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Bell’s Fest in the Worthington Quarter: Weekend Wrapup II

Posted by CMH Gourmand on June 14, 2009

I popped onto a COTA bus back home, let out my fence jumping dog, then walked 2 miles up High Street to House Wine for the first Bell’s Fest.

Donnie Austin from House Wine teamed up with Wild Goose Creative to bring some fine crafted brews from Kalamazoo, Michigan to downtown Worthington.

Donnie worked with his fellow Worthington Quarter merchants to square away some space. Wild Goose Creative supplied the volunteers. Bell’s Brewery supplied the beers, including a few that we can not get in Ohio in bar or bottle.

For some more background on this event, listen to: Columbus Foodcast Episode 42

My hats off to Donnie, he has worked very hard to create some great events to grow community and things to do in Olde Worthington. This event was a continuation of that ongoing mission with the bonus of having some of the proceeds go to Wild Goose Creative. This is a good pairing – Donnie will be heading to WGC to do a Wine Basics Workshop on July 3rd as his quid pro quo for the beer show.

Here is what Bell’s Fest had:

Beer

Music

No photo could capture the musical magic

Corn Hole (unavoidable in Ohio)

Push Ups

Push Up champ on the right, orange shirt

Push Up champ on the right, orange shirt

Um, yeah, push ups. I do not know the full story, but at the end of the fest the woman in the orange shirt seemed to be challenging people to do more push ups than her. She beat all comers. As for me, after 4 hours of beer consumption – I am not doing any push ups. Maybe the push up tradition will continue next year, but I would advise against it.

Posted in events | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

North Market GrillMasters Festival: Weekend Wrap Up Part I

Posted by CMH Gourmand on June 14, 2009

The weekend began getting up at 3:30 AM to take my dad to the airport so he could legally return to Honduras and I could return to having one roommate – my delinquent dog Toby (who decided to start jumping the fence while I was in Montreal – more later).

Things picked up after a bit of sleep – the GrillMasters Festival at the North Market.

My mission – judge for the Thrilla at the Grilla. This year, it was Janel Hedgepeth from Barley’s vs. Micheal Denton from Martini’s. Both restaurants are just across the parking lot.

The competition is always good-hearted but things still get heated. There are prizes on the line as well as an award for the winner. The chef’s are cooking out of their element: outside on grills, away from their kitchens and sous chefs and they must cook and plate their wares on time – rain or shine. The king of this competition was John Skaggs – but this year he was sidelined as a judge.

Janels entry - skirt steak

Janel's entry - skirt steak

VS.

Michaels Chicken

Michael's Chicken

There were 120 possible points from 6 judges. The winner with 99 points…..Janel. Michael had 98 points. That is close. Just about every competition I have judged has been that tight and often too close to call. These are top chef’s cooking to win – the benchmark is always high and my belly is the beneficiary.

Janel with the prize - a big ass spatula

Janel with the prize - a big ass spatula

So here I am again, writing about something you missed. I overheard a woman mention that she likes that Columbus has so many little festivals. So do I. I like getting to eat the best of the best from the best. Bystanders get to eat as well – Michael and Janel plated their entries for the crowd. These contests are fun to watch, the cuisine is the kind you will not experience at these restaurants and the cooking is competitive. It is like watching the Food Network but…..real.

I was stuffed or I would have stayed around for the next event. Steve Lawrence from CaJohn’s was doing a cooking demonstration including grilled fish tacos and Cuban sandwiches. Steve is a top notch chef. Again when the show is over…someone has to eat the leftovers. If it can’t be me, it might as well be you.

Steve Lawrence from CaJohns

Steve Lawrence from CaJohn's

Posted in events, markets | 2 Comments »

Buy Baked Goods: Support Zoe moved to June – more details to follow

Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 24, 2009

Clintonville resident Zoe Buyalos, continues to battle breast cancer with the help of Komen Columbus and the Clintonville community.

If you are interested in other ways you can help take a look at: Zoe Buyalos Fund

The event originally scheduled for May 30th is being rescheduled to June at a new venue. Stay tuned for details later.

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Apron Gala Gourmand Grabbag Ready for May 16th

Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 9, 2009


The Gourmand Grabbag is good to go for the The North Market Apron Gala on May 16th. The Gala is a fundraiser for the market. A ticket for $75 gets you appetizers, entrees, treats and giveaways from North Market merchants. You also get wine, Columbus Brewing Company Microbrews, assorted other beverages, music and more.

