Don Juan Taqueria: 'Way Authentic

 DJT, in a strip mall at Shelby Street and Hanna Avenue, is not a cookie-cutter Mexican like many other places: they have all the traditional dishes you see everywhere else, but also have a BUNCH of other actual Mexican offerings you won't find everywhere. The decor is more like many real places in Mexico, your basic storefront with polished concrete flooring, lunchroom-style chairs and tables as well as a few booths, and minimal festive decorations, which makes it a surprise when you find out they have a full bar with just about any liquor you want as well as a salsa bar with 6 or 7 different sauce selections. (The salsa bar was closed due to Covid restrictions when we went, but you could request the salsa you want to be brought to your table).  I ordered Birria, a type of mutton stew, but unfortunately they were out of mutton!  Still, they had other non-ordinary selections.  All in all, we loved eating there, and the proprietor and employees provided really courteous and helpful service.  They may not have all the carved wood and upscale atmosphere of some places, but the food is the thing there, and it is a GREAT thing.  iComemos!

Florida's "Forgotten Coast": The laid-back Florida of yesteryear--or not.

The Lovely Woman and I hit several places on vacation, so rather than put out a non-stop string of reviews I'll just try to give ya the highlights.  The Forgotten Coast is some travel promotion guru's name for 4 or 5 communities at the base of Florida's Panhandle, somewhere in between the tourist meccas of Panama City and Tampa/St. Pete.  The biggest of these is Apalachicola, the population of which is a whoppin' 2500 souls or so, but we had to stay there because TLW likes the way "Apalachicola" rolls off her tongue.  One of her recent favorite songs is Southern Voice by Tim McGraw, partly just because it mentions Apalachicola!  You may want to start over with this blog entry and take a drink everytime you read "Apalachicola", 'cause as I write this I imagine it's gonna be comin around a bunch o' times.

If you wanna stay at the beach, the best place is St. George Island, which has a reeeeally decent beach and only 2 actual hotels, The Buccaneer Inn and the St. George Inn.  The Buccaneer is a beachfront 1960's style motel with a pool that is nicely renovated and maintained and has fairly reasonable prices. The St. George is an old fashioned beachview 3-story wood construction hotel that seems like something out of the turn of the 20th Century but which was actually built in the late 1980's.  It is the tallest building on SGI except for the lighthouse, which is part of SGI's charm-- no giant hotels or resorts, only beach houses and  a few townhouse-style condo developments. SGI has one small Piggly Wiggly store/gas station, a bank, some stores, and 5 or 6 restaurants, all of which are pretty danged good.  The locals all seem to drink at Harry A's, a quintessential bar & grill you might find anywhere in the US, with old pics and junky memorabilia on the walls, etc., but the food is decent and prices are below the usual beach/resort level, which is probably why it draws the locals.  Unlike in Casablanca, everyone on SGI comes to The Blue Parrot, with outdoor dining and a bar that overlooks the beach.  It's a little pricey but a lot of fun.  Another drinking place, Mango Mike's is so unusual to me it deserves mention-- basically just a gigantic open-sided picnic shelter with an attached kitchen, where in the evenings they give you a can of insect repellent to use at your table or the horseshoe/cornhole pits.  The skeeters and no-see-ums can be murder on SGI at night, the only drawback to staying in such a  great getawayfromitall paradise.

This year we stayed in "downtown" Apalachicola (cheers!) a former King Cotton era shipping port. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment on the 3rd floor of the building which houses two stores on the ground floor and The Up to No Good Tavern/Up the Stairs Restaurant on the 2nd floor, which isn't a bargain but has really good food and drinks.  The crazy laid-back small town vibe of Apalachicola (chug!) means that lots of shops and eateries are closed on either Sunday 'n Monday or Tuesday 'n Wednesday, so when we arrived on Sunday it was a real hunt for somewhere to eat 'n drink, even though Apalachicola (bottoms up!) is nicknamed Oyster City due to its famous oyster industry.  Once we were finally able to eat at The Station Raw Bar on Tuesday, though, I really didn't need to eat anywhere else.  They had THE best fried oysters I've ever had, even though the delicious mollusks may not have come from Apalachicola Bay due to a present moratorium on oyster harvesting in the Bay itself (except for oyster farming) to give the oysters a chance to regenerate their populations.  Some places still get their oysters from Alligator Point, however, which is outside but near the mouth of the Bay, and they are no less delicious.        

We have yet to fully explore the other communities of Cap San Blas and Port St. Joe, but Eastpoint and Carrabelle have more of that sleepy small-town ambiance that makes the Forgotten Coast so attractive to folks who aren't drawn to the high-rise, high energy places like Miami, Ft. Myers, Clearwater and all the rest.  One culinary gem in Eastpoint is the Family Coastal Restaurant.   It's nothing fancy, with a decor kinda like the old Sunshine Cafes here in Indy, but it serves giant tasty mountains of seafood for a price that made this $$ guy's jaw drop in awe!  Carrabelle is a pretty little burg on a river cove tht not only has the World's Smallest Police Station but also a couple of great eateries, including Harry's Bar, a very dark but cool and comfortable little place downtown with really cold draft beer and decent prices.

I'm pretty sure The Forgotten Coast has all the fishing, boating, hiking, birdwatching, and other outdoor activities you could want, but why do those things when you can relax in the sun, drink, and eat???  Come to Apalachicola (thunk of beer mug hitting the floor) and enjoy the slow life!  Yeehaw!

Rager's Sausage Sandwich: Something to Look Forward To!

Rager's is in a nice, neat new space in one-half of a gas station/convenience store in Van Wert, OH, which if you're in Indy and reading this may be kind of disappointing, as it is to me because I don't have the ability to visit there EVERY DAY for breakfast or lunch like I'd want.  Pork is big around Van Wert due to the large number of hog farms there.  That and other agriculture make the Van Wert County Fair a really big deal: their fairground is much bigger than Marion County's here, for a county of only 15,000(?) people. Locally famous and one of the most popular food items offered at the fair is a great big sausage sandwich sold by a booth from the Lions' Club of the nearby village of Venedocia.  It has a big, round, dense patty that is thicker than a McD's quarter pounder and weighs twice as much, so it's almost a meal in itself.  It is well seasoned, nicely browned and VERY tasty. It seems everyone at the fair gets one sooner or later, they're so popular. 

Rager's sandwich has sort of the same rural origins but is different from the Venedocia sandwich.  Rager's store is sort of like Wheatley's here in Wanamaker, having begun as a farm and meat market in the little town of Convoy, OH, then a carnival vendor/food truck operator, and fairly recently opened their own actual restaurant.  Rager's patty is somewhat thinner and very irregularly shaped, like maybe they just grab a hunk out of a big pan of sausage and smush it on the griddle with a spatula.  It's REALLY well-seasoned, maybe more than the Lions', and is quite satisfying even though not as big.  I had Rager's lunch combo of a sandwich, some perfectly cooked fries, and fountain drink for under $7, so this $$ guy was in HOG HEAVEN!  I think Van Werters (Van Wertians?) agree, because the drive-thru line  at Rager's stayed almost 10 cars deep the whole time I was there...  SOOOOIE!  Y'all come get some!