Super Bowl Update

Bub's Burgers

3:37 AM | Labels: Bub's Burgers, Burgers, Carmel, Independent Restaurants, kid friendly, lunch places, Northside Restaurant

I have realized hamburgers are such a matter of taste. They vary so much from place to place. They can be grilled on a flat top or a flame grill, fat or thin, and the buns--well, that’s a whole other story. I have said before, I tend to like a thin burger cooked on a flat top, preferably with some crispy edges. I like a soft bun, and I like to be able to take a bite of the thing without unhinging my jaw.

So Bub’s has been on the list for awhile and it seemed like a good kid friendly place to hit at lunchtime the other day when I was in the mood for simple, but something new. I ordered a special burger of the day, the “steak and egg.” I got their smaller sized burger with choice of cheese, bacon and a fried egg. I also had the potato salad on the side.

So the burger isn’t bad, but it isn’t really my kind of burger. The smallest burger you can get is ¼ pound after cooking (usually those weights are given to the pre-cooking weight). It is pretty big. The beef is nicely seasoned though—whatever they are seasoning with, I like. The beef is also fresh and “hand-pattied.” The bacon was also tasty and cooked well. The egg was fried hard (I should have asked), so didn’t really add much to the burger in my opinion. If it had been runny, it would have gone a long ways toward making the burger a bit more tender. My main complaint was that the burger was a bit too dry—I ordered it medium, which is what they recommended, but I think next time I would go medium rare. I would say this medium was a little more done than that.

The bun was pretty dense too. Their website says they are made fresh at a local bakery specially for their burgers, and size-wise they did match up to the burger, but they were a little too bready for me—I tend to prefer a softer bun. The burgers themselves are big—I cut my small one in half and with all those toppings, could only eat half of it. I can’t imagine getting a bigger one (and they have the “big ugly” which is a full pound of meat! After cooking!)

I really enjoyed the potato salad. It was called “loaded potato salad” and had baked red skin potatoes, scallions and bacon mixed with a tangy mayo type dressing. It was unique with the bacon and scallions (and since I am not a fan of celery in potato salad, I really liked the scallions). I ate every bite and would certainly order it again if I were there. My son had a corn dog and onion rings, and the rings were good. They were the battered type that I like and the portion they gave my son with his dog was quite generous I thought. Between the three of us, we ate every one, and my son declared he couldn’t understand why we hadn’t been there before. They also give kids a drink and a bag with some goldfish and fruit gummies. Not exactly healthy, but popular among the preschool set.

All in all, I can see how this would be a nice easy place to go with kids for some classic American food made with good quality ingredients. Is it my favorite burger? Not by a long shot, but it wasn’t bad. The service is really friendly, and it feels like a real neighborhood spot.

Bub’s Burgers

210 West Main Street

Carmel, IN 46032

317/706-2827

www.bubsburgersandicecream.com

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Groundhog Day for health care reform?

6:43 AM | Labels: conservative Republicans, Eric Cantor, Healthcare repeal, Obama-care, Tea Party

Incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker of the House John Boehner

Virginia Representative Eric Cantor is suddenly everywhere as a newly-anointed leader of the Congressional charge to take down "Obamacare." This, just as some of the legislation's very appealing provisions (particularly for seniors) go into effect.

Cantor's bill to repeal healthcare reform is called the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” It's up for a procedural vote this Friday, and is scheduled to be considered by the Congress next Wednesday.

So, is this a good move for Mr.Cantor politically and, actually more importantly, for Americans?

Salon ran an article yesterday on "The GOP's risky bet to repeal healthcare reform" in which reporter Andrew Leonard asks:

If the real reason for voter anger is the economy, what happens to the Republican agenda if things get better?

Toward the end of the article Mr. Leonard writes:

More health coverage is good for Americans and good for the insurance industry. The latter fact may not offer much solace to progressives pining for a true public option, but it ought to be positively alarming to Republicans. As the new healthcare rules continue to be rolled out, both individuals and industries will have vested interests in maintaining the status quo. Meanwhile, Republicans are offering nothing more than a rejection of the bill, without any solution to the underlying problem -- rising healthcare costs. Who is going to buy that?

Legislation to repeal "Obamacare" was promised by Michigan Representative Fred Upton on Fox News Sunday. In his capacity as incoming chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee, one of the House committees that oversees health policy, Mr. Upton crowed, “I don’t think we’re going to be that far off from having the votes to actually override a veto.” If a take down fails, however, Congress, according to Mr. Upton, will go after healthcare reform "piece by piece," by refusing to fund provisions that require funding.