Prizes are awarded for best apron in several categories. There is also a gift basket / prize auction. The auction is where I spring to action.

The Gourmand Grabbag is a North Market reusable shopping bag filled with goodies. I have recreated 24 Hours of Gourmand for the highest bidder. The lucky winner will get to recreate a day in my life (just the lucky/good parts of my day).

The day starts with donning a Taco Trucks Columbus Tour Shirt (XL). The logo was created by local artist Robert Patricy known in the food world for his paintings for the Grape Event as well as a work that is at the Elevator Brewery-Draught Haus. The shirt is from Skreened in Clintonville and has a retail value of $20.

The first stop of the 24 Hours of Gourmand is at Pattycake Bakery for baked goods. I suggest going on a Saturday for an orange sticky bun and some tollhouse cookies. The grabbag has a $15 gift certificate to cover this. This is Vegan “baking so good it tastes like bacon“.

Next on the line up is a trip to the North Market with shopping bag in tow to tote. A $20 gift certificate for the Greener Grocer will buy some greens, 2 Silos Eggs, Snowville Creamery milk and/or some other organic goodness for breakfast the next day.

A $5 North Market gift certificate is provided to allow for incidentals such as cheese from Curds and Whey or a scoop of Jeni’s Ice Cream.

All of this shopping will make one hungry. A $25 gift certificate is provided for a meal (lunch suggested) at any of the Betty’s Family of Restaurants – Surly Girl, Betty’s, Tip Top and maybe Dirty Franks if it is open.

The best way to work off a lunch is a stroll through German Village. At the end of your walk, make a call at Pistacia Vera for some desserts to go. A Pistacia Vera Gift Card (in a wonderfully wrapped gift box) is provided. This was a donation by Anne from Pistacia Vera. I was so stunned I did not look at the dollar amount.

A Dine Originals Gift Certificate for $30 is provided as a contribution for dinner or snack out on the town at any of the 40 plus independent Dine Originals Restautrants. My personal suggestions would include a visit to another of the Betty’s Restaurants, Alana’s, Basi Italia, G. Michaels or new Dine Originals member Deepwood.

Because you are living a day in my life, two Shout wipes are provided for the inevitable spills.

Since all of this running around might wind you down, breakfast is at home the next day. Breakfast (value exceeds $35) includes Pleiades Farms Maple Syrup, The Blueberry Patch Buttermilk Pancake Mix and one pound of Yeah Me Too coffee.

That ends 24 Hours of Gourmand. There will be many other gift packages to bid on as good as or better than mine. I might throw in a few more items if I get time.

The whole Columbus Foodcast Crew will be at the Apron Gala doing our best to podcast the action for those that miss it.

Posted in events, markets | 1 Comment »

Later is now: The Slow Food Cuban Pig Roast

Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 7, 2009


Last Saturday I said I would write about the Slow Food Cuban Pig Roast.

Here you go, from the Slow Food Blog.

Slow Food Slows Down: Slow Cooking at Cubano Pig Roast

I have been dragging my tail on coordinating a Slow Food Summer Run to Athens for June – but I hope to write about that in the future.

Slow Food is fun. Our Columbus chapter is only beaten by New York for the number of events we offer members and non members alike (and considering the size of SFNY – they should beat us).

Rigsby’s has started monthly wine dinners that have been raved about and Slow Food Members get a 15% discount from member Kent Rigsby. Also, there is a monthly wine tasting at Twisted Vine in Grandview, offering white and red wine flights paired with free food.


Posted in events | Leave a Comment »

Cinco D’Ohio…Dios Mio!

Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 3, 2009

Poster by Clinton Reno

Poster by Clinton Reno

If you missed the 3rd Annual North Market Cinco D’Ohio Festival, fret not, it will return next May. Cinco D’Ohio offers more than a few things worth waiting for, especially if you cook or enjoy eating the works of the best restaurants in Columbus.

The festival highlights spicy foods and Ohio products with plenty more added in during the day.

My contribution was to serve as a judge for the salsa and taco contests. Tough job. Well a little tough because I could not find my normal parking space due to the Half Marathon going on downtown. Then, running a bit late, I had to fight my way though hundreds of Future Farmers of America to get to the North Market Kitchen.

