Rocket Science Ice Cream

With traditional places like Dairy Queen, local places like Flavor Freeze, handmade places like The Chief, and buffet's like Honey's  it's easy to think that we have seen it all on the ice cream front, but today I had an experience that disproved that notion. Rocket Science Ice Cream in Coppes Commons in Nappanee, is serving up a unique ice cream experience that you can only find a handful of places in the U.S.; Steve Helmuth is serving up delicious ice cream that is flash frozen using liquid nitrogen, an idea born from hearing about the use of this super cooled element in science classes.

He starts with an ice cream base and adds syrups, fruit, nuts, candy, and other goodies; you can choose one of the special recipes like Almond Joy, Key Lime Pie, or Peanut Butter Bash or you can dream up your own creation with their extensive list of ingredients. The list consists of 16 syrups including caramel, hazelnut, maple, and orange;  a dozen fruits and nuts like almonds, raspberries, peaches, and pecans; and lots of candy and sweets such as cheesecake, gummy worms, peanut butter, cookie dough, and M&M's. After your ingredients are all mixed up they go through the magic of the liquid nitrogen that turns them into a smooth, frozen treat.

Very few people get the opportunity to try ice cream frozen by liquid nitrogen, but if you are reading this in the Michiana area, you can have this unique experience! A late morning excursion to Nappanee has reiterated the importance of exploring your community, because you might just get lucky enough to find an out of this world experience like Rocket Science Ice Cream!

The Tamale Place

A few years ago my husband and I found ourselves amongst a group of friends who was anxiously awaiting a hot batch of homemade tamales that a neighbor was making, it was an all day process, but by evening time we were sampling the tasty morsels, and we have been hooked ever since! Since that fateful day we searched for a restaurant version to rival these, and while nothing will ever beat homemade we have landed on a local joint in Indy that has become our favorite, and we never drive past the city without a stop at The Tamale Place. It is true that Goshen and Elkhart do have several Mexican restaurants with good tamales, but none can rival the variety and uniqueness of The Tamale Place. The owners Angela and Vladimir met while Angela was backpacking in Mexico in 1999 and  in 2003 along with Angela's mom they opened a tortilla business in Indianapolis, that was not as popular as anticipated, but when locals began asking about good tamales, Vladimir called his Mexican family for recipes, and while Angela loved cooking and had lots of experience, she had never rolled a tamale, which luckily for their customers means half-pound tamales! Though The Tamale Place is home to the half-pound tamale, my personal favorite is the $0.99 cigar sized Cuban stuffed with chorizo, shredded pork, and corn; but I also love the beef with red sauce, which is their most popular tamale, as well as the pork with green sauce. My husband is also a big fan of the poblano with cheese, which he loosely likens to one of his childhood favorites, the chili relleno. The tamales are $3.25 a piece or $38.00 for a dozen and trust me after the first one, you might just find yourself buying the entire dozen! The tamales don't stop at the main dish, The Tamale Place is also serving up delicious dessert tamales, including my favorite apple with pecans that is like eating apple pie in a corn husk, and the chocolate tamale that is somewhere between a brownie, chocolate cake, and mind blowing! While you will find that The Tamale Place makes a great variety of tamales, they are a labor intensive, handmade dish therefore they do not make all of them everyday; next to the cash register you will find a marker board with the day's choices and a number indicating how many are left, so I suggest getting there early in the day before they run out! If you aren't a fan of tamales, but still love good Mexican food, there IS still something here for you; we also love the tacos, they make their own tortilla's with the same masa they use for the tamales and have several different delicious protein options like my personal favorites carne asada and fish (they also have chicken, pork, beans, and veggies), I like mine the traditional way with cilantro and onions, but my hubby loves the addition of melted cheese. They heat the tortillas on the flat top which melts the cheese into the other toppings, and as my hubby says, makes them similar to a quesadilla. He also has an ongoing love affair with their nachos and has to get a half order any time he is there, and by half order we are talking about at least a pound to a pound and a half of homemade tortilla chips (made from their homemade tortillas), chicken verde, black beans, sour cream, white cheese dip, lettuce, guacamole, and jalapenos. There are many other options to customize your nacho order, but no matter how you top it, you can be sure it will be delicious. I cannot promise to have tried a lot of the Mexican restaurants in Indianapolis, but I have tried a great deal of authentic Mexican food, and this restaurant is a must try, especially if you are a tamale fanatic like we are!

The Golden Monkey Cafe

On the south side of Goshen there is an Asian restaurant that has something different to offer than all of the others around town; The Golden Monkey on Lincolnway is serving up Vietnamese food and proving that not all Asian food is the same. I started out with ordering a water ( I try not to drink my carbs or calories!), but The Golden Monkey has a large variety of bubble teas and bubble tea smoothies to offer. We had an appetizer of egg rolls, we still aren't sure how these tasty morsels ended up at our table, because we didn't order them, or at least not intentionally, but I like to chalk it up to divine intervention. These egg rolls were Delicious, they were smaller than a traditional egg roll, but packed a lot of flavor, the wrapper was thinner than I have ever had which made them incredibly crispy, and the filling was not overstuffed with cabbage, but had a nice balance of carrots, pork, and rice noodles as well. These egg rolls immediately shot to the top of my list and are my new favorites!

As I looked over the menu, the sweet and sour chicken was yelling my name, but I decided that since this was my first time in a Vietnamese restaurant and eating Vietnamese cuisine, I should go with something I hadn't tried before. I chose the Vietnamese sub, that had a wonderful picture of marinated pork with pickled carrots, cucumbers, and mangoes, all topped with cilantro, but was sadly informed that they were out of pickles, a shame, but I wanted to try the sub just the same. My sandwich came out with two different kinds of meat, one of which I knew was pork, the other I wasn't sure about, and mayo, which I have NEVER in my life eaten before and was hesitant about; but I ate it anyway. The sandwich was good, but the sauce on the pork was very sweet and could have used the pickles to cut through it. While I was in the bathroom my husband asked our waitress what the second kind of meat was on my sandwich, and it was bologna, fried bologna, something else I have NEVER eaten in my life, so this sandwich was a new experience for me in many, many ways, and it was a good one! I will warn, though, that this sandwich has an unreal amount of garlic, as in I am still tasting it and my mom could smell it on me when we picked up our little man three hours later. And yes, those are more egg rolls on my plate, I got them instead of fries!

I was a little disappointed that my husband ordered a burger, the Unique Burger to be exact, but it had cheese and jalapenos and that is all he needed to know. He said the burger was good, but a little spicy, which means something coming from him. He got french fries on the side of his sandwich which he was delighted to find were hand cut and seasoned with something more than regular salt (I'm thinking Lawry's). With hot tea, egg rolls, two sandwich combos (one with fries and one with egg rolls), and a tip our bill was still under $25, so definitely affordable. If you have some family members who are hesitant to try Vietnamese food, or anything new, you will be delighted to find that The Golden Monkey has many American options and also serves breakfast. My hubby also found out from our waitress that they are working towards changing into more of an Asian fusion restaurant, so there are definitely exciting things to come from this already delicious restaurant.