Brugge Brasserie

Gettin' Figgy With It

Brugge Brasserie is an oldie but a goodie in Tim's and my rotation.  We used to go there quite often, but with the opening of so many great restaurants in Indy we don't get there as often as we might like these days.  But the beer is tasty and the food is good, and we decided it would be perfect for an end-of-the-work-week dinner last Friday night.

We arrived at 7pm--prime dinner time--and understandably had about a 20 minute wait.  Luckily, it wasn't insanely busy in the downstairs bar area, so we gathered 'round the copper table there and ordered up some beers.  Tim and I both tried the "Gettin' Figgy With It"--it's an Imperial Belgian Porter brewed with black mission figs, cardamom, and mace, and at 12% that puppy was strong--hence the small glass.  You could taste the alcohol, but the porter flavor also came through.  I liked the spices and the ever-so-slightly sweet/fruity taste from the figs.

Steak & eggs w/ Pooka in the background

Once we got a table upstairs, I ordered my usual--the Steak & Eggs ($13.95).  It's a hanger steak with two fried eggs on top and a plentiful serving of Brugge's famous frites.  Hanger steaks aren't known for being super tender, but I've never had one there that was  tough, and they have great flavor.  The eggs are a fun addition--I sometimes dip my fries in the yolks--but other times I brush them to the side and concentrate on the meat and frites.  I love, love, love Brugge's frites--they are usually generously salted and crispy and so wonderful dipped into the sauces of your choice (and there are a LOT of sauces to choose from).  You get two with this meal, and I picked blue cheese and horseradish (my usual choices--I'm a creature of habit).  Both sauces are also yummy on the steak, which is an added bonus.  Tim got the Steak Frites ($16.95), which is basically the same thing as me only a larger portion of steak and no eggs.  We have a deal that we always order the same four sauces and share them between us, so he got his standard garlic aioli and popular syrup w/ french dijon.

After the Gettin' Figgy With It, I got a Pooka.  Pooka's one of my favorites, and is a very sour boysenberry beer.  It's similar to a lambic, only much more sour.  I find it pretty thirst-quenching so it's a good beer for me to have with a meal.  It's especially great on a summer day, though, so now it just needs to get warm enough for us to sit on the Brugge patio...

Website:  Brugge Brasserie

Thai Taste

 When I first started dating Tim, he introduced me to one of his favorite restaurants in town--Thai Taste.  He and his co-workers used to get the lunch specials there on a regular basis (he now works further away, or he'd still be going there all the time).  And I'd have to agree with his assessment that it's one of the best Thai restaurants in Indy.  It had been a few months since we'd been there, so this past Saturday we headed there for lunch with the kids.

We usually start with the fried spring rolls.  I love these things--rice noodles and veggies, with that thin, crispy wrapping.   They're especially good dipped into the Thai sweet and sour dipping sauce (not the same as the neon red Chinese sauce, this is vinegary and sweet with a hint of heat from chilies).  Even our 5-year-old will eat them.

Tim and I decided to get soup to start (well, to start after the spring roll starter).  I got good old Tom Yum, and he got Silver Noodle.  I like the Tom Yum at Thai Taste quite a bit--it's got the perfect amount of heat but isn't overwhelming, so you can actually eat it at a decent pace rather than sipping it because your mouth's on fire.  The broth itself is sour and salty and spicy, with pieces of chicken, tomato, and straw mushrooms floating in it.  As you can see, it also comes with cilantro but I scooped all of mine out (as I've mentioned, cilantro is my nemesis).  It is, indeed, "Yum."  (See what I did there?  Right?!)  The Silver Noodle soup is the antithesis of Tom Yum--it's a very mild chicken broth based soup, filled with ground pork, the aforementioned 'silver noodles' (very thin rice noodles), scallion, and cilantro.  It's also a very tasty soup, if not quite as bold as Tom Yum. 

Tim and I both got Pud Thai--I got just chicken, and Tim got "combo" (which includes chicken, pork, and beef).  I'd been awhile since I'd had their Pud Thai, and it was pretty good.  Theirs tends to be more on the sour side than many I've had (my personal favorite local Pud Thai is actually from Thai Spice in Greenwood), but in most other ways is just a solid, fairly traditional version of the dish.  On this trip, I forgot to specify my spice level and it came back mild--I'm talking VERY mild, no spice at all--and I think I would have preferred medium.  A touch of heat helps to balance the sweet and sour flavors that were predominant.  Tim did get medium, and his was well-balanced.

My favorite dish at Thai Taste is actually the Basil Fried Rice--it has little pieces of green and red bell peppers, scallions, and your choice of meat, and it is super delish.  I also love the red and yellow curries there, so I'll have to do another review (or two, or three) the next time I get each of those dishes. 