After the sampling...

After the sampling...

The salsa contest was for amateurs. Eight salsas were presented by six salsa makers. One person won first and second place. The prizes were gift certificates for the North Market and CaJohn’s. Start working on your recipe for next year, you have to like those odds of winning.

Next on the list – a taco taste off. The contestants – some of the best chefs in the city – including several of my favorites.

Taco Prep

Taco Prep

Alana – Alanas
John Dornback – Basi Italia
John Skaggs – My Catered Table
Matt Litzinger – L’Antibes
Brian Pawlak – Deepwood
Janele Hedgepeth – Barleys
Pete and Jon Nowak – Cafe Corner
and later arrivals from Due Amici (sorry guys missed your names)

How we judge tacos....

How we judge tacos....

I ate eight tacos. All were good (and I have a lot of recent taco experience). Some were great. The winner with 126 out of a possible 160 points – Cafe Corner. Second place was John Skaggs with 125 points. I was torn between two tasty favorites, John Skagg’s Taco Dorado (seen below) with wild boar, venison and all types of exotic goodness.

Tying up my taste buds, one point behind (only on presentation, John Skaggs is the master at that) was Alana’s Mole Taco with Mango salsa. It was incredible. The Cinco D’Ohio Festival is one of the few times Alana cooks up south of the border fare. The sad thing is she dropped her intended mole that morning which meant she had to mix up mole on the fly. I imagine Mole Numero Uno might have been even better than what Alana served at the contest. That being the case, I would have volunteered to “clean up” the “mislaid” mole observing the 6,000 second rule.

OK. so watching top chefs work = fun. Or maybe you would like to see the city’s Foodaratzzi – G.A. Benton, Miriam Bowers Abbott, Robin (James Beard Award Winner) Davis, Lisa (Restaurant Widow) Dillman and the always fun Jennifer and Jennifer (The Lunch Ladies from ThisWeekNewspapers) in one place. The best part was a lot of those Top Tacos were left and the audience ate them. So you can wait until next year. However, my suggestion is to attend one of the next events and/or become a Friend of North Market (Volunteer) and sample the best of the best before May 2010.

P.S. Restaurant Widow was “a twitter” during the whole taco tasting and took photos of each taco. This Taco Twitter was the first live twitter event at North Market.

Posted in events, markets | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

Gourmand Garners Good Karma Getting Gala Grabbag Goodies

Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 2, 2009

What a great day. The sun is out, the weather is good and all is right in my world. I had the honor to judge tacos and salsas at the North Market Cinco D’Ohio Festival (Thanks Mary and David). I’ll write more about that later. And now I am getting ready to go to the Slow Food Goes Cuban – Cubano Pig Roast in Granville. I’ll write about that later for the Slow Food Blog (as a pinch writer for the Hungry Woolf).

So what could make that day better? A giant serving of good Karma. I am putting together a Gourmand Grabbag – “24 Hours of Gourmand” for The North Market Apron Gala on May 16th. I’ll write more about that later. For the past week I have been out and about recreating a typical day in my life by collecting a few of my favorite food things.

I bought a Greener Grocer gift Certificate at the North Market as I was leaving. While there I met Kate who will be helping with a Slow Food Event planned for the Athens area. I picked up a free copy of Cook’s Illustrated that was available at the counter.

My second stop was Pistacia Vera. I chatted with Anne at the counter and she offered to make her own donation to the Grab Bag with a Pistacia Vera Gift certificate. She packaged it perfectly with box, ribbon and menu. While I was waiting by the register, Spencer spotted me and gave a me a quick tour of the kitchen. It is a wonderful workspace with natural light and a warmth that does not come exclusively from the baked goodies. Apart from a great selection of baked goods what stands out at Pistacia Vera are the personal touches by all of the staff (see my first post about Pistacia back on October 1st, 2006). While I lingered around Anne spoke with customers as she helped them. She knows many by name. You can’t get service like that at many places nor can you have that type of access to the people that craft your food. Awesome.

