Indy Winter Farmer’s Market
http://indywinterfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/

It’s funny what a personal invite can do at times.  I knew about IWFM, but after a conversation with Erin from Country Mouse/City Mouse, she said that I really need to come check it out.   I have made plenty of excuses not to go, but I told her that she would see me there within the next two weeks.  Last Saturday, my two weeks were up so I packed up Mini WIBIA and we took the twenty minute trek downtown.

There are over fifty tables and there is a good variety of just about everything at the market.   On my short list was to pick up some winter veggies so I can start making my son’s food instead of him eating 100% Gerber.   The bad news was that I only found just a few produce stands.  What was there, was really good though and there were a lot of winter greens to choose from.  However, I found plenty of other goodies as well.

Rene’s Bakery
My first booth was Renee’s Bakery where I had a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. The cookie was excellent and definitely more about the chocolate than the cookie, which is the way it should be, in my opinion. In hindsight, I should’ve bought more here.  They had a lot of good looking bread as well.
http://www.renesbakery.com/

Country Mouse City Mouse
I picked up a Romesco Sauce and Red Lentil Soup. My Sunday lunch was a bowl of the Red Lentil and a grilled cheese… a dynamite combination. I really enjoyed the Romesco sauce a lot! I found plenty of uses throughout the week, including making a few crustinis with goat cheese and Romesco.  I really like the CMCM offerings as they are consistently good and comfortable food.  Just a reminder, they also do catering.
http://www.countrymousecitymouseindy.com/

Taste of Philly Pretzel - Country Mouse/City Mouse Romesco

Taste of Philly
I first learned about Taste of Philly from local blog Indianapolis Amy.  Amy’s blog is my favorite food/lifestyle blog in Indianapolis.  If you haven’t checked it out, you should!

Taste of Philly had a table of traditional Philly pretzels.   I bought the three link pretzel (can’t remember the technical name) and I really enjoyed this. It has a nice chew to it and was really tasty.  My only recommendation would be to add a little more salt to it, but I can understand the desire to error on the conservative side.  Pic is above…sorry, I ate a link on the way home.
http://www.indypretzel.com/

Nicole & Taylor’s Pasta
I am a big fan of fresh pasta but I don’t like doing all the work, so Nicole & Taylor’s is the place to get it from.  Every time I am at a farmer’s market, they are there, so I buy their pasta and am always pleased.   $1.50 a stack and super tasty.  This time, I picked up the Porcini Mushroom and Parpadelle.
http://nicoletaylorspasta.com/

Nicole and Taylor's Pasta

I really enjoyed my trip to IWFM. It appears to be pretty popular and they are quickly running out of space. FYI, if you have a young one, it is easier to leave the stroller out in the car and strap ‘em to you.

-WIBIA

In our next installment of our Brand V. Generic series, we tested generic barbecue sauces against name brand sauces.  All generic brands ranged in price from 80¢ to $1.50.  The brand name sauces ranged in price from $1.50 to $2.50 (note:  all sauces were bought at sale prices at various stores, so these are ballpark prices of the regular retail cost).

Generic sauces tested:
Kroger Original, Traditional Flavor
Food Club (product of Marsh Supermarkets), Traditional Flavor
Meijer Thick Blazin’, Traditional Flavor

Brand sauces tested:
Sweet Baby Ray’s Award Winning Barbecue Sauce
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce

For the purposes of this test, we tested the sauces on barbecue pork ribs, beef brisket, pork loin and pork tenderloin (yes, I got a little crazy on the smoker for the Fourth of July).  The general premise of the test was obviously taste and we combined the rankings (first, second, etc.) of three different testers.

Results (lowest points wins):
1st:  Meijer – 5 points
2nd:  Kroger – 6 points
3rd:  Sweet Baby Ray’s – 9 points
4th:  Food Club – 10 points
5th:  Kraft – 15 points

Other Notes:

• All sauces, with the exception of the Kroger sauce, had high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient listed.
• The Kroger sauce had a main ingredient of Tomato Puree and it was noticeable as this was the one flavor that stood out. Tomato Puree, or a reasonable facsimile, was the number two ingredient on all the other sauces.
• The Meijer sauce had a distinct flavor to it, almost as if it was a thicker version of A-1 steak sauce.
• The Kraft sauce finished last in every single ranking. Truly awful.
• Sweet Baby’s Ray’s had an interesting pineapple juice and sugar mixture in its sauce. One would assume this is where it gets its unique taste.

Summary:
Meijer is going to start to get a big head if they read these summaries.  We’ve had two of these Brand V. Generic challenges and Meijer has won both of them.  Regardless, what both of these have proven is that you are just as well, if not better, buying a house brand sauce at the supermarket as opposed to buying the expensive name brand sauces.  For the sake of a fair comparison, we left out the gourmet brands.

I will also say that up until this competition, I had always personally rated Sweet Baby Ray’s as the best sauce out there, but lining it up side-by-side against these other sauces has made me re-consider (I rated Sweet Baby’s Ray’s third).  It looks like I’ll have to start changing my personal sauce buying habits now.

-indianapoliseater