Just Plain Good-Das Dutchman Essenhaus, Middlebury,Indiana

On our trips to Shipshewana, Indiana,in the heart of Amish country, we always make it a point to travel 6 miles down hwy 20 to Middlebury to visit one of our favorite Amish cooking restaurants called Das Dutchman Essenhaus. On our most recent trip, we learned from our brother in law Tim, that Essenhaus was eat house in German, and that is exactly what I did! Eat.  TheEssenhaus offers menu dining, and  family dining, but we always go for the buffet. It's nothing fancy, in fact it's pretty simple.What is offered is good. mouth watering crispy,juicy, fried chicken, which is the highlight for me. They also have beef and spaghetti, vegetables and good, moist, dressing; potatoes, soups,noodles and salads. Sometimes you can get there just at the right time and they still have the breakfast buffet up and you can get some of that too. Still not enough?  Meander past the crafts to the bakery, where you can choose a doughnut as big as your head or a house made pie along with other bakery goods. Das Dutchman Essenhaus is located on hwy 20 in Middlebury Indiana. You can find them on the web at:
 http://www.essenhaus.com/page/13/Restaurant-Bakery

Indy's Historic Steer Inn Diner

    Noodles;  the roll out the dough, cut up in pieces, make it yourself variety.  Nothing (except beignets which they douse in syrup...ewwww) seems more important to my wife and most of her family.  They all make their own and ship them all over the family.  In fact you can find my wife's recipe for hers on this link http://recipesilovebyrebbel.blogspot.com/2008/01/homemade-noodles.html .  They are real noodle fans!

Beef and Noodles

Me,......not so much. I am not a noodle boy.  In fact, I even hold a grudge against Cracker Barrel that promises Chicken and dumplings and you get chicken and what look like noodles, not dumplings!
  So when I was trying to find something in Indianapolis, I came across Indy's Historic Steer Inn.
They are known for their Beef and Noodles among other things like their meatloaf and namesake twin steer burger.   Because we had 6 of us we got a good sampling of the menu.  The waitress was friendly and helpful.  The atmosphere is a little 60ish, divey feeling. There was a crowd, as often is on a restaurant that has been on the Food Network.
  The house made noodles were served with a beef gravy over mashed potatoes. They were the shorter fatter version, that I suppose if  we at a certain other restaurant we would be eating beef and dumplings.  They were good especially if you were a person that likes starch on starch.
    The twin steer is the name sake of the restaurant. It was not cooked to order. It was two thin patties with special sauce and cheese. It was better than a Big Mac by a little.                                                                

Jalapeno Mac and Cheese

    Jodie,  my stepdaughter ordered a black and bleu burger, and Mac and cheese. The Mac and cheese had bacon and 5 cheeses.  Both of these are good choices.  Her significant other had Chicken Monterey, which he said wa good, although he might have thought it strange we were all taking pictures of our food. 

 Finally the one Grandson had a cheese pizza that he gave a thumbs down that in his opinion was like a Chef Boyardee pizza and the other grandson had Jalepeno Mac and cheese which he thought was good but short on jalepenos.  At the end I asked my wife if she liked , she said it was o.k. But she would not Steer anybody towards it. Pun intended. The Diner is located at 5130 E 10th St, Indianapolis, Indiana

Black and Bleu Burger w/ Gourmet Mac N Cheese

Chicken Monterrey

You Have to Try This Doughnut Place - Long's Bakery,Indianapolis, Indiana

Long's Bakery

    "You guys have to try this doughnut place", our Grandson Christopher told me in a birthday phone call. It was a bakey close to his house in Indianapolis.  I have a little weak spot for doughnuts and everything else that involves sugar, fillings, frostings and deep frying.  I put it in my mental "gotta try list" for the next time I visited them in Indy.
    We arrived, after Siri gave us her usual tour of the city, to find a line going out the door of the bakery. Once in the door we found a very clean, very busy, bakery.  The smell of deep fried doughnuts wafting through the air. (You know, they ought to make an air scent that smells like that.)  In front of us was a few showcases filled with delectable goodies.  On the walls were boards with their offerings along with their prices.
    Now comes the hard part.  What to order. I kind of stood back a little and listened, to try to find out what other people were ordering.  This was no help at all because everybody was getting boxes and boxes of all types. I looked on the board.  They had everything you could think of including something called an alligator, that caught my attention. Another thing that caught my attention was the very low prices on that board.
  We decided on a baby alligator which was long and rectangular cinnamon roll with nuts and frosting on top.
I also had chosen a cinnamon fried doughnut, cinnamon being good for diabetics, lol. Rebbel chose a powdered doughnut, and we got Christopher a chocolate glaze and a couple of yeast glze for the rest of our hosts.
   The doughnuts were delicious.  Nothing fancy here just a real good tasting doughnut, at a very decent price. In fact they are known for their regular yeast glazed doughnut. They don't even put those in the case.
They are cash only so make sure you bring enough to buy what you need, but not too much extra so you won't get carried away.  Longs Bakery is located at 1453 Tremont, Indianapolis, Indiana

Baby Alligator - Caramel

Land Of Goshen, One of Guy's Chosen - Southside Soda Shop Goshen,Indiana

We did it again. We took Guy Fieri's advice and drove to the South Side Soda Shop and Diner in Goshen Indiana. The place looked interesting. According to the history they have been a soda shop since the 1940's. They were in the movie Lonesome Jim. We thought it would be safe. It had been a whole week since we saw the show featuring the place on Food Network's Diners, Drive Ins , and Dives, and we were sure that the crowds have simmered down by now. We were wrong. Turns out the show had been on again the night before. We were able to sit as soon as we got in the door, but they were out of the two things we were wanting to try. The service was a little slow, thanks to the show, but we passed the time with the trivia cards sitting on the table. They are supposed to have award winning chili and lemon meringue pie, but not on the night we were there. They were looooooonnnnnggg gone!
I ordered a cheese steak , and a spiral fry. Rebbel settled for a corned beef sandwich. Rebbel's sandwich was o.k. but nothing to blog about. My sandwich was good. The cheese steak had a good flavor and the spiral fry was also good, but all I could think about was the award winning pie and chili I could not order and the gas it took to get to this big disappointment. Darn Guy! Why did he have to let everyone in on this place??? My wife even explained to the waiter that we had came all the way from Michigan! A fact that probably didn't impress the waiter because Michigan's border was just up the road. (I guess she should have held up her hand and showed him we were from the other side of Michigan.) They did have the green phosphate the owner's daughter and Guy chugged on the show. I didn't try it but it looked interesting.
You can find them on the web at http://www.southsidesodashopdiner.com/

. Just call and make sure they have plenty of pie and chili before you drive there. Oh yeah, Guy, if you're out there buddy, just drop me a line next time you are going to be in the area so I can beat the crowds your show attracts. I will appreciate it and I promise not to tell, ha ha.