Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine & Sweet Shop
14096 Trade Center Drive
Fishers, Indiana 46038

In 2013, I’ve given up meat (I still eat seafood).  Yes, considering my history of meat gluttony on this blog, that is a strange decision.  The reason I’ve done it though is not because I’m against meat or for any particular health reasons, but more to challenge myself to see if I can actually stick to it.  It’s a small battle against myself to see if I still have the will power to stick to any sort of decision I’ve made.

Anyway, since I am abstaining from meat, it’s tough to find places that have non-meat dishes outside of the typical salads, fried vegetables or pastas.  There is one kind of cuisine that is different though and that is Indian cuisine.  Over half the Indian population is vegetarian, so there are a lot of flavorful varieties of food to choose from since they have to come up with varieties with which to feed their culture.  Plus, I like Indian food, so I wanted to give this place a shot as it is under new ownership with a new name (there had been two previous iterations of Indian food restaurants at this exact same site, one of which made me violently ill).

Now, seeing that this place had “Sweet Shop” in the name kind of made me laugh, but sure enough, my first sight when I entered the restaurant was this big deli case of sweets (I didn’t get a wide angle shot because I didn’t want to look too creepy marching in here and snapping pictures).  I didn’t get any sweets on this trip, but maybe I will some time in the future.

What I Got:  Saag Paneer; $8.95.  Saag Paneer is an entree, according to the menu, that is “Cooked with green spinach, green mustard, broccoli and cabbage with onions, ginger and ricotta cheese with Indian Spices” (Paneer is cheese and Saag is spinach).

As you can see, it’s also served with a rice concoction that pretty much resembles vegetable fried rice like you’d get at a typical Chinese restaurant.  As for the Saag Paneer, it’s certainly not going to win any beauty contests as it was just a container full of green, spinach-smelling sludge.  If you believe the statement that states that you eat with your eyes, well, this didn’t look very appetizing.

I do have limited experience with Indian food, so I know that Indian food sometimes isn’t the most attractive thing in the world, but that gets made up for with the flavor of the dishes and this Saag Paneer was no different.  The Saag combination was more creamy than anything and certainly had a nice kick to it (I got it at medium spice level, so I can only imagine what hot would have been).  The potent flavor of the onions, ginger and other Indian spices (I want to say they at least included garlic and cumin, which is typical) certainly had a nose clearing tendency.  That potent kick when mixed with what turned out to be a creamy spinach mixture was a solid flavor combination.  The only thing that was odd about this dish was the paneer itself.  The cubes of cheese were almost tofu like in that while they maintained their shape, when you bit into them, they basically disintegrated in your mouth like you were letting the air out of a balloon, which was certainly different.  It definitely was not anything like your Super Bowl party tray cheese cube, that is for sure.  That said, the flavor was fine and salty, but just the texture of it was different.

The rice was pretty much as you’d expect and provided something nice to mix with the Saag Paneer.  I won’t spend much time on it other than that since it wouldn’t be worth my time to get too descriptive.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yeah, I suppose I would.  This certainly was not wonderful by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a decent  meal with a very large portion that would definitely fill a person up.  If I had to compare this to something American-ized, I would say that this sort of reminded me of the creamed spinach that you can get at Boston Market and since that is my favorite thing at Boston Market, that is a compliment for this Saag Paneer.  Assuming my vegetarian quest/challenge continues, if I order this again, I think I’ll drop the Paneer and just stick with the Saag.  One other positive aspect of this experience was that this did not make me sick like one of the previous Indian iterations in this location did and that is ALWAYS a positive.

-IndianapolisEater

Cook’s Pizza
14300 Mundy Drive #700
Noblesville, Indiana 46060
http://mycookspizza.com/

I’ve recently moved after spending close to a decade in the same place, so as part of my move, I’ve been exploring the restaurants in my area.  One of those places is a local pizza joint called Cook’s Pizza.  They were established in 1971, but being that the strip shopping center that they are in has definitely not been around since 1971, it’s definitely not their original location.  Anyway, a craving for pizza (and a recommendation from a friend) let me to give them a shot on a recent Sunday Night.

What I Got:  Medium Margarita Mani pizza; $12.00.