Fred Upton's district includes Kalamazoo, and the Kalamazoo Gazette is running an editorial today that, after also pointing out that Upton is making these comments just as attractive new provisions of the health care bill go into effect, concludes

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been controversial since it passed. A Virginia judge recently struck down a provision in the act and further challenges are pending.

However, there are many provisions in the bill that are beneficial to consumers. It is also equally clear that steps must be taken to stop runaway health care costs.

Why not keep the best, most beneficial, parts of the legislation and craft new legislation to address the problems? That would make the most sense.

The path Upton and other congressional leaders are choosing will just continue the dysfunction that has wasted time and taxpayer money for the past several years.

They should reconsider this action and seek to strategically revise, not repeal, the law.

Yesterday, Michael Falcone and Amy Walter blogged on ABC News bout "Risk vs. Reward On Health Care Repeal." They make the point that for new, ultra-conservative Tea Party House members, their "no government health care" rhetoric meets reality squarely on the issue of their own health care.

From the DCCC’s (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) memo: “House Republican candidates affiliated with the Tea Party ran strongly against ‘government health care.’ … Despite their campaign rhetoric and public opinion, most incoming Republican Freshman will not say whether they will accept government health care. Their silence can only mean one thing: Republican Freshman will hypocritically take government funded health care even though they ran campaigns against it.”

What I wonder is, have those of us Americans who are quick to offer our opinions on whether or not health care reform should be repealed, taken the time to understand what we're supporting or opposing.

Politics is noise; health care is real. Talk is cheap; medical care is expensive.

So, are you in favor of repeal?

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Yes, I'm really going to write about my hair on a public radio station blog . . .

6:30 AM | Labels: baking soca, Dominique Browning, No Poo, no shampoo, static electricity, Troy Polamalu

I left TV for radio for many reasons, but right up there among those reasons is that I am basically uninterested in wearing stockings or spending much time on my hair -- both of which TV work requires.

That's me, on the left, with my idea of a hairdo. As you will notice, I'm a 60-something woman with long hair -- which makes society's Fashion Police mighty uncomfortable. But then, I'm such a rebel in so many ways that maybe that's the point?

But anyway, just because I don't care much about how I look, doesn't mean I don't try to take reasonable care of my hair. It, however, is baby-fine, fly-away and a great generator of static electricity. For six decades of winters, my hair has either floated about my head or clung itchily to the side of my face. Nothing commercial helps. Nothing. And I am not too proud to try any shampoo, any conditioner, any goo or any spray that anyone suggests. The truth is that, while I may have very good qualities, I have very bad hair.

Back in October, the New York Times ran a story by Dominique Browning asking, "Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?" Evidently, this is a burning question among New York Times readers, because when last I checked, Ms. Browning's article had generated 1256 comments.

I rarely post on my personal Facebook page, but I did post that article and got quite a few responses. One person (Carolyn O'Neal, was it you?) commented that while she could see long hair, she couldn't see giving up shampoo as the article suggested?

What??? I'd missed that! So back I went and read what I had indeed overlooked the first time . . .

You would think that having long hair means you are spending a lot of money on hair products. I won’t even tell you what my Madison Avenue hairdresser, Joseph — the consummate high-end hair professional! — told me about how we shouldn’t even be using all those chemically laden shampoos.

Valery Joseph salon website photo

O.K., I will tell you: Those shampoos strip out the hair’s protective oils, and then you have to replace them with other chemical brews. He recommends regular hot water rinses and massaging of the scalp with fingertips. A little patience is required while the scalp’s natural oils rebalance themselves and — voilà — glossy, thick tresses, for free.

Glossy thick tresses!!!? No way are they going to appear on my head. I'll leave those to Troy Polamalu.

But, I reasoned, what's there could not get more bothersome. So I Googled away and found many sites advocating the No Poo approach to hair care. Most of these suggested substituting some kind of baking soda mixture for shampoo and then rinsing with diluted apple cider vinegar.

I began experimenting a couple of months ago, and, as of now, mix 1 tablespoon baking soda and one cup of water in an old plastic, pointy-topped mustard dispenser (the kind you see in diners), spread the stuff all over my scalp, rub vigorously, rinse. Next, I condition my ends and rinse. Then, using the companion, pointy-topped ketchup dispenser, I rinse my hair with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in 1 cup of water.

So far, much better -- at least as far as static electricity goes. You'll have to tell me how I look.

Okay, okay, so this is a pretty low-minded topic for a public radio blog. I would submit, however, that if you're turning up your nose in disgust, you've never spent a winter with your hair levitating on its own.

If you have, and you've got any questions you'd like to ask, please shoot me an e-mail.

Here's looking at you . . .

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Life as an American "other . . ."

6:51 AM | Labels: 1912 Olympics, Jim Thorpe, Kate Buford, Monacan Nation, Ollie Branham

The late Ollie Branham was my husband Charlie's neighbor when he and I first met twenty-some years ago.

