Food in Indy

Hi everyone!

So, last week I took a short vacation in order to attend Gencon. For those who are unfamiliar, Gencon is a huge gaming convention that takes place every year in Indianapolis. Obviously, I didn't have any way to cook while I was there, but I did eat at a few fine establishments instead. So I thought, for something different, I would share with you a little bit about what and where I ate. After all, with a nerdy name like +1 Knife of Cooking, I can hardly let a huge gaming event go by unremarked, right?

Without further ado, I give you, in no particular order, a brief tour of the food Indy has to offer:


Granite City Food and Brewery
The place: A restaurant and micro-brewery, with a relaxing atmosphere and good service.
What I ate: I went with the Granite City Reuben, consisting of pastrami and corned beef on rye, with Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing, and coleslaw served in the sandwich. I also tried their beer sampler, which consisted of 8 different beers all brewed in-house.
My thoughts: We tried this place out on a whim, and we were all pleasantly surprised. My Reuben was a good size, and the meat wasn't overly salty. Adding the coleslaw was a nice touch too, I thought. And I liked the beers, even though there were three IPA's and I'm not a huge fan of those. But I'm pretty sure we'll be going back next year, so I'd say 4 out of 5 stars.

Greek's Pizzeria
The place: A definite hole-in-the-wall pizzeria. Kinda dingy, sure, with framed newspaper clippings and a pair of TVs on the walls, but everything was clean and well-kept.
What I ate: I went fairly simple with this meal, and ordered the pepperoni calzone, or as they called it, the pepperoni shell. Nothing to special about it really: meat, sauce, cheese and bread.
My thoughts: We found this place by accident, and it was pretty good. If nothing else, the pizza crust was amazing: soft, chewy and buttery smooth, everything you could want. The service was a little lackluster, but they were shorthanded that night, so I can't fault them too badly. Still, 3.5 out of 5 ain't bad.

Little Eataly
The place: A lot of food trucks congregate outside the convention center, so I decided to grab some lunch from them one day. Not much to say really; I mean, it's a food truck, what more do you want?
What I ate: The Pig and Fig sandwich, a tasty concoction of prosciutto, mozzarella, basil and fig butter of all things served on Ciabatta.
My thoughts: I initially went with this because it was kinda odd, but it really paid off. It was a good sized sandwich, and the sweet fig butter really meshed well with the fresh basil and the ham. I may have to try to duplicate it, if I can track down some fig butter. Score: 4/5

Pearl Street Pizzeria and Pub
The place: I thought this place kinda had a nice sports bar vibe, even though it was definitely a fancy pizzeria.
What I ate: My pizza was half Hawaiian, half Margherita. The Hawaiian side came with capicolla ham and a thai chili sauce, and the Margherita side came with big slices of fresh tomato and was topped with large leaves of basil.
My thoughts: The pizza took a long time to cook, but it was well worth the wait. Everything was hot and fresh, so no complaints there. I also got to try their breadsticks, which were truly amazing. 4 out of 5 stars.

Punch Burger
The place:Your basic hole-in-the-wall burger joint. Nothing much to say about the place really: minimal decorations, food served in plastic baskets, menu written on the wall in chalk.
What I ate: I tried the Aloha burger. As you can tell, I have a weakness for the ham and pineapple combinations, so when I saw they had a burger with black forest ham, grilled pineapple, Swiss cheese and teriyaki sauce, I jumped at it. I also tried their sweet potato tots on the side.
My thoughts: A good burger, and the tots were delicious. Admittedly, they messed up my order, trying to combine my Aloha with the Thai someone else had ordered (pineapple and peanut butter don't really play well together), but I got the right sandwich in the end. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Ram Restaurant and Brewery 
The place: The Ram comes off as your typical sports bar, right? Except during Gencon, when the whole place become a veritable cornucopia of nerddom. The whole place gets decorated with paraphernalia from the Warmachine and Iron Kingdoms universe, and they throw nerdy movies (Lord of the Rings, anyone?) up on the big screen TV above the bar.
What I ate: Renamed the Judicator in honor of the occasion, I partook of the Buttface Bacon Cheeseburger. The burger, served on a pretzel roll, comes with hickory smoked bacon, a large deep-fried onion ring, and a cheese sauce made using their house-brewed Buttface Amber Ale (hence the name), of which I also had a pint (the beer, not the cheese).
My thoughts: A good burger, although they skimped on the cheese sauce and I had to ask for more. Overall though, they cooked it to the correct medium rare I ordered, and it arrived hot and fresh at the table. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Slippery Noodle Inn
The place: An old blues music bar and grill. Unfortunately, I can't attest to the musical quality, as we were only eating lunch there. But it definitely has a casual music bar vibe.
What I ate: I had the Whiskey Pepper Steak Sub. It's exactly what it sounds like, and comes with thin-sliced sirloin steak, grilled onions, and provolone cheese on a hoagie roll. They also use their "famous" whiskey pepper sauce, a savory spicy white sauce, to top it all off.
My thoughts: A pretty good sandwich, if a rather messy one that was a bit difficult to eat. I would rather have had fries instead of potato chips, but the meal was overall quite good. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Weber Grill
The place: A very nice steak house, but not a suit and tie kind of place. More of a backyard grill brought indoors and cleaned up a bit.
What I ate: I went for the New York Strip (cooked medium rare, thank you kindly), served with sauteed mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes, and a blue cheese and pecan coleslaw.
My thoughts: A good steak. Last year, my steak was really chewy, so I admit I had my reservations. But I'm glad to say that the meal turned out perfectly. I thought the coleslaw was an interesting idea, but then I've been on this blue cheese kick recently, so perhaps I'm just biased. Still, I give the place a 4 out of 5.

So, this is my first time reviewing restaurants, and I think I need to refine my technique a bit. I also need to take more notes so that next time I can give you all a more in-depth review. Still, I think these are some good overviews, and I hope you'll agree.

Thanks for reading!

Take Two: Twice-baked Chicken Parmesan Potatoes

Hi again everyone!

I decided to give the Chicken Parm Taters another go on Friday last week. If you will recall, last time I came to the conclusion that while tasty, the potatoes were a bit lacking in the Chicken Parm flavor, which was, after all, half the point of the recipe. So, this time I did a few things differently. The results? Well I am very happy to report that it was a great success!

I'm actually quite proud of how these turned out, so I'm going to share the complete process once again. If anybody out there wants to give it a try, go for it! Just let me know what you think!

THE INGREDIENTS!!
8 medium baking potatoes
4 medium chicken breasts
16 oz ricotta cheese
3 tbs butter, diced
3 cups shredded mozzarella
1 16oz block mozzarella cheese
1 jar marinara sauce
1 c panko
3 more tbs butter, melted
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

THE METHOD!!
Scrub the potatoes clean and set aside to dry. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Rub the dry potatoes with a little canola or vegetable oil and place on a sheet pan (lined with parchment if you have it). Bake the potatoes for 45 minutes to an hour, or until they are fork tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, cube the chicken and cook over medium to med-high heat in the skillet of your choice. You don't need anything fancy for this: a little olive oil (extra virgin not necessary), a little salt, a little pepper, done. Once cooked through, you can choose to dice the chicken into smaller bits if you like.

Slice sixteen strips of mozzarella off the block and set aside.

Mix the panko with the melted butter and set aside.

When the potatoes are just cool enough to handle (depending on your heat threshold), slice them in half longways. Use a spoon to scoop everything out of the middle and into a large bowel. Set the shells into a pair of 9x13in baking dishes, or a similar vessel of your choice. If you don't have two, either work in batches or just go get another one!

Mash the potatoes with a fork and incorporate the diced butter. Work in the ricotta, the shredded mozza, and the chicken. Get it all evenly combined, switching to a larger stirring implement (or your hands!) when it becomes necessary.

Scoop the potatoes mixture into the shells, mounding it slightly. When they're all full, make a little depression in the top of the mix, just to flatten it out a bit. Spoon two good tablespoons of marinara sauce over top of each potato, or a little more if you like! Top this with a slice of mozzarella. Sprinkle the whole thing with the panko mixture and the Parmesan cheese.

Bake at the same temperature as above for about ten to fifteen minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the panko has browned to that magical golden color.

Consume.


Ok, y'all've got to admit that looks pretty dang good. Like I said up above, I'm really pleased with how it turned out this time. If I were to do anything different on the next go, I'd probably up the chicken a bit, just for the sake of more meat. As I'm writing this, I've just realized that some Italian seasoning mixed in with the potatoes might not be a bad idea either, and I probably could've added some more salt and pepper to help season the taters as well. But honestly, we didn't miss it.

Keeping the sauce on the outside and spooning it over the top definitely helped to bring out the idea of Chicken Parmesan. Furthermore, I'm glad I left out the bacon and the green onions. Now, before you lynch me for my blasphemy against bacon, keep in mind that Chicken Parm doesn't use bacon, and that was part of the point. Bacon, while delicious, was not necessary in this dish. But... maybe next time I'll try a little bacon, if it'll make y'all happy.

So, that's the dish! I hope that some of you will give it a try. I hope even more that you'll try it and like it as much as we did. As always, I love getting feedback, both on the food and on the blog itself.

Thanks for reading!