My next stop was Yeah Me Too Coffee (see my post from January 1st, 2008). I picked up a pound of their Porcupine Blend for the grab bag. If you know the Yeah Me Too coffee codes it is a blend of FLO/SUM/BZ/GT. Porcupine might seem an odd name for a coffee but not when you know the background of the shop. The owners are musicians first and coffee roasters second. Porcupine is the name of a special album (as in LP) by Tim Easton. As as fate would have it Tim Easton and Megan Palmer were there playing impromtu tunes – two voices, a guitar and a fiddle. I was one of seven people with the pleasure of listening to an incredibly intimate performance from two great local music makers. Awesome.

While writing this I ate two Pistacia cookies and listened to some songs from Megan’s website. Awesome.

Posted in bakery, Clintonville, events, markets | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Taco Truckers Trek To Taco Truck Tour

Posted by CMH Gourmand on April 25, 2009

The first Taco Truck Tour was a success. You can read more about this at Taco Truck Tour Recap from TacoTrucksColumbus.com, more photos and stories will be posted at TacoTrucksColumbus during the week of April 27th. In May, expect a Columbus Foodcast Episode about the the Tour and the blog. There is also an article in one of the local Latino newspapers. Thanks to everyone that came out. Congratulations to Hungry Woolf and Taco Drew on an excellent execution of this event. Also, this was the debut of Taco Corey as official head counter (80+ people).

The Tour showcased some of the best Taco Trucks of the west side. Most of the usual ilk were not present for the tour. We were joined by some great groups of people from the Easy Peasy Scooter Posse, ScootColumbus/The Columbus Cutters Scoot Club, bicyclists – including the group with Columbus Rides. Rest assured, this Columbus, people drove cars as well.

Taco Tourists had a map with 6 trucks to choose from so after a quick Hola – we sent them on their way to explore the wild, wild west side and the Taco Square (West Broad Street, Georgesville Road, Sullivant Ave. and Wilson Road).

As I made my rounds checking on our taco touristas at the different trucks, I discovered a truck from the east side has moved out west and a Mexican seafood truck has opened for the season.

I ended up at Los Potosinos (see TacoTrucksColumbus.com as well as my post from March 19th). This was the taco tourist favorite for the day. Los Potosinos served up Polla al Carbon San Luis Potosini style.

My favorite of the day was the premiere of ice cream at Los Potosinos. I had two servings – “mixto” – with all of the flavors. Yum.

Taco Truck season is now in full bloom, warm weather means more trucks. Some trucks move around and vary location. The best way to keep tabs on truck tracking is at TACOTRUCKSCOLUMBUS.COM

Special thanks to Columbus artist Robert Patricy for his creation of the logo for the tour.

And if you want your very own tour shirt click on the link below.



Cbus Corners is an initiative of the Columbus Social Media Cafe to share our favorite parts of Columbus – known and unknown. The Taco Truck Tour was intended to share a tasty side of the West Side. Hence the CbusCorners tag.

Posted in culinary knowledge, events, ice cream | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Kent Rand: Hills Market Cheesemonger at Wild Goose Creative

Posted by CMH Gourmand on April 8, 2009

The Wild Goose Creative, Too Many Cooks Series hosted Kent Rand, Cheese Director from Hills Market for a night of Ohio Cheese tasting. The suggested donation was $10. Too Many Cooks serves up something tasty the first Sunday evening of every month. Since I love cheese and support all things Hills Market and Wild Goose, I was there.

Friendly Neighborhood Cheesemonger Man

Friendly Neighborhood Cheesemonger Man

Kent Rand – also known as The Budda of Gouda, Chief of Cheddar, Prince of Provolone and Bhagwan of Brie guided a full house through a tasting tour of four Ohio Cheeses. He was assisted by one of my two favorite marketing mavens, Jill Moorhead, The Hills Market Marketing Director. In addition to creating good events, crafting fine prose on produce and significant craftiness to boot, Jill pours a good glass of wine.

The cheeses for the evening were:

Chevre with Herbs from MacKenzie Creamery in Hiriam
MacKenziecreamery.com

Organic Cheddar from Green Field Farms in Fredricksburg
www.gffarms.com

Old Time Smoked Swiss from Steiner Cheese in Baltic
www.steinercheese.com
(Yippee!! See my December 2008 post)

Caraway Gouda from Oakvale Farmstead Cheese in London
www.oakvalecheese.com
(Hills was the first local market to carry Oakvale cheeses.)

