Super Bowl Update

Ha! It's been a while but I made some cards. For the first one I stamped the leaves and sentiment with SU Best Blossoms. The bottom is plum color paper that I punched with my new Fiskars Apron Lace border punch. The top is striped purple and white paper I've had for years. For the next card I used SU Touch of Nature colored with Prismacolor pencils. I masked the image and stamped SU French Script. I used another new Fiskars border punch for the bottom along with some ribbon and some twill that I stamped with a Hero Arts sentiment. Lastly, this is a really quick card with DCWV papers and Cornish Heritage Farms bunny and sentiment.
Thanks for coming by. Have a great day.

I know it isn’t too often that I review steak places as they all seem so similar to me—I like steak, but when I go out, I guess I tend to prefer to get things that aren’t so easy (and so much cheaper) to cook at home. Anyway, we were celebrating a couple of birthdays and it was their choice, so Eddie Merlot’s it was. I was interested to try it, as even though it is a chain, my understanding is that it started here in Indiana and I have heard pretty good things about it.

To start with, I do enjoy a complimentary valet, particularly when it is so cold, but I always wonder why valets exist only in the places that don’t really need them (i.e. have a big parking lot) and not places that could use them (like downtown). But that’s a whole other thing. Anyway, it is different from the typical steakhouse décor in that it is done in lighter wood, rather than the typical dark men’s club look that a lot of steakhouses have. I have heard it described as a steakhouse for women and that seems about right (as far as the décor goes).

Our server was very friendly, and although when asked, was well versed on the menu, he seemed to lack confidence in what he told us, even though whenever we asked his opinion, he seemed to be right. And although he was very friendly, the service was not top notch, partially I think, because the table next to us was ordering everything off the menu requiring extra work by a server (flambés, etc.)

But as for the food, the menu is quite extensive and takes a while to get through. The bread service they bring is really good—one of the best around. A nice loaf of warm French bread with soft butter. As for our meals, we wanted to try several of the side dishes with the main meal, and since they are “family style” (read, huge) we just opted for an order of the blue cheese potato chips to start. They were a very large serving of homemade potato chips with crumbled blue cheese and a blue cheese sauce. They were quite unmemorable I thought. The chips were too hard and thick and the sauce just wasn’t exciting. I ate a few and gave up on them.

We all ordered various cuts of steak, I ordered a filet with a blue cheese crust and hubby ordered the ribeye. The steaks were pretty good—hubby’s ribeye was a lot better than my filet. I think maybe it is because their steaks are aged, and when you age a filet, I find it often makes it too dry, even when it is still very medium rare. Since it doesn’t have a lot of fat, a good filet needs the juiciness to give it good flavor. Hubby’s ribeye was really good and didn’t suffer as much because the added fat made the steak more flavorful.

We were having a hard time deciding on the sides, so we ended up with several. We had the macaroni with cheese with lobster (you can get it with or without lobster), truffle fries, creamed spinach and the mashed potatoes with lobster and lobster butter (again, you can get it with or without). Our server told us the mac and cheese was better and he was right. It was pretty good—definitely the best starch on the table. Not as good as the lobster mac and cheese at Capital Grille however. The spinach was also very good—rich but still very spinachy. The mashed potatoes were only ok because of the lobster and lobster butter—the potatoes on their own were a little too dry and pasty I thought. The worst thing on the menu was the truffle fries. Just when I thought everyone in this City had perfected good fries, I have been proven wrong again. The fries were so soft they were pretty much inedible. The truffle oil probably only increased the problem, but it was hard to tell because there wasn’t much truffle scent to them (again much better at Capital Grille). The sides are all enormous, probably the biggest I have seen at a steakhouse yet, so you certainly should not order as much starch as we did (although I am glad we did because if we had just gotten the fries or mashed potatoes, I would have been very disappointed.)

We did try several desserts—one nice thing is on your birthday, you get a free dessert (out of about 3 choices). It was not my birthday however, and I ordered the s'mores dessert (not one of the free choices). I love a good s’more and this was a fun dessert. It was a graham cracker crust with a chocolate layer and then marshmallow cream and mini marshmallows broiled on top. I did enjoy it, but had a hard time eating much after all the other food. The dessert portions are not quite as hugely generous as the sides, but they are still certainly big enough for sharing. A nice touch with the coffee service is that they broght a little tray with cream and sugar and also whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening, mainly due to the company, but also partially due to the food. It wasn’t the best steakhouse experience I have had, but certainly not the worst either.

Eddie Merlot’s
3645 East 96th Street
Indy 46240
317-846-8303
www.eddiemerlots.com

Just a quick note to say we hit Kincaid's again for lunch this weekend (what can I say, there's a shoe store up there I really like for the kids). As usual, it was very good. Tried the fish tacos this time and they were outstanding. Crispy fish with a flavorful slaw type topping and a really delicious pico de gallo, which was almost like a chunky guacamole (there were nice chunks of avocado in there)and an extra side of chipotle lime sour cream sauce (there is some already on the bottom of the tacos). These were really good, and I know from many comments I have received that I have a fair amount of readers who like fish tacos, so I thought I'd do a quick re-visit post.