What better thing to order from a pizza joint with an American sounding name than a classic Margarita pizza, right?  LOL.  Anyway, joking aside, Cook’s Margarita Mani was described as being topped with basil, tomato, mozzarella and garlic (obviously the crust and tomato sauce are included as well) and I can confirm all those were there, although I was a bit disappointed by the lack of garlic and the basil was a bit more diced up than I would have expected.  That said, I was impressed with the amount of freshly diced tomatoes that were spread throughout (you can see some big chunks in my picture).  There was a lot more crust here than I expected, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When I took my first bite, I wasn’t particularly impressed.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing, but nothing about this pizza made my socks want to jump off my feet.  The sauce, while thick and hearty, was not particularly sweet at all and since I love tomato sauces to trend toward the sweet side, that was slightly disappointing.  The garlic and basil, while somewhat noticeable when you got a piece in your bite, was mostly bland through the pizza.   The two things that were better than average and not bland with this pizza were the crust, the cheese and the diced tomatoes.  The crust was soft and spongy and that was kind of fun to chew through.  After I flipped it over, I noticed that it seemed to have just a slight dusting of pepper in it too, so that brought a little flavor that I wasn’t expecting as well.  It’s spongy quality also made it great for dipping as well, which was kind of fun.

Now, to the other better than average part…the cheese.  This cheese congealed in a way that made it almost creamy and made it delicious.  A lot of times, especially at fast pizza places (Papa John’s, etc.), the cheese can get oily, salty and just plain gross.  Cook’s mozzarella did not do that and I certainly appreciated it.  In fact, it was the cheese that made this entire pizza for me because I very much enjoyed it.  The last part that made this pizza better than boring were the diced tomatoes and I can’t say that I’d had that on a lot of pizzas in my life and it brought a level of freshness to the pizza that I don’t typically see.  Combining those three components together saved this pizza from a life of mediocrity.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, I would.  While it was only slightly above average pizza in the grand scheme of life, it was certainly better than a typical delivery joint.  There are some things that I wish were different about this pizza, but the performance of this was good enough that I’m willing to order from Cook’s again to see if perhaps I can find a better pizza.  If I can’t do that, I at least know that this Margarita Mani will do just fine.

-IndianapolisEater

Quizno’s
http://www.quiznos.com

Like they did last year in the Lenten season, Quizno’s has re-introduced their Lobster & Seafood Salad sub for those that go without meat on Fridays during the season.  In the past, I was never a big seafood guy, but since I am now drifting more toward seafood and away from meat, I figured giving this sandwich a shot was in order.  I’m a bit hesitant to try something as wonderful as lobster from a mass market sandwich shop, but I’m here to be your glutton for punishment, so let’s have at it!

What I Got:  Large Lobster & Seafood Salad Sub; $7.99.

One nice thing about my visit to Quizno’s to pick up the sandwich was that the sandwich guy said that he’d get me a “fresh” batch of the lobster & seafood salad for my sandwich, so at least I’d be trying out the mix as it was intended instead of eating something that had been sitting in a bin in the counter for several hours.  That bode well.  The salad itself is an exceptionally creamy mayonnaise base that had several pieces of lobster, which I admit were handsomely sized, so that was again a good omen.  Quizno’s gives no indication what the rest of the “seafood” is made up of, but I would imagine it’s imitation crab (or krab depending on what you are buying), imitation lobster, etc.

I made sure to try a piece of lobster first and while nothing beats fresh and well prepared lobster, I’ve got to admit that this wasn’t all that bad.  It was tender and had some nice sweet flavor to go along with it.  The creamy mayonnaise even added a degree of decadence (take that descriptive word with a grain of salt, this is a “fast food” sandwich after all) to the entire package.  The rest of the seafood wasn’t really distinguishable, but this lobster & seafood salad was just a creamy seafood-esque mix that had decent taste for what you were getting.  When mixed with the lettuce and plethora of other veggies I got with this sandwich (the sandwich guy said he had never made a more loaded sandwich; LOL, that comment seems to be spoken to me a lot), it was an interesting and solidly tasting mix.

Would I Buy It Again?  Sure, I’d buy it again.  It’s a reasonable enough fast food creation that is somewhat akin to a famed lobster roll.  I’ve never had a lobster roll in my life (one of my great regrets), so I have nothing to compare this to, but I’d imagine that lobster rolls would be incredible compared to this.  That said, in lieu of a lobster roll, this is an okay representation if you are having a jones for that flavor combo.  I’m sure this one will go away with the Lenten season, so pick it up while you can.

