I Found Bubble Tea!

Had we never decided to take on this project I may never have broken away from Starbucks for my tasty coffee beverages. And I may never have found out that there is a place in Greenwood that serves bubble tea (aka pearl tea).

This is a delicacy I frequently enjoy in California but have never found anywhere in IN. Thank you Strange Brew for thinking outside the box! I will admit it wasn't perfect (the tapiocas were a little underdone) but still a refreshing change.

If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, Bubble Tea is a Taiwanese cold milk smoothie type drink usually fruit flavored (I chose honeydew) but the best part is the gummy chewy tapiocas you suck through a giant straw. Sounds strange I know but I LOVE it. Wikipedia gives a better description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

Lovin Our Local Ethnic Food

I love all different types of food and given the choices would almost always choose ethnic food over 'American'. The awesome thing about avoiding the chains is utlizing our local ethnic restaurants which are of course small locally owned places.

In the past two weeks we've eaten at both Thai Spice and Royal Cuisine of India, two of our favorite places. When we first moved to Greenwood one of the first things we wanted to find was an Indian restaurant and it was actually pretty difficult. Royal Cuisine is sort of a hole in the wall place so we didn't notice it at first and would go all the way up to Broad Ripple for our Indian food.

Like many small local restaurants, it may appear from the outside to be a hole in the wall but it is an awesome restaurant with all of the standard Indian pleasures. We usually go for a saucy chicken korma or pasanda, some okra and tomato stir fry, and either eggplant or spinach...of course with extra naan flatbread for mopping up that good chicken sauce.

At our house Indian is usually takeout, enjoyed on the floor with a movie and wine. Of course having a 15 month old isn't condusive floor eating, but tessa really did enjoy the chicken with some rice and naan (in her highchair of course)

Breaking the Comfort Habit

This morning I rushed into the doctors for a last minute ultrasound to check on the Peanut. All was well but after the stress and rush I was starving and wanting something comforting. All I could think about were McDonalds chicken nuggets.

No I realize that McD's nugget are pretty crappy, even the choice of Chick-Fila would at least ensure handbreaded non-processed nuggets. But nope all I wanted were those salty, over processed chicken turds with one always the shape of Indiana and a bbq dipping sauce. Comfort Food.

So I did it. Yup you read right. I didn't even last a week on the project before cheating. I allowed myself the nuggets, justifying it as good blog fodder.

I simpy need to retrain my idea of comfort food, taking pleasure in the new food I find at my local restaurants. But there's something nice about depending on that same Indiana shaped chicken turd you had when you were 5 years old....there in lies the difficulty.

No more McD's. Its bad for me, bad for the earth, bad for the reputation of food in general and bad for my local business owner. But it sure hit the spot.

What We Will Miss

We're in the market for replacements for some of our favorite chain restaurants:
Starbucks
Qdoba
Subway
Chick-Fila
Papa Murphy's and
Chili's
I would say that these will be the hardest to give up. But we've found an awesome new grill very close to our house which will cover the pizza, chicken sandwiches and big salads we will miss. Louie's Pub and Grille has to be one of my favorite new places. Not only is it better food, it's quieter and cheaper than these other places. Actually Louie's inspired this whole project.

I'm working on replacing my Starbucks. Yes I know we have an espresso machine but when we have a busy day out and about running around I usually start festivities with a drive through Starbucks.

Hula Bean seems okay, but not very impressive. Everyone I've talked to says you have to visit a local place called Strange Brew. Apparently it is the place for java in Greenwood. Hopefully Jeremy and I will get there this weekend!

Our Year of Dining Locally

Our family has decided to make a year long pact to avoid all national chain restaurants...and welcome to our blog! We promise to do our very very best to eat only at locally owned restaurants in an effort to support our local businesses, and post our experiences and favorites here.

There's many reasons why I think this is a good idea, but I also think it will undoubtedly be a challenge. Living where we do this experiment definitely puts us outside the norm. I would guess that 80% of restaurants in Johnson County are chain restaurants.

At the start of our project I would say we have benefits and challenges to look forward to.

PROS of Dining Locally:
~Supporting our local business owners
~Trying new things at new restaurants
~Not relying on the sameness found in chains
~Hopefully experience better food!
~Not eating fast food
~Having to 'work' for our takeout (no drive thrus, have to call in orders)

CONS of Dining Locally:
~Having to 'work' for our takeout..haha..when weather is bad or I'm 9 months pregnant and carting around a toddler
~Planning ahead for travelling and 'road food'
~Pregnancy cravings for certain chain foods
~Finding variety in our chain happy town

Wish us luck! Lastly I would like to say please feel free to suggest restaurants to us around the Indianapolis area!!