Street Art 2

Posted on February 27, 2011

Some sticker art on a newspaper vending machine in Indianapolis.

Street Art 1

Posted on February 27, 2011

Found on a light pole at the corner of 14th and Pennsylvania in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ice, Ice, Baby

Posted on February 3, 2011

The upside (or downside, depending on how you look at it) of being off work due to weather is there is ample time to blog. I finally went into work and got my good camera and took some pictures on the way back.

I wasn’t so crazy to want to traipse all over town to get back home. I took the Clarian shuttle bus from Riley Hospital to Methodist Hospital, which is where I took the photo of these ice covered bushes.

While many vehicles are being used and have been deiced, this Acura/Honda SUV looks like it has been sitting in the same spot since Monday or Tuesday.

An ice-covered parking lot behind the former studio of Fox 59 WXIN. This lot is just needs a Zamboni to turn it into an ice rink.

Ice covered sidewalks are really hazardous. So much so that it is often safer and easier to walk in the street than to use the sidewalks. According to @IndySnowForce (an official Indy government Twitter account):

Did you know: Businesses, homeowners, and those occupying other premises are responsible for clearing sidewalks of snow and ice.

The original tweet is here. It doesn’t mention the penalties, but in Colorado, most cities and towns gave people 24 hours to clear the sidewalks after the start of a storm, or else face a fine. People would also be legally liable if someone slipped and fell because the sidewalks weren’t cleared. Letter carriers with the Post Office also had the right to refuse to deliver mail if they thought it was too hazardous to go to the mailbox.

There are some civic organizations (Boy Scouts, etc) that can help out with snow and ice removal, so there aren’t many excuses for this.

The Benjamin Harrison Home (former US President) is just down the street from my apartment building. Behind the home is a barn that was built a few years ago. The barn is pretty nice, though built with modern materials and code standards. This photo shows the roof of the barn and a nearby tree, both covered in ice. I think the picture would have been nicer without the power lines, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Review – Hong Kong China Buffet

Posted on May 25, 2009

I’m a big fan of Chinese food. Growing up in Pepperell and Townsend, Massachusetts during the 1970s, if we wanted foreign food, the only option was Chinese. Even then, it involved a long-distance phone call to place the order and a drive to Fitchburg to pick it up. As a kid, I was amazed by the white boxes made with folded cardboard that had wires for handles. The food was exotic to my young mind. Fried rice was brown with veggies and bits of pork or chicken, and it had flavor. Sweet and sour pork, and Chinese chicken wings. The mysteriously named chow mein and chop suey. I was ravenous for pork cutlets, spare ribs, teriyaki, and egg rolls. Years later, when we moved to Alamosa, Colorado, Chinese food was no longer on the menu. With a large Hispanic population, Mexican restaurants were fairly common in southern Colorado, and they opened my eyes to a world of new dishes. It’s no surprise that when I’ve moved to new places, I’ve sought out good places to find Chinese or Mexican food.

In downtown Indianapolis, five or so blocks away from my apartment building is Hong Kong (a/k/a Hong Kong China Buffet). This small, mom-and-pop type restaurant serves food that reminds me of the Chinese food the family used to get in Massachusetts. P.F. Chang’s it’s not, since the atmosphere is very simple with tables and booths. There are a few Chinese items, such as a calendar from a Chinese food distributor, but they don’t give the place an Asian ambiance so much as remind you that this is a family-run restaurant that serves Chinese food. Most of the time I go there and the place is empty of customers. However, I usually go on weekends and after work, and I think most of their business comes from the lunchtime crowds from several nearby companies. For what its worth, I usually get takeout.

Atmosphere aside, the food is great. Almost always, I get a quart of pork fried rice and three egg rolls, but if I have extra cash, I often get something else as well. Today, I also got an order of chicken sticks (teriyaki chicken) and sweet-and-sour chicken. Plus, every time I’ve ordered an entree, they’ve thrown in an order of fried wontons for free. Since this is takeout, they toss in a few fortune cookies and packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, and hot mustard. They used to include plastic forks, but this time they didn’t. Maybe it’s the economy. Sadly, I’ve never known them to add chopsticks, which I’ve always thought were great for things like sweet-and-sour dishes, among others. Luckily, I’ve got some here at home.

In the past, when I’ve ordered Szechuan food or other items listed as spicy on the menu, the items were hardly spicy at all. This was also an issue at another Chinese restaurant I used to go to in Colorado Springs. However, at that restaurant, if we ordered a spicy dish, and we added that we wanted it spicy, it would come that way. I don’t know if that would work at Hong Kong, but it might be worth a shot.

Prices are fair. My usual order of a quart of pork fried rice and three egg rolls comes to about ten bucks. Cans of soda are a bit expensive at $1.25, though I admit I don’t know what they serve for beverages in the restaurant itself. Spending $25 or more for takeout buys enough food for a few days worth of lunches or dinners.

If you’re in Indy and want good Chinese food at decent prices and away from the crowds, I recommend Hong Kong, either for takeout or dining-in on the weekends.

Hong Kong
1524 N. Illinois St
Indianapolis, IN 46202
(317) 951-8882
(317) 951-8686
(317) 951-8889 Fax

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