FARMbloomington

a guide: Special Kids’ Meals at B-town Restaurants

First Posted: 6/22/12 03:48 PM EDT Updated: 6/22/12 03:48 PM EDT
Originally published February/March 2011

BY ERICA SAGON Pasta, chicken fingers, and burgers are still mainstays on children’s menus, but in our roundup of dishes for the 12-and-under crowd in Bloomington, we’ve uncovered a few surprises. Some restaurants have upped their game with mini-versions of dishes from the adult menu. Finch’s Brasserie is among restaurants serving the same macaroni and cheese to kids and adults. Upland Brewery has a Fischer Farms pulled-pork barbecue sandwich for you and a smaller size for your kids—same with sirloins at Janko’s Little Zagreb. Other places are going a little more exotic. At FARMbloomington, kids can choose grilled chicken fingers with plum sauce, and hummus with veggies for dipping. “We wanted to offer healthy options for families,” says Chef Daniel [...]

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Filed Under: Food/Wine Tagged With: Erica Sagon, FARMbloomington, Finch's Brasserie, Janko's Little Zagreb, Lennie's, Malibu Grill, Scholars Inn Bakehouse, Shannon Zahnle, Upland Brewing Company, Uptown Cafe

A Vegetarian Guide  To Bloomington Eateries

First Posted: 6/22/12 03:24 PM EDT Updated: 6/22/12 03:52 PM EDT
Originally published December 2010/January 2011

Bloomingfoods’ Veggie Delight. Photo by Shannon Zahnle

BY ERICA SAGON From the sit-down Scholars Inn Gourmet Cafe & Wine Bar to the grab-and-go Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, nearly every eatery in Bloomington has vegetarian options on the menu. Even the famously carnivorous Janko’s Little Zagreb offers a black- bean burger and an eggplant dish as entrées. In Bloomington, vegetarians don’t have to seek out a true vegetarian restaurant to eat well. PETA confirmed that in 2010 when it ranked Bloomington the fourth most vegetarian- and vegan-friendly small city in North America. “Most of our restaurateurs realize that vegetarian isn’t just the absence of hunks of meat,” says Fred Turner, an attorney and longtime vegetarian. Turner says servers are now more knowledgeable about how dishes are prepared—and whether [...]

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Filed Under: Food/Wine Tagged With: Anatolia, Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, Cafe Django, Erica Sagon, Falafels Flavors From Jerusalem, FARMbloomington, Feast, Finch's Brasserie, Janko's Little Zagreb, Laughing Planet Cafe, Restaurant Tallent, Roots on the Square, Samira's Restaurant, Scholars Inn, Shannon Zahnle, Siam House, Soup's On, Turkuaz Cafe, Upland Brewing Company

A Taste of Ireland: Chef Daniel Orr and Mother Mary Lu (See Gallery)

First Posted: 2/28/12 03:54 PM EDT Updated: 3/6/12 04:48 PM EDT
Originally published February/March 2012

Dingle Peninsula. Photo by Daniel Orr (See gallery at bottom for more photos.)

BY PAMELA KEECH “My summer vacation…” begins Chef Daniel Orr, owner of FARMbloomington. “I was asked to be guest chef on a cruise ship and had promised my mother a cruise, so I took her with me.” This was the first transatlantic voyage for both Orr and mother, Mary Lu, of Columbus, Indiana—seven days at sea from New York City to Cork, Ireland. As they neared land, Orr had his camera ready. The varicolored houses along the harbor were his first shots. Throughout the trip, he photographed whatever caught his eye, from monuments to hen houses. “When I’m traveling I like to look at food, gardening, and art and see how it got there, from the ground up,” he says. [...]

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Daniel Orr, FARMbloomington, Ireland, Pamela Keech, Travel

Best Bites

First Posted: 2/13/12 07:02 PM EDT Updated: 6/22/12 04:35 PM EDT
Originally published August/September 2011

Bella Cucina's Motzoh Ball Soup. Photo by Christine Barbour

Food Editor Christine Barbour describes ten of her best foodie moments of the past five years. Bloomington is a great place to eat, a happy anomaly in Indiana’s drive-through, fast-food, chain-restaurant-loving culture. In Bloom’s five years of publication, we have profiled a different local restaurant in each issue—at six issues per year, that’s a lot of independently owned restaurants serving delicious, locally prepared, often locally produced food and a lot of very tasty bites for this restaurant reviewer. Here are my top ten. 1. Parisian pizzetta at Finch’s Brasserie. Chef Jeff Finch is a soup wizard, turning locally grown ingredients into bowls full of delight, but if I had to pick a single, wonderful bite at Finch’s it would be [...]

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