CMH Gourmand – Eating in Columbus & Ohio

I woke up Sunday morning to a messy house, a mess of e-mails and my loyal dog looking at me like I was a stranger. It has been a long month and I am not even at the 1/3 mark. I have reconstructed the last week or so, what a (fun) whirlwind.

Saturday May 1st was the Market to Market Ride. It was a huge success in spite of a significant rain storm. I was honor bound to go, the consequences of not riding would have been unbearable since the following people would have relentlessly taunted me: Mary Martineau of the North Market, Jill Moorhead from the Hills Market, a Hungry Woolf, Ray “I’ll taunt you until you ride” George and the rest of the usual suspects. I had intended to ride with the Pierogi King of Columbus but his tire mysteriously blew out on him right by his house. The advantage of a rainy day was the route of the ride was relatively pedestrian free so dodging and swerving was at a minimum. Thanks to Jill, Mary and their volunteers for a great event.

Jill had just returned from the Philipines so in the Moorhead style, she was also hosting a Kahiki tribute dinner at the Hills Market (for 340 people) that evening at 6:00 PM. It had stopped raining by then and everyone had a good time – including me after two signature Kahiki mystery drinks served by the mystery girl. Jill was on her feet for 15 hours running two events. Again good job Ms. Moorhead

I did Taco Truck reconnaissance Sunday. On Monday, Taco Nazo catered 480 tacos for my workplace on behalf of our diversity committee. My wage slave work world and other worlds have nothing in common so I sweated it a bit as these worlds collided and I struggled with not being in control of the event but instead watched (mostly) from the sidelines. Everyone survived including me. That evening, Johnnycupcakes was in town at Pattycake Bakery on stop 25 of their back to basics suitcase tour. The hipsters had turned out in droves so I went inside the bakery to hide. Inside, I had a chance to speak with Johnny for quite some time. He was impressed by his first impressions of Columbus. Bear from Slow Food and I gave Johnny a few dining suggestions. I was happy to see that Johnnies crew went to Rigsby’s for lunch the next day. Rigsby’s is a favorite lunch spot for me so I was pleased that my tip was enjoyed by some hip out of towners.

Monday evening was also Nerd Night – which has occurred nearly every Monday for two years. The evening is hosted at The Pierogi King World Headquarters in Victorian Village. We gather for either a movie or several episodes of a television series, food which is frequently Adriaticos pizza and almost always discussion of our collective big and small ideas about new events and business ventures in Columbus. I consider these evenings to be opportunities for idea incubating and free focus grouping.

Don't have a T-shirt....have Mr. Cupcake sign your engine

On Tuesday, I read George Motz’s report on his hamburger hangover from his trip to the Midwest, including Columbus. I have now added a few more places to my hamburger hit list and look forward to his new book and maybe a future collaboration. I made a trip to Jeni’s Ice Cream in Grandview to try out the new Buckeye State Sundae. This might be catering to our football fanatic masses but I say cater away, I will do anything to support the pairing of peanut butter and chocolate.

Wednesday started early, meeting up with the rest of the Taco Trucks Columbus / alt eats Columbus crew to team up with Johnny DiLoretto at Otro Rollo Bakery for Cinco de Mayo. We encountered Otro Rollo while Taco Trucking. We think that the bakery fits well into the combined mission of Taco Trucks Columbus and alt eats Columbus which is: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new entrees and new cultures and to boldly go where none of our neighbors have gone before. We like working with Johnny and his crew.

That evening was a Taco Truck “meat up” at Taco Nazo. We did not promote the event very much so there was a turn out of about forty people. This was a nice break because I had a chance to just enjoy the evening and mingle with several people including Liz and Harold Lessner LaRue and Vanessa Druckman, aka Chef Druck, a newer food writer in Columbus. Here is her spin on the evening.

The night did not end there, I found myself returning to an old hangout from my high school days with some of the cyclists from our tour. After another margarita, I think that a blog post will be in order about this forgotten restaurant / character driven dive hangout.

Thursday night I was back at the Skillet Mobile Kitchen busking in some customers so Skillet will keep coming back to my part of town to feed my late night cravings for pork belly and porchetta. You can keep track of their cafe de wheels venture via twitter.

Friday, found me doing some lunchtime recon for alt eats and dinner time morel consuming at Deepwood. The dishes prepared with morels were good, the extra $14 I kicked out for the six paired wines was a great idea, but I could not finish all of my samples (that means extreme value).

Sweetbreads, risotto and morels...

Saturday was Public Media Camp Ohio at COSI. This was a great opportunity to learn new ideas and talk social media shop talk with several people from all types of media (Ohio Public Radio stations, writers, The OSU Center for Personalized Medicine, St Louis Public Radio, and more). It also put us alt-eaters in touch with a few members of the Somali community so we are looking forward to a guided meal for alt eats – there is no better way to appreciate and enjoy a meal than to share it with someone who is native to the cuisine.

Deepwood bread

Today was Deepwood with my Mom for Mothers Day. This was a rare treat because Deepwood does not typically serve breakfast. Based on today – Brian and Amber, please do it more often – it would pair well with a morning at the North Market. I also want to thank my server John for making an extra effort to get samples of the house breads for my mom. I wanted her to have the full experience and since the breads are a favorite at each of my meals, I wanted her to try some too.

So, that is pretty much how my life rolls and with a few more weeks like this I will be literally rolling from place to place.

For this coming week – here is my double dog dare. Thursdays are always a challenge in the capital city – typically there are three or more excellent events at the same time. I am going to try to pull off two.

Taste of Dine Originals is the major Dine Originals event of the year. It is an evening for the 42 independent Dine Originals restaurants to show off their best best at the Smith Brothers Building for a evening of food, drink and music. The event benefits the Buckeye Ranch.

After eating as quickly as possible at Taste of Dine Originals, I am hoping to arrive at Pecha Kucha Columbus in time for a presentation by Bethia about being a Hungry Woolf. Head out to support Bethia for all the good food, green and biking efforts she supports in the city.