At the time, Ollie was about 80, straight as an oak, strong, calm and wise. He'd lived in Amherst County, Virginia, his whole life, but had been a recognized (by the Commonwealth of Virginia) member of the Monacan Indian Nation only since February 14, 1989.

Before that, Ollie had been an "other," a mongrel unaccepted by either blacks or whites in the carefully racist structure of the first three-quarters of last-century Virginia. The only time I ever saw Ollie Branham close to angry was when he took out his identity card, pointed at the word "Monacan" and shouted something like that's who I am, and that's who I've always been, and now can't no one say otherwise!

Author (and WMRA member) Kate Buford has just published the first complete biography of perhaps our country's most famous Native American "other," Olympian Jim Thorpe. Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe doesn't need me to describe it as the exhaustively researched, well-written biography it is. For that, read reviews in the likes of The New York Times and Powell's. All I'll add by way of straight assessment is that, if you enjoy a biography that ranges across the early, chaotic days of professional sports, read this book! For me, it would have been worth reading just for the portrait it gives of that glorious self-promoter, Pop Warner -- whom I'd always before assumed was a sports saint.

I do, however, have a couple of things to say about Native American Son as a social history.

Jim Thorpe throws the discus in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm

Jim Thorpe competed for the United States in the 1912 Olympics (long before our country accepted him as its citizen). He won gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon, and then lost them, because he'd gotten paid to play summer baseball -- which was a common practice back then among white amateur athletes who got to keep their medals..

Although he went on to be one of the Founding Fathers of American professional sports, Jim Thorpe (as Ms. Buford details) remained the restless and rootless creature America had made him by doing almost everything wrong in its treatment of Native Americans. He was, like my friend Ollie Branham, constantly told what he wasn't, rather than being left alone to discover what he was.

Sure Jim Thorpe was a drunk and a bit feckless and a bad parent. But who knows what this man -- arguably the best American athlete of his century -- might have become had his society not beat up on him (and exploited him) every chance it got.

I'm a firm believer that we can walk around in other people's shoes only by listening to their stories. Kate's telling of Jim Thorpe's story details the dark underbelly of 20th Century American social history. It's a tale which we have every right to be ashamed of and every need to remember.

To me the greater question Kate Buford's fine biography asks is: Are we Americans as a society ever going to learn how to function without designating and denigrating "others?"

I'd suggest reading Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe if you feel any need to give your social conscience a call to action for 2011.

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Smokehouse on Shelby

3:08 AM | Labels: Barbeque, Fountain Square Restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Smokehouse on Shelby

So the other night we were headed to Radio Radio to see a friend’s band and decided to give the Smokehouse on Shelby a try. I had been once before, but couldn’t really remember the details of the menu. We were intrigued by several of the old school appetizers offered and decided to go with an appetizer sampler. I asked our server what things were made fresh and he assured me that everything on the menu was made fresh. Well, hello potato skins! And fried mushrooms and chicken wings. (You can choose three of 4 choices on the sampler platter, with the other one being onion rings). So we really enjoyed the skins and the mushrooms. The mushrooms were actually coated in cracker crumbs and fried. They weren’t too big and were served with cocktail sauce for dipping. While the cocktail sauce itself was pleasantly spicy and had a very nice flavor, I didn’t think it suited the mushrooms that well and dipped mine in the blue cheese that was for the wings.

The potato skins were interesting—a slightly different take than your typical ones—they had smoky chili on them and then the cheese and the green onions. Sour cream was served on the side. They were good—they were freshly made and had a nice crisp skin and a fair amount of the soft potato still there. The chili gave it a very hearty flavor. Much more so than the regular bacon that you might see with the beans. This was a fairly thick layer of chili.

Our least favorite was the chicken wings. They were smoked and had a nice smoky flavor, but they seemed a bit dried out. The wings were served with hot sauce, which packed a fair amount of punch. They were interesting though in that they were not deep fried—just smoked. I normally would really appreciate that kind of variation for health reasons, but these were just a little too dry. The blue cheese dressing served with these (and also on the little side salad that hubby had as one of his side dishes) was really tasty. The dressings are all made in house and this one was really nice. Didn’t have that fakey bottled taste at all.

For my main dish, I had the half chicken which according to the menu was marinated and applewood smoked. Unfortunately, it was also a bit dry. But the thing that saved it was the really tasty barbeque sauce (hubby and I both got the sweet). Wow, this barbeque sauce was delicious. Not super sticky sweet—just the right amount of tanginess and smokiness and a bit of heat (more than you might expect from something called “sweet.”) I would probably buy this sauce if they sold it by the bottle. It was quite good. And dipping the chicken in it made up for some of the dryness.