-IndianapolisEater

Editor’s Note:  Sorry for the quick review on such a basic thing/chain, but as we’ve said a couple of times in the comments, the cruel mistress that is real life has taken its toll on the WIBIA staff and we just haven’t had time for many reviews lately.

Firehouse Subs
http://www.firehousesubs.com

For whatever reason, it took the longest time for a Firehouse Subs to open in the Castleton area.  I had been before and enjoyed it, but there were none close to me as the nearest two were by The Pyramids and also up in Noblesville.  While I liked my first Firehouse experience, I wasn’t willing to drive 15+ minutes to get a sub unless it turned out to be the greatest sub I had eaten in my lifetime.  Since some eager franchisee decided to take the plunge and open one in Castleton (FINALLY), I decided it was time to make my return visit to Firehouse and grab another one of their famous steamed subs for a tryout.

What I Got:  Whole Hook & Ladder sub; ~$8.00.

According to the Firehouse website, a Hook & Ladder sub contains “Smoked turkey breast, Virginia honey ham, and melted Monterey Jack cheese.”  Yeah, I know, not the most adventurous sub for me to choose, but sometimes you just feel like getting something old and reliable, right?

Old and reliable is the perfect way to describe this sub because every one of the ingredients delivered as I would have hoped.  The turkey was moist and flavorful and the Virginia ham had that sweetness that Virginia ham is intended to have.  The cheese was just cheese, but it did add a bit of saltiness to balance out the sweetness of the ham.  I didn’t get it “Fully Involved” as they recommend, but all the veggies did pretty much taste as I would have expected them to, so I’m not going to waste any more time.

One of the things that makes Firehouse stand out from other sandwich shops is that they steam their subs and it has a unique effect on their sandwiches.  It takes what could be ordinarily soft or crunchy bread and turns it moist and doughy.  It’s an acquired taste and not one that I like often (I mostly like my sandwich bread to be toasted and crunchy), but it does make for an interesting and flavorful sandwich.  Another by-product of this steaming is that it makes the meats in the sandwich even more moist and when you are dealing with turkey, that can only help because as well know, turkey tends to dry out from time to time.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yeah, I’d grab the Hook & Ladder again and I’d definitely grab Firehouse again.  It’s flavorful, different and serves everything in huge portions (with the addition of a plethora of hot sauces).  All of those are things that I’m a big fan of, so this one is right up my alley.  I’m glad they’ve finally come to Castleton and I have an option for something a bit different from the typical Subway, Quizno’s or Jimmy John’s because it is much needed.   Plus, Firehouse has that

-IndianapolisEater

Savory Corn Crumble with Butternut Squash, Spinach and Feta, recipe by Ivy Liacopoulou of Kopiaste…to Greek Hospitality
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
Serves: 1 baking dish (about 12 pieces)
Ingredients:
Filling:

• 2 lbs butternut Squash, grated
• 1 lbs spinach, squeezed
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 lbs feta, crumbled
• ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
• ½ cup fennel fronds, finely chopped
• Salt (with caution) and freshly grated black pepper
• A pinch of cumin

Crumble:

• 1.5 lbs corn meal
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 200 ml Greek yogurt 2%
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp salt

Additional ingredients:

• 3 tbsp margarine divided (to grease the baking tin and to add on top)

Directions:

1. Grate the pumpkin and mix all the filling ingredients.
2. In a large bowl add the crumble ingredients and mix using your hand until the ingredients are well blended to form the crumble. If you still see corn meal, add more olive oil, if necessary.
3. Grease a 35 x 25 cm baking tin with 2 tbsp margarine. Add half of the crumble on the baking tin.
4. Add the filling on top and sprinkle the remaining crumble on top of the filling.
5. Add the remaining margarine in small pieces scattered all over the baking tin.
6. Preheat oven to 180o C / 350o F and bake for about 1 hour or until the crumble is golden on top.

Serve as a main dish, a side dish or a snack.

This sponsorship is brought to you by GLAM Media who we have partnered with for this promotion.

Serious Eats put up a post yesterday about what they felt the best places to eat near Bloomington, Indiana were as part of their College Tours series (obvious Indiana University connection).  This one’s near and dear to my heart since myself (and also several other writers of this blog) are IU graduates and I was quite pleased to see a post on their website about this.

A lot of these places are places that I’ve never been since they opened after I was a student at IU, which was longer ago than I’d like to think.  Others are timeless classics that are on the list because they’ve been open forever.  That said, I do have some thoughts on some of the places on this list and thought that I’d approach it on kind of a Good, Bad and Ugly type of basis where I think they’ve made good recommendations, bad recommendations and awful recommendations based on my experiences.

