Day 248 - Field Fresh Chopped Salad with Chicken

This was a HEALTHY PURCHASE during our Indy Fringe craziness.  We grabbed on one of our trips to the lovely Indy Trader Joe’s, then ended up tossing it in a bag one afternoon as we ran out to see shows.  We ate it while sitting outside between shows – actually, I ate it then…  David was handing out postcards of his show (an act which we call “carding”) to people in line for other shows, trying to convince them that HIS was the show they should not miss.  Not to worry, I saved him some salad to eat after his carding!

David in a shot from the delicate and dangerous TIGHT ROPE scene!  :)

On first bite I was afraid that the dressing was too sweet, but it wasn’t.  The couscous also looked, how shall I say, too plentiful, but I was wrong on that count, too!  The couscous (of the Israeli variety) was lovely!  It was plump and cold and a very nice contrast to the other ingredients.  The lettuce was nice and crunchy and it was good to eat on a hot summer day.  The toasted pecans were also a nice addition.

Here is the salad in our cart - see the Israeli Cousous?  Yum.

David said, “It is lovely.  The crisp, crunchy lettuce is offset by the smooth but meaty body of the chicken and couscous.  And it is all united by the smooth but flavorful salad dressing, which is sweet but not too sweet.”

This is a very fair price for a crisp, fresh, healthy salad that you don't have to make yourself

We both recommend this as one of the grab and go lunch choices at Trader Joe’s.

Price - $4.49

Rating - 4

Day 228 - Rail Splitter IPA (Triton Brewing Company)

If you have read other beer reviews on this blog, you know that I in no way profess to be a beer guru.  I am not a beer snob.  I know almost nothing about beer.  But when I travel to a new city and go to a new Trader Joe’s, I always check and see if they have local beer and/or wine.

Well, when I asked about local wine at the Trader Joe’s in Indianapolis, not one but TWO employees basically steered me away from it.  They both were clear to say that the local wine is SWEET, and the particular varieties that TJ’s carries are the really sweet ones, which apparently are the ones the locals like.  But we are not locals…  So I trusted their “unspoken advice” to skip the wine and went over to the beer section.

Local beer!!

Unlike our beer experience in Chicago where they would only sell us a six pack (it was the law – the store people were totally kind about it but couldn’t break the law, of course), the guys in Indy were more than happy to sell us however many beers we wanted!  So we chose 3 different local beers and one local cider. 

Rail Splitter IPA

This review is about Rail Splitter IPA.  Uncharacteristically for me, I am drinking it without food and at 6:30 pm.  We normally don’t bust out the alcohol until there is a plate of food in front of us and that usually happens sometime after 9:30 pm.  But we are at a Fringe Festival (see http://indyfringe.org/fringe15/little-business-big-top and that means schedules are NUTTY and life is turned on it’s head.  So, here I am post-show drinking this IPA!  (I directed a show in the festival, my partner David’s “A Little Business at the Big Top”!  It’s great, if I do say so myself, but of course I am a tad bit biased…).

"A Little Business at the Big Top" - coming soon to a theatre near you!
(That is, if you live near a theatre in Indianapolis or Cincinnati...) 

Back to the beer.

Yes!  This is good!  If you like IPA and you live in the Indiana area you should try this for sure.  We learned from TJ’s employees that on the TV show “Parks and Rec”, which took place in Pawnee, Indiana, a fictitious town, they always drank Rail Splitter beer!  As non-Hoosiers* we never noticed that, but I guess the locals really dig it (as would I if I had a local connection!).  Here is an article I found recapping the awesome (and certainly missed) TV show” Parks and Rec” - http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-culture/parks-recreation-recap-one-last-ride/

David’s take is that this is not a “day drankin’” beer but would be good with stilton cheese!”.  Note – this is the second time lately in reviews that David has said “day drankin’”.  I think this is because a place we drive by often has it on their marquee and it makes us giggle. 

Anyway, try this beer.  It is good.

*I do not know what a Hoosier is…  I do not think I should need to Google this.  If people here call themselves something, I want them to tell me what that something means, ya know?  So far I have asked two people and they didn’t really know, they said something like, “It means a person from Indiana…”.  Yeah, but WHAT IS A HOOSIER?  Like, why is a person from Indiana called that?

Price – $1.67 per bottle

Rating – 3.75