I looked at the thermometer recently and it was -3 degrees in the capitol city.  Why anyone settled this area is beyond me.  It is either really cold or really humid and there are very few waterways.

When in the middle of the winter, my eating habits change.  I want comfort food and that is it.  Right now, if meat is not braised or roasted, I am probably not going to eat it.  A piece of grilled chicken and a salad sounds horrible.  With all that being said, one of my favorite meals ever, is Macaroni and Cheese.  I love it so much that I thought about starting a blog only about Mac and Cheese.  It is relatively simple to make, goes with just about everything and is usually really cheap.

I have been making it and eating it as long as I can remember.  In fact, I have a second degree burn scar on my left hand from making mac and cheese as a young whipper-snapper.  However, m&c is consistently ruined by overly encouraged chefs that think they can reinvent this classic.  It is only on the rarest of occasions that I like m&c from a restaurant.  It is either too dry, wrong noodles, paired with lobster or something that it doesn’t need just to bump up the price point.

So, here is your assignment:

1.  What is your favorite/least favorite store bought Mac and Cheese?

2.  What is your favorite restaurant Mac and Cheese (link would be swell for you out-of-towners)?

3.  What do you do to “doctor up” the blue box?

4.  What is your favorite noodle for mac and cheese?

And, if you have a recipe, feel free to post it or a link.

My Answers:

1.  Favorite Store Bought– Kraft Spirals or Kroger brand Deluxe (Reduced Fat); Least Favorite – Annie’s Organic White Cheddar (revolting) or Kirkland Brand (wouldn’t eat it if it was free.)

2.  Restaurant – Again, I haven’t found one that I loved.

3.  “Doctor up” – Maybe a few dashes of Frank’s Ret Hot, that is pretty tasty.

4.  Noodle – Elbow or Spiral.

Cheers,
-wibia

Gray Brothers Cafeteria
555 S. Indiana St.
Mooresville, IN 46158
http://www.graybrotherscatering.com/

My first review on Gray’s Borther’s was pretty rough and well deserved.  If you watched Man v. Food and read my rant, you would easily realize that I am still on my soapbox.  This was a lunch meeting with a client and they wanted to go to Gray’s Brothers.  I was trapped.

I couldn’t believe the line for this joint.  A Wednesday lunch and they were about forty people deep.  Keep in mind this is cafeteria food, so it moved quickly.

What I Ate: Chicken and Noodles, Corn, Green Beans; around $8.

Last time I had dark meat chicken, mac and cheese and corn.   I kept the corn on the plate as I felt like I needed some veggies to add to my chicken and noodles.

The chicken and noodles should’ve been named noodles and chicken.  I would say that it was 85-90% noodles with very little dark meat chicken sprinkled in.  However, it tasted pretty damn good.  I am not sure if it hit the spot since this warm meal balanced out the six degree winter, but it was pretty tasty.  The noodles were homemade and with a little salt and pepper and it was pretty good.  There was so much sauce on the plate, I had to eat it with a spoon though.  I would appreciate if they didn’t flop everything on the plate because all three sections were trying to get it on with each other.

Green beans had a little bit of bacon in them and the corn wasn’t bad either.  Nothing interesting to report here.

Would I Buy It Again?  Upgraded from “No Way!” to “Maybe.” The food wasn’t bad, but I walked away wondering why people wait fifteen minutes in line for a weekday lunch.  The chicken and noodles needed a lot more chicken in it, but if you are looking for comfort classics to balance out the freezing cold Indiana winter, you can get your fix at Gray Brothers.

-wibia

Mudsocks Grill
14741 Hazel Dell Crossing
Noblesville, IN 46062
http://www.mudsocksgrill.com

I am not sure how to describe Mudsocks Grill and what their target market is.   The interior is pretty nice (think Charleston’s) and their menu has anything from salads, pastas, steaks, sandwiches and a few other entrees.  There was also a list of daily specials.  A quick look at them menu and some parts of it seemed pretty pricey with $12.00 for chicken fingers?   Salads were mostly $10 and up as well.

What I Ate:  Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwich with Mac and Cheese; $10.00.

A relative bargain compared to other items on the menu.  The sandwich came with lettuce tomato, pepperjack cheese, mustard and…onion strings.  This is the last time that I am going to get onion strings on a sandwich as they get soggy and they really don’t add anything, except fat and calories.

The BBQ was actually pretty decent.  Knowing that it is not a BBQ joint, I am curious about how they made it.  Either way, I would give the actually meat a 5-6/10.  It wasn’t anything better than what most people pass off as BBQ around here.  The sauce was a little sweet for my liking, but it wasn’t bad nor…awesome!