The Good

*Dagwood’s.  The review that I’ve linked is of the since closed location here locally here in Broad Ripple, but when I was at IU, I absolutely LOVED this place.  In fact, I probably owed at least thirty pounds of my college weight gain to there because I ate their sandwiches so frequently.  I know other people have other favorites, but if you get the Italian or the Dagwood Supreme, you really can’t go wrong.

 *Kilroy’s on Kirkwood.  I could not agree more on this pick for Best Happy Hour/Cheap Eat.  I used to go there on Fridays with $20 in my pocket and leave with a stomach overly full of chicken wings, pizza breadsticks and beer, all of which were on special for absurdly low prices.  I love that I can still get the breadsticks here locally when I need to and I still love visiting KOK when I visit Bloomington for football and basketball games.  Shoot, now I’m getting all nostalgic.

*Yogi’s Grill & Bar. You really can’t beat the beer selection at this place and the food is pretty solid too.  I love the atmosphere and was just there about a month ago and just love the fact that the place expands seemingly every time I go there.  Business is obviously quite good for Yogi.

*Nick’s English Hut.  This one is a Bloomington tradition and no IU student worth anything has made it through college without at least one visit to this place.  Famous for their delicious strombolis and Sink the Biz drinking game, this one is a can’t miss.  It’s slightly overrated by alums as being the best place ever, but it is still a damn good time and a damn tasty meal.

*Lennie’s. I used to go here so frequently in college that they didn’t even have to ask me what I wanted. My order was always spaghetti & meatballs, which was delicious, and also a Coke. It would always arrive 15-20 minutes after I sat down and the waitresses sometimes wouldn’t even dispense with bringing me a menu. Being that I was enough of a regular to have this happen to me, obviously I hold the place in high esteem and was delighted to see it on the list.

 The Bad

*Buffalouie’s.  I just don’t get this place.  When I was at IU, this was a terrible place but they stayed in business because at the time, it was really the only place you could get chicken wings that weren’t from a pizza delivery place, which was pathetic.  They’ve moved to right on the edge of campus (after I left Bloomington), so apparently they do pretty well now.  Also, everyone I talk to at this point says its good, so maybe my memories of the place don’t hold strong now.  Still, I have trouble believing it’s that good.

*Smokin’ Jack’s Rib Shack.  This place has been around forever and to my knowledge is the only true barbecue place in Bloomington, but I just don’t get it.  When I was in school, I always found their food to be boring and flavorless.  I had it a couple weeks ago at a catered party and found it to still be that way.  I just don’t understand the love for this place as it is only average at best.  I guess they get love since when you are the only barbecue game in town, you get overrated.

*Opie Taylor’s.  I can’t really see why this place is on the list as being a sure thing to visit.  It’s just a burger joint with okay burgers.  It’s not bad, but in my experience, it’s not a place that I would make a special trip to go visit.  If I ended up there, I guess I’d be okay with it, but it certainly wouldn’t be a place I’d recommend.

The Ugly

*Pizza X (called Pizza Express when I was there; called HotBox locally for a while).  I hate this place more than life itself.  The breadsticks are okay, I suppose, but the pizza is some of the worst pizza I’ve ever had.  I used to get it in college because it was cheap and I probably owe fifty pounds of weight gain to it, but I’ve only had it once since college ended and I want that one time back because it was AWFUL.  Notice how the post only mentions that they are the most available delivery place and doesn’t mention anything about the taste of the food.  There’s a reason for that.

I thought this would end up being some quick thoughts, but I’ve ended up typing far more than I could have ever thought.  There’s other places on the list that I’ve been (Irish Lion, etc.) but didn’t feel they were worth a comment.

Anyway, the next question that I’m sure some of you would ask is what are my recommendations, but you aren’t going to get that.  I’m just going to pick apart Serious Eats’ list…something about glass houses and the like.

Anyway, anyone have any thoughts on the list and/or want to make recommendations of their own?  Feel free to engage us down in the comments section.