The cheeses were paired with South River Vineyard’s Temptation, a Rose from Geneva, Ohio.
www.southrivervineyard.com

We were also treated to a section of plated tastes to accompany our curdish delights so we could compare and contrast the flavors of the cheeses. Our tasting selections included dried apricots, black radish slices, watermelon radish slices, nuts, apple chutney, figs, an apple slice, Columbus Ham (not from Columbus), and a few other morsels.

In between eating, drinking and more eating, Kent discussed each cheese, provided an overview on cheesemaking and reviewed how to store cheese. He also fielded questions on Farmstead cheese, pasteurization in the art and science of cheesemaking, raw milk cheeses and why Cheddar is orange / yellow, among other questions. Kent topped things off with a serving of his Ohio Dutch Fondue (including grated gouda and a nip of gin).

It was an excellent night of eating education and you missed it. I used to worry about Hills Market and Wild Goose getting enough traffic at events to sustain their good ideas. Now I worry about getting a seat.

If you live in Worthington, Clintonville or Campus, The Hills Market can be reached after long but rewarding ride on the Olentangy River Bike Trail.

Posted in cheese, culinary knowledge, events, markets | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Restaurant Week Wrap Up with Pistacia Vera

Posted by CMH Gourmand on March 16, 2009

Pistachia Vera

541 South Third Street * German Village * 614.220.9070

At the end of Restaurant Week – I had tried two new places. I opted to make my Dine Originals Week a full course of course so I finished up with dessert. Pistacia Vera featured a $15 Desert for Two offering; a selection of old and new favorites. The sampling (descriptions provided by Pistacia Vera, digestion by CMH Gourmand) included:

Pistachio Dacquoise
– Layers of flourless almond & pistachio nut meringue, pistachio mascarpone cream and orange preserves, masked in pistachio French buttercream.

Flourless Truffle
– Rich layers of flourless chocolate cake, chocolate ganache and orange & apricot preserves, dusted in premium cocoa.

Vanilla Bean Madeleine
– Layers of vanilla bean madeleine cake (with premium olive oil), vanilla custard and vanilla bean
white chocolate ganache, masked in French buttercream.

Parisian Macaron
– Light nut meringue sandwich cookie with buttercream or ganache. A taste of Paris!
There are twelve flavor varieties to choose from which vary by season. This is always a hard choice, it is best just to get all twelve.

Bittersweet Fudgie
– We could not put more chocolate in this cookie if we tried. Fact: This is true – it could not be more chocoliscious. Well, they could put another Fudgie on top of the Fudgie provided with some Jeni’s Dark Chocolate Gelato in the middle – that would be more chocolate. OK – I will do it – stay tuned.

Pate de Fruit
– All natural fruit jelly made with pure fruit puree, pectin & sugar.
These petite pates received a nice mention in the April 2008 issue of Bon Appetit. There are eight flavors to choose from. I chose cherry.

Cashew Butter Caramel
– Chewy vanilla bean butter caramel with salted cashews.

Choice of Two Beverages – Coffee or Tea

There is only one problem with Pistacia Vera. You have to walk the length of the counter to get to the register so I always end up getting something between my initial selection and final transaction.

I spied Steve Stover (The Dean of Columbus Food Lovers) at the door just before I entered. He was there getting treats for his wife for (I believe) their 40th anniversary. We talked shop for a bit – he confirmed that initial reports relayed by restauranteurs indicated Restaurant Week was a big success. It is very likely we will see a second serving of Dine Originals Restaurant Week in the Fall.

I also had a chance to speak with Anne, one of the owners of Pistachia Vera. She reported they had an incredible turnout during the week, including a lot of new faces. Some of the people popping in did not know there was a special menu so they were thrilled to have a selection of PV treats to get acquainted with the shop. Anne is one of the most pleasant people in the business and she is very approachable. She is a great resource for selections if you get stumped.

For Restaurant Week to be a true success, the key is to make sure restaurants draw in new customers not regular customers like me looking for a deal. New Customers become regular customers if they have a good experience. For me – a successful Restaurant Week means my favorite places stay vibrant, sustainable and successful so I can keep coming back again and again. Don’t forget these places between now and the Fall. Keep trying out new places and supporting old favorites.

The Refectory has long offered a special Bistro menu as an introduction of their menu at a value. Many other Dine Originals restaurants will keep the spirit of Restaurant Week alive with special menus, fixed price samplings and Happy Hours. There are bargains out there and value, so go eat them.

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