Taste of Europe-Indianapolis, IN

Taste of Europe

4320 W 96th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46032

(317) 334-8797

My partner introduced me to Taste of Europe today after I completed my dental implants(yay!). I needed to get them finished before I leave for California for work tomorrow. It's always nice having teeth. Taste of Europe's right nearby the dental office, it's a whitewashed cottage perfunctorily-appended to a nondescript whitewashed stripmall. But what made my heart all aflutter was the signage: cevapi, bourek, sausages, specialties, imports, deli. Inside there's a smallish storefront plus deli counter and fridge/freezer cases. A hand lettered sign above the cash register lists the offerings and prices as well as promising fresh lamb, goat!, etc. Peer towards the back and you'll spy a largish dining room. The place was empty when we arrived, but shortly thereafter the proprietor made an appearance and swiftly produced sampling plates of Hungarian salamis, Polish cheese, and tasting portions of goulash; "you have before?" he asked. "Now you see how I make." And beemed with pride. And rightfully so: I couldn't have given my new molars a better test run...and here I'd been contemplating a McDonald's McMuffin(I was starving). My partner plays his cards close to the vest. He'd said that he didn't have time to go through the McDonald's drive thru...

Anyway, congenial shop owner engaging, conversational, quick with the samples
...cases filled with smoked meats of all sorts, freezers full of bourek(3 kinds), cevapi(2 types), house made frozen stews and soups=happy me.

I could've spent a lot of dough, but for this first visit I came away with a small Slovenian orange soda(Jupi), 2 lbs of Macedonian sheep's milk feta(a deal at 12.99), 2 fat links of the spicy Hungarian sausage(the sharpness of the quality paprika pairing delightfully with the unctuous fattiness of the meat), and some black current juice from Bulgaria, and what the picture denotes is an apple/peach blend from I have no idea where, most of the writing on the box is Cyrillic so there's that.

The proprietor asked us how we were familiar with many of his products and the answer, of course, was, "Chicago." He was like, "ah...yes...in Chicago is everywhere." I responded, "sometimes, maybe."

Anyway, nice surprise.