-IndianapolisEater

McDonald’s
http://www.mcdonalds.com

I don’t know why since it seems like it would be right up my alley (food related), but it took me forever to finally see “Supersize Me.”  While I found the movie to be mostly propaganda and biased, it did do a good job focusing on how many unhealthy eating options there are at McDonald’s.  While they may not say it is directly because of the movie, McDonald’s has started to focus on more healthy items, even going so far as to put calorie counts on their menu boards, and while I don’t typically eat at McDonald’s, a gift card found its way into my hands so I had some money to burn.  Not wanting to turn into Morgan Spurlock (or my former self) and perhaps feeling a bit of self-loathing due to watching the movie, I decided to give one of those “healthier” options a try and that leads to this review.

What I Got:  McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken; $4.79.

I know it’s a salad and most salads are boring, but since this is “premium,” don’t you think it’s worth a review?  Well maybe not, but you are getting one.  Anyway, McDonald’s describes this salad as “Our hottest salad yet: fresh-grilled chicken, fresh mixed greens, oven-roasted tomatoes, fire-roasted corn, savory black beans, poblano peppers, shredded cheddar and jack cheeses, chili lime tortilla strips and a fresh-sliced lime wedge on the side.”  So, I’m guessing that McDonald’s wants you to think this is hot, eh?  Regardless, kudos to whatever creative writer at McDonald’s wrote this…not sure I’ve ever seen a salad described in such detail.

So, as I bit into the salad, I can definitely agree that it was hotter than your typical salad.  The peppers and corn brought a nice kick to the entire package and that was hit with the tartness of the lime juice, which I squeezed over the salad (thought it would be kind of silly to eat a lime whole, rind and all).  The tortilla strips then offset the soft and chewy beans by adding crunch and after mixing those together with all the other ingredients like the cheese, tomatoes, etc., it was as if I was eating a deconstructed taco.  Tacos=good, so if using that brilliant mathematical equation, that means this salad is good too, in my opinion.

Would I Buy It Again?  I sure would and already have gotten it a second time and it was just as good as the first time.  This is a solid sized salad too, so it works perfectly as a nice sized lunch or a main entree for you dinner.  As long as you choose a healthy dressing, you can keep this down to a respectable amount of calories and maybe if more McDonald’s customers ate this, there’d be less people in the world that look like Grimace, the old me or Morgan Spurlock by the end of the movie.

-IndianapolisEater

Jason’s Deli
http://www.jasonsdeli.com

If you look back at our review archives, you’ll see that we’ve done a few reviews of Jason’s Deli already, so it seems kind of funny that I’d hit it up again for another review.  But, when you are dealing with a deli, there’s always a wide variety of menu items to review, so for this review, I’ll be hitting up another one of their menu items that we haven’t covered yet.

What I Got:   Reuben THE Great, Original Size; $8.39.  Served with chips and a pickle.

Periodically I get a craving for sauerkraut and or a Reuben, so that craving along with a gift card that I won on the Jason’s Deli Twitter feed in their #TuesdayTrivia contest led me to Jason’s to try this one out.  Jason’s states that this sandwhich is made up of “1/2 pound of hot corned beef, Swiss,sauerkraut, Russian dressing, grilled on rye” and I can certainly confirm all of those things were there.  The corned beef was in heaping amounts, as was the sauerkraut, so this was certainly a very large sandwich and looked to be a hearty meal.  The only thing that was kind of depressing about the construction of the sandwich was that it was a little light on the Russian dressing and as the kind of guy that likes to have the dressing just oozing out of my Reuben, I’ve got to say I was slightly disappointed in that.

In terms of taste, this sandwich worked well together.  I tried all of the ingredients individually just to see if one really stood out, but when eaten individually, the ingredients were just average.  The sauerkraut had that sweet and sour taste, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful.  The corned beef was moist and tender, but it lacked any sort of strong flavor and was also just average tasting.  It was not overly salty or peppery as well and while I appreciated that, some people come to expect that from their corned beef, I appreciated its absence.  The Russian dressing was in too small of any amount for me to really discern a taste and the cheese and rye bread were pretty much standard stuff.  All in all, nothing stood out, but nothing was bad either.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, I would.  Despite the fact that the components of the sandwich individually were just average and/or standard stuff, it’s called a sandwich for a reason and when you mix everything together, it worked pretty well together to make for a flavorful (and large) meal.  It certainly wasn’t the best Reuben I can ever remember having, but it certainly was not bad either.  If I had to rate this on a letter grade scale, I would rate it as a B-, which puts it slightly above average and makes it memorable enough to eat again when my Reuben craving creeps up again in a few months.

-IndianapolisEater