The server said that I should try the mac and cheese.  Rotini-esque noodles and they tried to pass this off as a gourmet mac.  The cheese was so thick that it was the food equivalent of soft mud.  It tasted just fine, but there was a consistency issue there and I didn’t end up finishing.  It is pretty rare that I don’t finish mac and cheese.

Would I Buy It Again?  Maybe. This sandwich really hit the spot, but I can’t say that it was a great sandwich.  I had a taste for BBQ and I got my fix.

I enjoyed Mudsocks efforts to class up casual food, but while they offer some scratch made dishes, they also offer the southwest egg rolls that every bar has now and a few other items that would be better off the menu.  We had spinach artichoke dip, the aforementioned Southwest Egg rolls and wings for apps and I thought they were all pretty pedestrian.

This is one of those reviews where I didn’t dislike anything that I had, but I surely didn’t love it.  The hunger quest continues…

-wibia

Black Diamond Barbecue
6404 Rucker Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46220
http://www.blackdiamondbbqcatering.com

I’ve driven by this place on Binford Boulevard (it’s on a side street right off Binford) about a thousand times over the years and have never stopped.  In all honesty, when it first opened, I figured it would last about three months and then go out of business because it’s not in the greatest location.  Three years later, it’s still chugging along and has even expanded to include outdoor seating.  Good for them.

Ordinarily, I do all my barbecue smoking by myself, but I was feeling lazy one Sunday and didn’t want to spend my entire day waiting for meats to smoke.  So, seeing that this place recently expanded, I figured it must be good and finally gave it a shot (one of the owners was working and gave me a little ribbing by saying, “you know we’ve been here for three years right?”).

What I Got:  Hungry Man’s Special (not listed on the online menu), $19.99.  This includes three meats (I got ribs, brisket and chicken wings) and two sides (I got cole slaw and macaroni and cheese).

First things first, the name of this combo does not lie…this is a TON of food.  Any regular reader of this site knows that I can throw down some food from time to time, but even this was too much for me for one meal.  It was actually enough for two meals because they serve you ample portions of all the meats and all the sides.  As such, let’s address these individually:

Ribs:  I’ve got to say, I was really impressed by these.  You often hear the term “fall off the bone” to describe how ribs should be cooked and these ribs fit that description to the letter of the law.  They were tender and had a strong smoky flavor.  A little greasy, but when you smoke meats as opposed to grilling them, that is to be expected.  Honestly, these were the best ribs I’ve had in a while.

Brisket:  These were served in a separate container because there was so much of it (LOL) and much like the ribs, this was also tender and had a strong smoky flavor.  I prefer my brisket to have juice oozing from it when I cook it and unfortunately, this brisket did not have that.  That said, when compared to other barbecue restaurants in the area, the brisket was exceptional.  The only reason I can complain at all is because of my ego when it comes to making it myself.  Ha!

Chicken Wings:  I’ll admit, I don’t know that I’ve ever had smoked chicken wings before and since I am thinking of doing it on my own smoker, I decided to give these a try in order to see what I was in store for.  My first impression of the wings was that they were HUGE (a good thing) and there were A LOT of them (a recurring theme).  What I found interesting about these wings was that while they were meaty, tender and juicy on the inside, they had a crispy outer skin that provided a nice texture contradiction to the softness of the inside.  As with the ribs and brisket, these also had a strong smoky flavor and I liked them quite a bit.  So much so that I’m anxious to try this myself.

Sides:  Along the lines of the recurring theme, the sides didn’t come in little miniature cups…they came in sizeable containers as you can see in the picture above.  The cole slaw was obviously homemade (big positive in my book) and was more vinegar based as opposed to mayonnaise based, which I prefer.  It was crunchy and fresh, although it could have used a little something extra to give it some kick.  I would rate this as a B/B+ effort.

As for the macaroni and cheese, well, I’ve got some strong thoughts on this one.  I will be the first to admit that I’ve never been a huge macaroni and cheese fan because it is so often botched and lazily made (cheeses are too bland, not enough cheese, etc.) in so many different places.  Because of that, about the only time I will eat macaroni and cheese is when it is out of the Kraft box and yes, I know that is pathetic.  So, in what I thought at the time was an act of stupidity, I decided to give Black Diamond’s macaroni and cheese a try and I am so glad that I did because this was incredible.  It was easily the creamiest and richest macaroni and cheese that I have ever had and I loved it.  They certainly didn’t skimp on the cheese and unlike most places that I’ve eaten macroni and cheese, they actually used a cheese that had a little kick to it and I LOVED that.   Honestly, if you skipped all the meat and just got a huge order of macaroni and cheese, you would be delighted with your order.