It's a hike, but well worth it, even though it is a chain. I wish it was nearer my house.

Kincaid’s
14159 Clay Terrace Blvd
Carmel, 46032
317-575-9005
http://www.kincaids.com/

The Barking Dog is a place my parents really like for lunch. They love the clam chowder and have been here several times. The restaurant itself is a little storefront on 49th Street near Pennsylvania. For lunch, they generally specialize in New England seafood type things, like the clam chowder, lobster and shrimp rolls, and fried clams. They also serve dinner a few nights a week (Thursday-Saturday until 9:00 and Tuesday and Wednesday until 7:00). For a change of pace, I went with the folks to give dinner a try.

They offer some of the stand-by lunch items (clams and a burger for instance) as well as a rotating menu of various bistro items. They are serving each entrée from the dinner menu with an amuse of soup and a salad.

The amuse was the soup of the day, which was French mushroom bisque which was a rich creamy puree of mushroom with cream and sherry. Very rich, but tasty, and the small portion was just right.

The salad was very good, a small plate of mixed greens with some slivers of green apple, sliced grapes, pecans, and some nice chunks of good blue cheese—I love fruit combined with blue cheese. And a tangy vinaigrette to top it off was really good.

For my main course, I chose the scallops wrapped in phyllo and served over a mushroom cream sauce and a side of asparagus. The scallops were a nice size and were cooked well (i.e. not to death) and I really enjoyed the variety of texture between the velvety smooth scallop and the crunchy phyllo—reminded me of a favorite scallop dish I used to get in SF which was scallops wrapped in thin slices of potato and fried. Anyway, the scallops were described as topped with truffle oil. I did not taste that at all (and I love truffle oil). However, I think really, what they could have used, was a hit of brightness from a squeeze of lemon (which I asked for and which helped quite a bit) or maybe to be served with a different sauce that wasn’t so rich—all the richness of flavor made the dish a bit one dimensional. But with a few tweaks, it could be really good. The asparagus was described on the menu as “sautéed” but I think it was just steamed, not sautéed.

My Dad ordered the steak frites though, and this was a big disappointment—the meat came out and was very overcooked (and it was pretty apparent from the time it was set down). We didn’t really have the time to have a new steak cooked, so Dad ate some and took the rest home for the dog (who is not so discriminating). Dad was glad he had ordered a cup of the clam chowder to start (even with the soup amuse) because it was his favorite part of the meal. The frites (which we had also ordered a side order of) were not so hot either, particularly when there are so many places around here doing them so well these days. They were not crispy at all and didn’t have a lot of flavor. The kalamata aioli served with them was pretty good though.

The service is pretty good—our server did take some off our bill for the overcooked steak, but I think one server for the whole place (even though it is small) may not be enough when the place is crowded (which is was when we left.)

Oh, and a note about wine—they do not have a liquor license but do welcome BYOB. Just be sure and bring your own glasses and corkscrew, as they are not allowed to help with any of that.

All in all, I think this place is really trying, and at least they are experimenting with some things other people aren’t doing—and I like the emphasis on seafood. I think maybe I will try lunch next time and see how it goes.

The Barking Dog Café
115 East 49th Street
Indy 46205
317-924-2233
www.barkingdogindy.com

****ED NOTE: AS OF APRIL 2009, ELEMENTS IS CLOSED.


Decided to live it up and hit Elements for lunch for something new. All my usual lunch places just aren’t exciting me this week. Was so glad we made the trek downtown! But hey, don’t try it any day except Friday, because that is the only day they serve lunch (and Sundays for brunch).

Hubby had the Croque Madame made with toasted brioche topped with goat cheese, sautéed pork belly (oh my, that was a crispy little bit of heaven), and an egg, sunny side up. Man, this was spectacular. I had quite a bit of it, even though I didn’t order it myself. Came with a nice little side salad, properly dressed (I have always said Elements knows how to do a salad and dress it appropriately—their dinner salads are probably the best in the City.) Our waiter told us that he has one customer that comes in every Friday for this sandwich religiously. And I can see why.

I ordered the sliders made with skirt steak, blue cheese, caramelized onions, and horseradish cream served on what I believe are the classic Elements’ dinner rolls (which I love). These two little sliders were also quite good, and I have to comment that this thin little piece of skirt steak was cooked perfectly medium rare which is something that I have found to be a problem in the past at dinner service. So kudos on that. The only thing that was somewhat challenging was it was hard to eat the sliders like a true sandwich (i.e. with you hands) because skirt steak is, by its nature, a slightly tough cut of beef, and sometimes it was hard to daintily rip the bite off with my teeth. By the end, I moved on to using a knife and fork which was much better, and probably a little more civilized looking. Good amount of blue cheese and a perfect little side salad with thinly sliced Portobello mushrooms and pinenuts.




What a nice treat for a random Friday lunch—would definitely be a fave of mine if I was a downtown worker.

Elements
415 North Alabama Street
Indy 46204
317-634-8888
http://www.elementsindy.com/

One of my favorite blogs for great ideas is Tip Junkie. It features inspiration from lots of creative ladies. My felt sports pennants are featured this week along with with several other tips on fun things to do with kids.

If you love giveaways, Tip Junkie has lots. Check out this one