For my sides I had potato salad and mac and cheese. The mac and cheese wasn’t bad. It was creamy but didn’t have a ton of flavor. The potato salad was a miss—it was called “mustard potato salad” which intrigued me—I generally really like mustard. But this had little or no flavor to it in my opinion, mustard or anything else. And I like a tangy potato salad to balance out barbeque, but this one wasn’t cutting it.

Hubby had the ribs. They were St. Louis style, meaning dry rubbed and smoked. Hubby went with them because he loves ribs, although he tends to prefer the type that is cooked in sauce and more fall off the bone (Kansas City style). As it turns out, he probably should’ve followed his instinct because he didn’t really care for them, because they were so dry and a bit challenging to get off the bone. He also loved the barbeque sauce too though. He also had a side of curly fries, which I thought, no way are they making those in house, but sure enough, they looked like they were. And they were pretty tasty, with a light battery breading on them.

So I love that this place is making everything in house. That is a real challenge to find in a casual restaurant like this. The appetizers were quite good; unfortunately I wasn’t really into the smoked meats. I would be interested to try the pulled pork sandwich though—bits of meat with a bunch of the sauce might be pretty tasty. And all the sauces were outstanding—the cocktail sauce, the blue cheese dressing and the barbeque sauce. Someone is doing a great job with these.

This place is obviously a pretty popular place though as it was pretty much full, including several families. The interior is very old school diner feeling with some giant antique letters on the wall and some great old movie posters. The service was efficient enough, although I can’t say it was overly friendly. So I know a lot of you are fans of Fountain Square, have you eaten at this place? What’s good? And who has the best barbeque in town? And while I am thinking about it, anyone know of a place in town that does the South Carolina style mustard based barbeque sauce? I love that stuff.

Smokehouse on Shelby

1105 Prospect Street

Indy, 46203

317/685-1959

www.fountainsquareindy.com/smokehouse/index.asp

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Rafa Nadal: Different Year, Same Obsession, Same Results??

10:27 AM |

(Those are some big bowls!)

We are only two days into the year, but Our Hero, Rafael Nadal, has already returned to his winning ways by beating good friend and super-rival, Roger Federer 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi last night. Hooray!

This event is not a fully recognized tour event, but an invited exhibition tournament. This means the win doesn't pad the head-to-head stats of Rafa vs. Fed, but it was still a great match. Abu Dhabi needs all the good press it can get after its reputation was destroyed thanks to Sex and the City 2.

Rafa also won this season kick-off event last year, following all the hardships in his 2009 season. From there, he went on to have the best season of his career. Hopefully history will repeat itself and Rafa will have another tremendous showing on the courts throughout 2011. It will be tough - because of his great success last year, he has a lot of titles and tour points to defend. I can't wait to obsessively watch and report on all his victories. Vamos Rafa!!!

Below is a link to highlights from the match. Rafa and Fed put on quite the Tennis Master Class when they play each other. This was actually their 4th meeting in the past two months having faced each other in the 2010 World Tour Finals in November and then two charity exhibitions in Switzerland and Spain in December. It's great to see both players at the top of their games!

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Twilight Zone Marathon: For Your Consideration

6:34 PM |

One of the joys of New Year's Day is the traditional Twilight Zone Marathon on Sci Fi Channel (er.. I guess it's SyFy now.) It actually predates SciFi and used to be shown on Channel 11, before they lost the rights to the show and switched to The Honeymooners. Sci Fi shows all the classic episodes over the 40-somewhat hours the marathon runs. To Serve Man, The Dummy, Talking Tina, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. the ones with William Shatner, the ones with Burgess Meredith and so on and so forth. There's one episode that I've always really enjoyed that I haven't seen on the marathon list for years. I didn't catch any of the first half of the marathon this year, so it's possible they aired it and I didn't know. In case they left it out again, I'm posting the youtube links to it here.

The episode is called "The Jungle." It has to do with this New York business dude and his wife who spent a lot of time in Africa trying to exploit the natives for the dude's engineering company and the shaman's there told them if they went through with their shady dealings they'd all be cursed. The wife stocked up on protective charms before they left, but the business dude destroys them all because he thinks it's superstitious and then the curse takes hold and all hell breaks loose.
The business dude tries to get back to his apartment from after-work drinks before the animal spirit that's hunting him down finally goes in for the kill.

Why do I like it so much? Well, I have a soft spot for all the Twilight Zone episodes that take place in NYC. This one is sufficiently creepy especially for its ominous sound design and constant build of suspense all the way to the shock ending. It doesn't exactly look like Central Park he's trying to take a short cut through, but maybe it looked closer to that 40 years ago. Anyway, here it is! The Jungle.

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