Would I Buy It Again?  Absolutely and without hesitation. I can see why that despite an odd location, Black Diamond has managed to stay in business and actually expand in the three years that it has been open.  This is damn fine barbecue and it will always be my FIRST choice on the days that I decide to not make it on my own.  There are not a lot of great barbecue options in this city, so I would strongly advise you to give it a try if you are a barbecue lover.

By the way, Black Diamond caters (one of the owners made sure to let me know that) and also has coupons on my new favorite website, Coupons4Indy.com.

-IndianapolisEater

Gray Brothers Cafeteria
555 S. Indiana St.
Mooresville, IN 46158
http://www.graybrotherscatering.com/

Out of 28 reviews on Google, this place has 4.5 stars out of 5.  80% of the people like it on Urban Spoon.  People travel here form across Indiana for their old school cafeteria favorites, fried chicken, swiss steak, meatloaf, etc.  I am usually not the cafeteria type of guy, but I was impressed by MCL, so let’s see how this goes.

On average, lunch and drink will run you close to $10.00.  Every time I am at a cafeteria, I get the same thing, fried chicken, corn and mac and cheese.  Sub mashed potatoes for corn if I am feeling skinny that day!  Ha.

White meat fried chicken was good, but nothing to rave about.  Better than Chester Fried from the gas station, but it is not as good as KFC on a good day.  However, it was an honest portion and cooked well, very juicy, but lacking seasoning.   Corn is corn, nothing more to report there.

Mac and Cheese was another disappointment.  Average at best and I think that I would prefer the Mac from KFC as well.  It basically tasted like elbow noodles and shredded cheddar cheese.  A good Mac is creamy, but this was not a good one as it was a touch dry.

Would I Buy It Again?  No. I left thinking, what the hell was that?! It wasn’t horrible, but it reminded me of a place that was holding on to the glory days of the past.   Once you step away from the fact that your grandparents used to take you there after church, you will probably stop reminiscing and realize that there is better out there.

-WIBIA

As we teased about a week ago, we have a new feature at WIBIA called “Tailgate Tour.”  In this feature, I’ll be taking you to my (along with EatHSE and/or WIBIA) tailgates that we have a planned six times during the fall at Indiana University football games.  This feature will include things such as pictures, recipes and videos of the food and activities that we are participating in.  For better or worse, I will be your guide into the exciting world of tailgating.

In this week’s episode, EatHSE and I started out the football season on a Thursday night as the mighty (I use that word VERY loosely) Hoosiers took on the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.  It was a crappy game where IU emerged with a 19-13 victory, but despite the crappy game, we had a great tailgate.

In this tailgate, we had a menu consisting of smoked pork ribs, a smoked whole chicken, “baked” macaroni and cheese and also calico beans.  Our main focus at this tailgate was coming up with creative ways of improvising a makeshift smoker grill and oven so that we could make the kind of classics that you would enjoy at home if you had the kind of equipment required to make those foods.

For pictures and also recipes of the food that we were eating at our tailgate, our makeshift kitchen equipment and some other random items seen out at the tailgate, check out the linked photo album of our adventures.

If you want to see an “exciting” live action feature of how we cooked everything and my impeccable skills as a television host, check out the embedded video below.  Depending on the success of our video entries (and my sobriety…no good tailgate is complete without a few ice cold beers), this may become a staple of this feature, so let us know what you think!

-IndianapolisEater

Keystone Deli
2344 E 53rd St
Indianapolis, IN 46220

Old school as it gets here.  Beef Manhattans, Liver and Onions, Chopped Steak, you get the drift.  Interior is run down, but clean enough to eat from.  Blue collar lunch crowd, I was in a suit and no one ran me out and I had the “anyone is welcome” feel to it.

It was lunch so we walked up the counter and set up cafeteria style.  Menu is chalk-boarded and most lunches were around $6-$7.50.  I gave my order to the lady and she handed the plate to me and said “here you go honey…”  She was about 105 years old, but I think that she was sweet on me!  She must know about the blog.  Either way, my plate was loaded.

Fried chicken was good.  Very crispy, warm and just the way it should be.  The the pieces were average size.  It could use a little more seasoning, but otherwise, pretty good.

Mac and Cheese was a letdown.  Looking at the place, I thought “I am sure these people know how to make a mean M&C.”  However I think that I set the bar to high and I was disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong,   It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great.

Corn…this is the big problem.  Corn out of a can is easy right?  This was SOAKED in butter.  You can see the butter on the pic between the mac and cheese and the corn.  Within a minute, the butter seeped over to my M&C and my chicken.  It was too much.

Would I Buy It Again? Yes and No, I would give Keystone Deli one more try and get something else.  I like dives like this and I have a good feeling that the biscuits and gravy are killer here.   I can’t say that I was in love with the meal that I had though.

-WIBIA