Taste of the exotic

For being a small town in southern Indiana, Bloomington packs a large punch when it comes to ethnic cuisine. Though excellent places for Mexican, Chinese, Italian and sushi abound, the city offers a palatable spread of more rare finds. \nWhile Bloomington's cultured dining scene may be news to some, it does not go unnoticed by the community, and in many cases, the rest of the country. Tosha Daugherty, communications coordinator for Bloomington Convention and Visitors Bureau, said visitors frequently rave about local ethnic restaurants. She said that culinary tourism is a "hot button topic" with travel writers now and that Bloomington's unexpected variety of food makes it a place of interest to many tourists.\n"It's just one more thing that makes it easier to promote the town," she said. "It adds to the uniquely Bloomington atmosphere that people love. The whole town benefits from having diversity here."\nRestaurants featuring foods from around the world blanket city streets, especially Fourth Street and the downtown area. For the adventurous, the curious or the just plain hungry, these restaurants provide unique meals with foreign flare that often hooks visitors at first taste, and everyone develops their own personal favorites.\n"Personally, I really love Esan Thai," Daugherty said. "The Tibetan restaurants are always a favorite because of the connection to Tibetan Cultural Center. Shanti, anything on Fourth Street is fabulous."\nThough ethnic cuisine offers a tasty alternative to pizza and burgers, many restaurant owners said the cost of their food is comparable to those beloved college staples.\nFor those who are new to Bloomington's ethnic dining scene, peruse the phone book or Web sites like dinesite.com to find a restaurant that caters to specific tastes, or just try them all.\nMediterranean and Eastern\nBloomington boasts restaurants from all coasts, but many are from the Mediterranean and Eastern regions of the world. For example, the city has two Indian restaurants and two Turkish restaurants.\nShanti, a favorite for Indian cuisine, first opened its doors in 1997 because the owner noticed Bloomington's diverse dining scene and its lack of an Indian eatery, said a restaurant employee. \n"He thought there was a need," the employee said. \nShanti's authentic cuisine is contributes to its popularity, the employee said. The restaurant has a clay oven uses the oven walls to bake homemade bread and the center of the oven to cook meats, the employee said. Some popular dishes include butter chicken, which has creamy sauce, and vegetable makhni, pop vegetarian dish with a cream sauce. Shanti is also noted for its mango lassis, which are mango-flavored yogurt shakes, and also serves Indian beers and wines. The restaurant has various meat and seafood dishes but also offers a wide variety of lamb dishes, which is popular with customers. \n"We are small but very popular people," the employee said. "People love the food and service." \nBombay House, another popular Indian restaurant is also popular. The restaurant opened in 2002 and is located on Fourth Street amongst many ethnic restaurants. It is beloved for dishes like butter chicken, lamb vindiloo, chicken tandoori, and spinach dishes like murghesag, a dish with spinach and chicken, and palak panar, a dish with spinach and homemade cheese.\nAnatolia and Turkuaz Café, Bloomington's two Turkish restaurants, offer a variety of authentic cuisine. Metin Ayvazoglu, manager of Turkuaz, said one of the most popular dishes is a pide, which is like a pizza. The base is thin, bread-like dough shaped like a boat, and customers can choose from a variety of meats, cheeses and vegetables to put in it. He also said their baklava is famous and is also sold by several other local establishments. \nBut Ismail Tezer, owner of Anatolia, said his baklava is the best in town. Among other dishes, Tezer said patrons particularly enjoy his shish kebobs and andana kebobs. Andana kebobs are 12 to 13 inches in length and consist of ground beef and lamb seasoned with spices, but it's not too spicy, Tezer said. He said he opened his restaurant in 2004 and it has since been known for the good food and affordable prices, a combination that has attracted many students.\n"When I came to Bloomington in 2000 and I saw Fourth Street and the many cultures, I wanted to add Turkish food," he said. "That's why I opened my restaurant here. The prices are reasonable and everyone's happy with the food."\nFor various Mediterranean and Eastern cuisine, try Casablanca Café, which offers Mediterranean and Moroccan food, along with authentic music and belly dancing. The Mac Grill on East Third Street specializes in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food and often has extensive buffets. Falafels, located on Kirkwood, also has a variety of Middle Eastern fare. For more specific tastes, try Samira, which serves up dishes from Afghanistan, or Red Sea, which specializes in Ethiopian food.