The kids, as I've mentioned, LOVE rice, so we get them an order of rice and an order of chicken satay to split.  That's two chicken skewers a child; depending on their hunger level on a given day and what apps they've munched on, we might order a second plate of satay (as we did on this outing).  The chicken itself is pretty good--a bit on the drier side at times, and could use a touch of salt, but they have a nice subtle curryish flavor to them--enough to make them interesting without making them un-kid-friendly.  The boys gobble them right up.  They're served with a standard slightly-spicy peanut sauce and a little cucumber relish.  The kids don't touch either, but I usually eat all of the cucumber relish myself.  It's just diced cucumber and onion in a sweet vinegar based dressing--reminds me of when my grandpa used to make cucumbers and onions marinated in vinegar and sugar (what, it's good!).  It's a nice palate cleanser if you're eating something spicy. 

Website:  Thai Taste (sorry, not much info on the site, but the fact that they even have a domain now is a step in the right direction)

Washington, DC and Room Four

This past weekend, Tim and I visited friends in DC.  We ate some great food...in particular, H&Pizza was a favorite, as well as the Union Market (where we tried a ton of different things).  I won't go into a lot of detail, since they aren't located in Indy, but will share some pics and food descriptions.

H&Pizza...the cool thing about them is that they make and cook the pizza right in front of you.  The crust is ultra-thin, so it cooks in one of those rolling ovens that you might see at Penn Station or Quizno's (you know, when they send your sandwich through to melt the cheese).  It's THAT fast.  You pick your crust, sauce, and toppings, they send it through the mini oven, you pick some 'finishes,' and it's done.  And it was really tasty.  You get unlimited toppings for a flat-fee, and the toppings can be fairly high-end.  I had spicy marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, and mushrooms, and had it finished with prosciutto, goat cheese, and chili oil.  Tim had several of the same elements but added sausage to his.  It was a darn tasty meal.

The Union Market is an upscale version of an indoor farmer's market (a lot like the Indy City Market, only fancier), with produce and meat cases along side fancy local food stands.  We picked a bit of this and that to share--a pork pastrami sandwich, shepherd's pie with chunks of lamb--but the standout for me was the Korean taco stand (called, appropriately enough, Tacorean).  I first tried  the bulgogi beef and then went back for the chicken, and both were boldly flavorful and topped with kimchi slaw, lime crema, sriracha, and sesame seeds (I opted for no cilantro as cilantro is the devil).  Holy crap, were these amazing.  I would eat them everyday if they were in the same city as me. 

I'm also going to slip a quick Room Four review in here because it's worth mentioning...  We went the night before we left for DC, and I had a grilled 'eye of ribeye' steak topped with Worcestershire butter and served over spicy potato hash that was peppered with crispy bits of onion which made the whole thing so good that it was other-worldly.  Before that, Tim and I shared a bowl of potato leek soup that contained large chunks of meaty sole and was sprinkled with smokey paprika, and that was also stellar. Hands-down the best potato leek soup I've ever had, very creamy and hearty, and the smokiness set it off.  Tim had three tacos--lamb carne asada, beef picadillo, and a pork carnitas that wasn't on the menu, and he enjoyed them all.  I'm telling you, these guys rarely do wrong.  Go!

Ribeye & hash

Egg Roll #1 / Pho #1

Ah, Egg Roll #1.  You are MY #1 for pho and other Vietnamese dishes--in Indy, anyway.

Not long before I left the south side of the city to move in with Tim, we discovered Egg Roll #1 and their wondrous Rare Beef Pho.  (It's located at the Emerson St. exit off of 465 on the south side.)  We went through a phase where we'd visit every couple weeks for a big, steaming bowl of the stuff.  Rich, fragrant beef broth; thinly sliced, tender beef added at the last moment before serving; rice noodles with just enough 'al denteness'; a lovely plate of Thai basil, lime wedges, bean sprouts, and jalapenos to add as desired; and of course the requisite bottles of sriracha and hoisin sauce on the table.  We'd mix it all in until we felt it was just-right.  It was magical.  (I love it so much that I made it my profile picture on this blog.)

Once I moved, I had trouble dragging Tim back down south to visit the restaurant.  Instead, I started getting take-out because it is still on my way home from work.  We get take-out from there every couple of months--often enough that we registered for two large pho-worthy bowls for our wedding.  And luckily, the soup holds up pretty well to travel.  I was on my own for dinner earlier this week and ended up getting that ($6.25, a bargain) plus some Vietnamese spring rolls ($3.95 for 3), carry-out.

The pho is always best when eaten in the restaurant, but it really does hold up well.  They package the broth in a styrofoam container that keeps it pretty warm, and then put all of the condiments, the noodles, and the beef (yes--raw) in a separate container.  If you're squeamish, you can request that they put the beef in the broth for you, but it won't be *quite* as tender by the time you get home as it would be if you added it yourself later.  Just put some (or all) of the noodles in a large bowl w/ the beef, pour the broth over it, add your desired condiments and you're good to go!  The meaty broth is seriously hearty, and I usually have a hard time finishing all of it in one sitting.  If you want to keep some for later, definitely refrigerate the noodles separately from the broth--I made the mistake of putting it all together for lunch the next day, and the noodles soaked up a lot of the liquid.  Not ideal.

