Baked to Perfection Bakery & Deli: Who Needs Cupcakes When You Can Have a Great Sandwich??

Baked to Perfection, 112 E. Fifth Street in Delphos, OH, is in an old storefront on the edge of downtown. Delphos is a fairly small town, so you could just drive around a bit once you get to the center and you'd probably find the place.  We've eaten there twice now, and the sandwiches are so good and reasonably priced that even a cheapskate like me was very pleased.  As we entered we could see the proprietor spreading a ridiculously thick layer of frosting on a red-velvet sheet cake.  I'm not much of a cake person but that had me wanting some. I think that's kind of the philosophy of this place:  it something is worth doing, it's worth OVERdoing.  Last time I had the Black & Blue Burger, and it had so much good, strong-tasting blue cheese melted on it that the meat was actually a little overwhelmed, so I had to scrape some off (but of course later ate it with a fork!).  

This time I had the Canal Club (the historic Miami & Erie Canal runs through Delphos) and she had the Panini Reuben.  Mine was pretty much your standard club, except it was maybe 2 1/2 inches thick with only top and bottom pieces of whole wheat toast.  Her Reuben, however, was a little work of art: a decent pile of delicate corned beef and sauerkraut with just the right amount of Thousand Island dressing between two pieces of marble rye, all held together by an enormous amount of melted Swiss.  She added her own touch of a little mustard, and when she let me have a bite, I was in Cheeeeeeeesy Heaven!  Check it out  at www.bakedtoperfection.net 

Eva's Pancake House & Restaurant: A Welcome Surprise!

Eva's Pancake House & Restaurant is a mini-chain, with 3 locations.  We happened upon the one in Pendleton, IN on SR 67 just down the road from the prison while on the way to visit The Little Woman's brother in Delphos, OH (You may recall her aversion to Interstate Highways and my driving on them), and at the time I didn't know there are also locations in Anderson and Muncie.  From the outside I wasn't expecting much.  It is just a tidy little brick building painted pale yellow, and the decor inside is kind of 80's vintage paneling and booths (think Jerry's, if you remember them).  TLW has embraced my penchant for adventure eating, but I think even she was having her doubts about the place.

Ah, but when the food arrived our opinions instantly changed:  Her tenderloin sammich was huge, thick, thickly breaded and very well seasoned.  In short, I was envious even though she shared some of it with me. I ordered the lunch special, an Italian Steak Sandwich with chicken noodle soup for (I think) $6.79.  Since I'm sorta doing the low-carb thing, I asked for it without bread (but of course I didn't turn down the fries TLW offered me, for shame!) and I added a side salad.  It turned out to be cheese steak smothered in melted mozzarella and seasoned with some kind of seasoning that gave it a delightful Italian flavor.

 In sum, I think we've found a new rest stop on the way to Dave's house.  Maybe next time we'll invite one of those nice young hitch hikers in tan or orange jump suits to come eat with us... or not.   I don't think we could fit on of their rakes in the car with us.

Teppanyaki Grill and Buffet: Ordinary Asian, But Done Well.

I went to Teppanyaki Grill & Buffet in the Cherry Tree Shopping Center (a really BIG strip mall) for lunch with about 12 colleagues.  There seem to be two basic forms of Asian buffets- one which feels like it was built in Shanghai in the 1940's and hasn't been updated since, and the other a streamlined-looking modern cafeteria with Asian-style furniture and a few other Far-East decor items.  Teppanyaki is one of the latter, with thick carpet, colorful blue and pink indirect lighting, and drop-spotlights giving it quite a pleasant atmosphere. It's one of those where a waiter or waitress takes your drink order and then you go get your own food, and man was there ever a lot of food: all sorts of Asian dishes as well as a whole steam table of American-style food for the xenophobes who get dragged there by their more adventurous spouses/family/friends.  It even has pepperoni pizzas. I hope I don't sound racist by telling you that our waitress was a teenaged little Asian girl with her hair worn so that a long strand fell on either side of her face, resembling the heroine of every anime film I've ever seen (which ain't many).  Memory was not her superpower, though, because she had to ask me twice what drink I'd ordered and then still brought me sweet tea instead of unsweet.  She was so polite, though, that I didn't have the heart to try to correct her again, and used it as an excuse to enjoy the guilty pleasure that is Sweet Tea....

I was a little disappointed in the more common Asian dishes.  The General Tso's Chicken was sweet and had very little heat to it, and the peppery chicken and shrimp likewise were not very peppery. A notable exception was the hibachi chicken, which was not spicy but had a delicious smoky flavor.  They do, however, have an impressive array of seafood that to me was better than most other Asian buffets.  There was baked fish, fried fish, salmon, cold mussels on the half-shell pre-dabbled with a sweet pepper sauce, steamed mussels on the half-shell, and baby clams on the half-shell, to name but a few.  I'm told they have a Mongolian-style grill to order bar in the back, too, but I didn't see that and had already loaded my plate(s), but I'll have to try that sometime.

UPDATE, 07/14/2014 (Sort of)- Went to the Teppanyaki at 38th/Moller Road, and the food was completely different from the one in Cherry Tree Plaza.  It wasn't bad, really, but everything tasted strange to me, even the staples like General Tso's Chicken-- it was vaguely sweet with almost NO heat, quite unlike the General Tso's  I'm used to, and, sadly, not to my liking.  I'll stick with the Cherry Tree one....  

Pollo Michoacano: Down Home Mexican Food

I was running around for work today and happened upon Pollo Michoacano, 2134 W. Washington St.across from George Washington High School in Indy, which is NOT in a strip mall, yahoo!  It's just a block or so away from the hub of Little Mexico, Belmont & Washington.  Some folk consider that part of the 'Hood, but I felt reasonably safe, during the day at least.  Anyway, it's in kind of an old building but has been nicely renovated, with lots of bright colors on the inside, typical of many such places. The inside was generally very clean; I couldn't see into the kitchen, but the waitress station was pristine.  Pollo Michoacono sort of translates to Michoacan-style Chicken, but I have yet to find anyone from Mexico that can tell me exactly what the difference is between the cooking in the various states of Mexico, other than the fact that those along the coast have lots of mariscos (seafood), and I discovered myself that Hidalgo, having been colonized by British Miners, favored many English dishes, the most prevalent being pastes (which in English is "pasties") baked pastry shells filled with cheese, meat, and vegetables, like an empanada only more stuffed. But I digress.... 

 It was early in the day (like 9:00 a.m.), which surprised me they were even open that early,  and they weren't very busy.  I ordered a Quesadilla Mediana with beef to go for $5.99;  it was big enough for us to split for lunch and it was GREAT!  They used a corn tortilla for the outside, which is not my favorite for tacos, but it was toasted just right for a Quesadilla.  The meat was very done and nicely seasoned, and there was a lot of cheese inside.  They gave me a little cup of tomatillo (green) sauce and one of pepper (red) sauce, as well as lettuce and a dollop of sour cream to compliment it.  Both sauces were home-made and very tasty; the red had quite a bit of fire to it, which makes Daddy very happy.  I'm pretty sure my next round of errands will somehow necessitate my going by there again....  Mmmm.