\nEuropean\nWhile popular restaurants like Irish Lion offers some tradition Irish cuisine and Trojan Horse serves Greek specialties, both mix in American dishes. Two of Bloomington's most authentic European restaurants are both French. \nCafé et Crèpe, a small crèperie on Fourth Street, opened in 2004. The café serves both dessert and savory crèpes, or thin French pancake-like pastries. Rachïd Maïdi, owner of Café et Crèpe, said his most popular savory crèpes are Chicken Florentine and Chicken Fromage, or chicken and cheese. He said dessert crèpes with Nutella, a French chocolate and hazelnut spread, are popular, along with a concoction called Cloud Nine, which is a crèpe with strawberries and bananas in a rich cream sauce. \n"Our crepes are freshly made every day," Maïdi said. "People could live on crèpes. They're healthy."\n He said people can put basically anything in crèpes and said the café offers soups, appetizers, baked goods and salads with special homemade dressing as well. He said several students frequent the restaurant for its Algerian tea and its coffee. Maïdi said customers say his coffee is much better than Starbuck's, and he offers free wireless Internet so students can study and enjoy their coffee at the same time. The café also has couches, board games and old Hollywood magazines.\n"We don't have any (crèperies) in Bloomington and we have very few in Indiana," he said. "It's a very unique thing. We've had calls from people living in Indianapolis who want to come eat here."\nBefore Café et Crèpe, Bloomington did have a French restaurant, though. Marina Ballor and her husband Patrick Fiore opened Le Petit Café in 1977 while Fiore was studying music at IU. The restaurant was so successful that they never left town. Now they're starting their 29th year of business and still serving the same dishes, Ballor said.\n"We had a customer come in last weekend and he hadn't been here in 25 years but he said nothing had changed," she said.\nThe restaurant has a "very simple" menu featuring steak, poultry, seafood, sometimes rabbit and always a vegetarian dish, Ballor said. She said their steaks are popular because she serves them with special sauces, like garlic, herb and olive oil. \nBallor is especially proud that their "mom and pop" -- or "maman et papa" -- restaurant has survived decades of change and said she can still remember when restaurants in Bloomington were all about "a steak and a potato" because diverse cuisine in town was "nonexistent."\nThough it's not often packed with students because of the $13-$17 entrées, Ballor said the restaurant has remained popular with locals and with students on special occasions.\n"Students seem to remember us when something special is going on," she said. "They come here to celebrate birthdays, Valentine's Day, first dates; something special. When they feel like splurging we see them." \nAsian\nBloomington has a variety of Chinese and Japanese restaurants with a variety of entrées and sushi, but more diverse Asian cuisine is available as well.\nMama's Restaurant, located on 10th Street, is an authentic Korean restaurant with wood-chip tabletop barbeque.\nThe city has multiple Thai restaurants, but Siam House on Fourth Street is often a favorite. The restaurant boasts an extensive menu with more than 90 dishes to choose from. The food has attracted celebrity clients like Harrison Ford, John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, musician Andre Watts and U.S. Congressmen, said manager Andrew Stevens.\nThe owner, who originally had a similar restaurant in San Francisco, moved to Bloomington and started Siam House in 1990. Some of her restaurant's most popular dishes include pad thai, satay, red, yellow and green curries and miang kum, which is an assortment of ingredients that can be rolled into spinach leaves and dipped in a special sauce. Stevens said they try to fight the misconception that all Thai food is spicy and said the level of spiciness is up to the customer. \nStevens also said he's constantly impressed with the diverse sampling of restaurants in Bloomington.\n"For a town this size we've often been remarked to have a range of ethnic food," Stevens said. "The selection is very varied and it's of a very high caliber."\nFor more Thai food, try Esan Thai on Kirkwood. \nAnother truly unique feature of Bloomington's dining scene is its two Tibetan restaurants. While the restaurants' existence may be connected to the ties between Bloomington and Tibet, their cuisine attracts students, faculty and local residents. The Snow Lion, located on Fourth Street, is owned and operated by the Dalai Lama's nephew and is a local favorite.\nAnyetsang's Little Tibet, also on Fourth Street, has been attracting visitors since it opened in 1998. Thupten Anyetsang, owner of the restaurant, said he opened his restaurant because he loved the town and IU and wanted to share his culture through food.\nThe restaurant offers Tibetan, Thai and Indian food and Anyetsang said dishes from all genres are popular. Many patrons request Momo, which are dumplings that can be filled with a variety of meats or vegetables. Pad thai and red, yellow and green curries are also popular, along with lassis, Thai iced tea and Thai coffee. \nAnyetsang said his wife is the chef and that the restaurant's comfortable prices, relaxed atmosphere and indoor and outdoor dining make it seem like their own Tibetan home. He said his restaurant has received publicity from across the nation in the New York Times, the New York Post and Indianapolis Monthly.\n"We're happy that we can show our culture to customers and tourists," Anyetsang said. "Some come from Chicago and Michigan to eat here, and we can share our food and history"