Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Monday, August 15, 2005

Yats

Chia Chi and Jeremy picked me up from the airport yesterday. Jeremy suggested that we dine at Yats in Indianapolis (Broad Ripple location) which serves Cajun food. We arrived at 10.50AM only to find that they didn't open until noon. It's a very hippish (is that an adjective?) restaurant. You order of a blackboard at the counter from a guy in a bandana. The tables have vintage looking posters plastered on them and the floor has confetti superglued all over it. Strings of beads are spilling out of lighting fixtures and Mardi Gras coloured ornaments hang from the ceiling. At $5 a plate or $6.50 for a 1/2 and 1/2 plate the price was excellent. There were three of us, so we all ordered three different 1/2 and 1/2 dishes.

Out of the 6 dishes I enjoyed the black beans and corn as well as the chicken-something etoufee. The black beans and corn had a distinctly sweet flavor and the etoufee was inexplicably delicious! It had just the right amount of spice (for someone who is a Tabsco wuss) and had a perfect consistency, not too thick, not too watery. The white chili (not quite white, more of a brown, I'm guessing the name is more of a homage to the color of the dry bean) was pretty good, but resembled fried beans more than chili. Each plate came with two slices of crusty French bread that was perfect for sauce dipping.

I highly recommend Yats. It was a great dining experience complete with Jeremy's final bread wipe-down of the Styrofoam plates (now that's what I call classy!). The only thing I was upset about was my failure to have a camera to visually capture the place. An excuse for there to be a second time! Yah!

Food:

Ambiance:

Overall:

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Key Lime Pie



I've been wanting to bake Key Lime Pie for a while now, but just didn't have the chance to get around to it. The recipe is super simple! It takes less than 30 min (including baking time) to complete. The crust fell into my pie, but it still tastes delicious.

1/2 C lime juice
5 egg yolks
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 prepared graham crust

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. beat egg yolks
3. add milk
4. add lime juice
5. bake for 15 min

Add some cool whip for a tasty treat.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Blue Potatoes

We're lucky enougth that Lafayette has a farmer's market that runs from May to October. During these months we can purchase fresh produce from local farmers. I LOVE it! Last week I bought some curious-looking blue fingerling size potatoes. The color is amazing! When I asked the man how they should be prepared, he just said to cook them like any other potatoes. I ended up making them into sundried tomato basil mashed potatoes. They turned out beautifully and did not taste exceptionally different from supermarket potatoes.