Monon Food Company

Do you ever feel like you’re the only one doing the stuff that you do? I mean, you go to work or hang out with your friends and tell them you blog about food and restaurants and they either look at you like you’re the greatest, most creative person in the world, or they look at you like you’ve got three heads or your pants are unzipped or something.

I kind of felt like the first portion of emotions earlier in the day and the second part this evening. As I’ve written before, my friends and the people I work with are very supportive of my blogging activities when it comes to the food scene. They even appreciate it sometimes. We talk about it all the regularly and the neat part is that I’m the only one who writes about this kind of stuff. In my circle of influence that is.

Well tonight, my wife went out with some friends to see the new Twilight move, so I had the kids all to my self again. That left me the opportunity to check out the Monon Food Company. I was pretty excited to check this place out. While we were there, I ran into a couple of gals and asked them if they’d ever been there. They said, “Yes.” And one of them said, “She’s one of the people who wrote about this place.” Speaking of her friend she was sitting with. I said, “Oh, yeah?” And sort of just walked off. My heart sank.

I mean, I know logically that I’m not the only one out there, in this great metropolis we call Indianapolis, writing about food, but it was kind of spooky or at least uncomfortable meeting someone else that does some of the same stuff that I do. When you’re home all alone sitting in front of your computer writing about some of the coolest stuff you’ve eaten, it’s kind of like being at the top of the world. You’re by yourself and that’s ok. You want people out there on the Internet to comment and say, “Your blog is great,” and stuff like that. But to come face-to-face with a real-life blogger without some sort of warning is just down-right creeping and surprising. It’s like when you’re peeing in the bathroom and start whistling a song or talking to yourself, and then find out someone else is in the bathroom with you, and they’ve been there the whole time. I’m just saying, it’s shocking.

Anyway, about the restaurant. It was pretty good. The outdoor seating was phenomenal, especially on a beautiful night like tonight. As you may know, at the Monon Food Company, you go inside to order your food first and then a server will bring it out to where ever you decided to sit. Well, the kids and I did just that. We kept it pretty easy and cheap in the food department tonight. I ordered the “at least Broad Ripple famous” fish tacos and some chips and salsa and fries for all of us to share. That’s it. The gal at the register was even surprised at how cheap of a meal it was. She even double-check the register before she conceded that the price was correct. That’s what happens when you get water instead of beer. The beer would be for me, not the kids, just to make that clear. They have quite a selection of beer and almost every adult in the place was drinking instead of me. They had kids with them too. That alone can cause one to drink, if you’ve never experienced parenthood.

After ordering we sat out on the deck to soak in the atmosphere. Like I said, there were lots of other young families there, so I didn’t feel all alone with my “kid situation.” People could have thought I was there for visitation with my kids, how awkward, but I did have my wedding ring on. I digress.

The food… it came out in about 10 to 12 minutes. The fish tacos were comprised of two warm flour tortillas, one for each taco, stuffed with grated cabbage and shredded tilapia. They were topped with a little guacamole and pico de gallo. The tacos were pretty alright, but dry and flavorless at times. I grabbed a bottle of Cholula and slathered it on. Aww, just right. Maybe a little sauce or something would make this selection better.

My favorite item, believe it or not, was the fries. I asked one of the servers and she said they weren’t deep fried, but baked. I don’t want to get critical about food techniques or anything, but if you drench anything in oil and stick it in a 400 degree oven, eventually you’re going to get the same result as when you’re deep frying. I’m just saying. Let’s call a truce and say they probably aren’t any more healthful that deep fried fries. They were delicious though. When I put them in my mouth they exploded for goodness sake. The kids weren’t really into them though. They were into the chips and salsa, which were pretty ordinary, but they knocked them down like they were eating a big pile of marshmallows.

Overall, I’d come back here just for the atmosphere alone. I’m really interested in trying some of their appetizers, with beer of course. Beer makes everything better.