 The spring rolls are also yummy, if fairly standard.  Each one has two shrimp, one on each end, plus some pork in the middle (you can see it in the picture), plus the requisite noodles, basil, and lettuce.  They're served with a peanutty dipping sauce that is sweet but also ever-so-slightly spicy.  (Side note:  These do NOT refrigerate well.  If you do, be sure to wrap them tightly in plastic wrap to keep the rice paper wrapping from drying out, as mine did.)

We've tried a few other dishes off of the Vietnamese menu, and they have all been good (the 'lemongrass beef,' i.e. #8 on the bottom part of the Vietnamese section, is particularly delish).  The Chinese dishes seem fairly average.  Our boys love the sweet & sour chicken, minus the sauce, and usually share an order of that plus rice.  The chicken has a tempura/beer batter style coating, and is really pretty flavorful even without any neon red sweet & sour sauce.  I often steal a couple pieces for myself--and the amount of food is large enough that they still have plenty.

Website:  Egg Roll #1

Twenty Tap

My trend of reviewing burgers continues.  One of Tim's favorite places in town for a casual beer-and-burger dinner is Twenty Tap.  So, when we were pondering where to meet a couple of friends for a weeknight dinner, Twenty was his pick (yes, I do occasionally let him pick).  Luckily, our friends were up for trying it, as they had never been.  I had been there a couple of times before.

Mushrooms (top) & curds

Looking at the menu, I struggled because there were several options that sounded good to me that night.  I started out determined to be somewhat healthy and thought I'd try the beet salad on the starter menu plus maybe soup or the pimento mac-and-cheese (which I'd had before--it's my favorite thing there--but more on that later).  But I was soon convinced to do otherwise because the Onion Burger was calling my name.  And even before that, my health-kick was ruined because as a table we ordered the cheese curds ($7) and fried curried mushrooms ($6). 

The cheese curds were de-lish.  How can you go wrong with cheese?  Answer: You can't.  But you can go extra-right with them by beer battering them, as Twenty Tap does.  They came with 2 aiolis, but really, the mayo wasn't necessary.  They were excellent on their own, nice and salty and with that satisfying puffy-crunchy battered exterior.  Yum.  I also really enjoyed the mushrooms.  They had a nice curry flavor, which I'm a sucker for, and more of that beer batter.  Our friend said that they were fried way too much for his taste, and indeed they were a much darker brown than the cheese curds.  I didn't notice any of the over-fried flavor that he mentioned, though, and helped myself to way too many of them.

Onion burger

 Soon after we polished those off, our main courses arrived.  I got the aforementioned Onion Burger, which had swiss cheese, beer battered onion rings, and horseradish aioli.  Yes--more beer battering.  What with all the fried food I was having, I'm moderately proud to say that I finally made the healthy choice of a 'simple salad' for my side.  It consisted of greens (mostly arugula, from what I could tell), shallot, fennel, shaved parmesan, and a lemon vinaigrette, and was pretty good.  The salty parm and tangy vinaigrette balanced out the bitterness of the greens pretty nicely, and the shallot gave it some nice onion undertones.  I didn't notice much fennel.

Cross section

The burger itself was pretty good.  The bun was alright, nothing special.  The burger had good flavor and I enjoyed the onion rings (had to take some of them off, though, or it would have been impossible to eat).  The burger was very lightly pink--I'd say medium well, bordering on well-done, which is okay by me except that they advertise them as being cooked to medium unless you request otherwise, and it dried it out a bit.  Again, it was still pretty good, but nothing close to the delicious juicy flavorfulness of Room Four or Scratch Truck's burgers.  I resisted the urge to reach for the salt shaker each time I took a bite, so it probably could have used a touch more seasoning, too. After all of that fried food, I ate about half of my burger and then took the bun off the other half and ate what I could with a knife and fork.

Burn Burger

Tim got the Burn Burger (chilies, jalapeno, onion, pulled pork, and cheddar-$9).  I had a small bite and the pulled pork had great flavor and actually went very well on the burger.  Tim certainly loved it!  He said the jalapeno and chillies gave it a nice spicy kick, but that it wasn't overly spicy.

Pimento mac

Along with our burgers, to counteract any health benefits we may have gotten from salads, and to pile on the cheese and calories, Tim and I split a small order of the pimento mac-and-cheese ($3).  Like I said, it is by far my favorite thing on the Twenty Tap menu, so we couldn't leave without having some and making our friends try it.  If you've never had pimento cheese and only know pimentos from their place in the center of olives, then you may think this sounds gross. However, you would be wrong.  It is goooood.  The pimentos give the dish a tangy, spicy kick--not spicy heat, just spicy flavor.  Mmmm.  Just try it.

What I haven't mentioned about Twenty Tap is just that--the taps.  They have 38 craft beers on tap, many from Indiana and even more from the rest of the Midwest.  If you enjoy craft beer, you will love this place.  The food is solid, and there's a beer for everyone.

One note:  The dining room is not all that huge, and the bar area tends to be packed.  If you go during prime dining times (6:30 or later), expect a short wait most nights of the week.  I think we waited about 20-30 minutes for our 4-person party at 7pm on a Thursday--not terrible, but also not immediate seating.  Waits are much longer on the weekends.

Website:  Twenty Tap