This boozy milkshake was the best thing I had in Indy this week.

Has anyone else been feeling weird the last few days? Maybe it’s just me.

Some people react to stress by losing their appetite and moving their plate away. I’m not one of them. I believe that if you want to process difficult emotions, the first step is to eat your feelings.

These Surrender Columns typically focus on highlighting underrepresented cuisines or interesting cooking techniques. But this time I was leaning towards the following:

Best thing I drank in Indy this week.

While I can hardly imagine drinking more than one drink a year, there are a surprising number of instances of alcoholic milkshakes being consumed in Children’s on the Near Northside.

Want to celebrate good news or an inspiring victory? Here’s a sweet dessert with sprinkles and fun flavors. Feeling depressed and demoralized due to loss of faith in your neighbor? This fatty sugar residue contains alcohol; drink.

Baby’s offers strawberry and chocolate shakes every day in alternating vegan and “curious” flavors ($5 to $7). For another $6, your cocktail will be paired with the drink of your choice, from straight vodka to peanut butter whiskey. Concerned not so much with gastronomic synergy as with serotonin reuptake, I chose a strawberry cocktail with blanco tequila.

Because the liquor comes in a separate container., you will need to drink the cocktail a little and then add your chosen spirit to it. If you know anything about mixology, you can probably do a pretty good job of combining flavors. Unfortunately, I don’t.

Sips of my clumsily prepared spiked cocktail ranged from sweet, inert to sanitizing levels of alcohol, but the well-mixed sips were excellent, with the floral, tangy notes of tequila floating gently over the classic American treat.

You might be surprised to learn that alcohol in milkshakes is nothing new. The late American lexicologist Stuart Berg traced the term “milkshake” to an 1885 British newspaper article that described the dessert as a “healthy drink like eggnog” containing whiskey. While stores like Walgreens and Woolworths popularized the modern non-alcoholic milkshake in the early 1900s, the Western world was clearly still hungry for a dessert that makes you kind of tipsy, as alcoholic cocktails have recently made a comeback in gastropubs like Baby’s .

Purists might say that an alcoholic milkshake sounds like an inferior tasting milkshake, and that may very well be the case. Luckily, I brought enough hunger, curiosity, and creeping fear into Baby that my somewhat whimsical margarita went fairly smoothly.

And while I understand that a mixture of milk, ice cream, sugar and distilled spirits is hardly a complete meal, don’t worry about me—I had pizza that night, too.

What: Strawberry Tequila Blanco Milkshake ($13)

Where: Baby’s, 2147 N. Talbott St.

If it’s not your thing: Baby’s is part bar, part ode to the classic American diner, with plenty of burgers, fries and other delicious food, as well as beer, wine and craft cocktails. You can also just use a regular milkshake.

Know a dish or drink worth trying in Indy? Tell restaurant reporter Bradley Hohulin at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin.