he said that he wanted to try all of those places.  If you guys haven't seen Man vs. Food, this guy (Adam Richman) travels across the nation to look for "food challenges" - the spiciest, the most outrageous, the biggest, etc.  Usually it's these enormous meals, and that was the case for the Columbus episode.  He went to Schmidt's and had a huge cream puff, Thurman's for a giant burger, and Ohio Deli for an enormous Dagwood sandwich.  We have already been to Schmidt's and Thurman's, so it was only natural for Mike to want to try Ohio Deli.

We drove 20 minutes or so to the southside of Columbus.  For those of you who haven't been there, it's not in the best part of town.  There was a trailer park across the street and it was a little sketchy, but we figured if this place was on TV, it had to be good.. right?  We would soon find out!  It turned out that Ohio Deli was more then just a Deli - more of a diner.  They had food like steak, sandwiches, fish and chips, fried chicken, etc.  As soon as we walked in, we saw a server carry one of their famous Dagwood sandwiches to someone's table.  It was HUGE.  At least 6 inches of cold cuts, a huge pile of fries, and a pickle.  We decided that it would be a little too much food for us and opted to get two smaller sandwiches.  Mike got a turkey club on a croissant and I got a monte cristo.  We also split an order of cheese fries.  The food was ok, but nothing to write home about.  My ham was really, really salty, and the food was quite greasy.  However, the price was very reasonable, and the portions were large (see picture above).  We spent less than $20, including drinks.  Overall, we decided that we wouldn't go back just because it was so far away from campus. 

So that was our adventure to Ohio Deli!  


As a side note, we don't think that we will go out of our way anymore to go to any of Adam Richman's recommendations.  Earlier this month, we went to a restaurant called Primanti Brother's in Pittsburgh.  We heard tons of good things about it on the show, but when we actually got there, the service was horrible and the food was even worse.  I think that most of the food that Adam Richman eats on his show is just massive, and not necessarily delicious.  I mean, how can you enjoy a dish if you are shoveling it down your mouth as fast as you can?  Anyways, that's my rant for the day.  I still like ya, Adam :)