Where to eat, what to cook, and what's happening around the city. Straight from the team that has been touring Columbus kitchens since 2010.
Columbus is often thought of as a white bread town, territory of generic chains and home of the fast food giants White Castle and Wendy’s. Dig around though, and between the Olive Garden’s and Applebees you can find some fantastic independent restaurants and (the point of this post), some ethnic gems. Last week in two
Read moreAs I child I loved gingerbread. I eagerly helped my mother roll the gingerbread dough, cut out snowmen and reindeer shapes, and when she wasn’t looking I would nibble the scraps of dough. I loved the aromatic mix of exotic spices and the magic of gingerbread houses. In recent years my taste has been soured
Read moreLast Sunday I was a volunteer helper at a Dispatch Kitchen cooking class taught by Robin Davis, food editor of the Columbus Dispatch and a James Beard award winner. It was instantly clear that Robin is an experienced teacher and demonstrator. Everything was perfectly organized with ingredients for each course on separate labeled trays, every ingredient prepped and every plate piled up. This made volunteering a pleasure and I was able to sit at the back and for the most part learn with the rest of the students.
Read moreWhy in Columbus do the suburbs have the best sushi? One of the reasons that it took me so long to try it, is that if I am going to drive (all the way) out to Dublin, and spend a good chunk of change, I want a guaranteed good experience. It is therefore tempting to stick with the tried and true, Kihachi and Kikyo. Now I can add Sushi Bistro Masa. There is a lot of chat about where to find the best sushi on Columbus Underground and Kihachi is often mentioned. I rate Kihachi as one of my overall favorite restaurants in Columbus, but they are not a dedicated sushi restaurant so their daily offering of sushi, whilst excellent is limited. Sushi Bistro Masa (as the name suggests) has a much wider range of sushi, and sashimi, and I would nominate them as a strong, if not top, contender for the best sushi in town.
Read moreI can safely say that I had never (knowingly) eaten camel. Ridden on one yes, but considered eating one? No. It sounds like a contender for Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods, not something you would find in Ohio. So how did it come about that I sat down to a dinner of camel sausages?
Read moreI attended some wonderful events during the week including the Market to Market Bike Ride, North Market Harvest Festival, A benefit dinner at Alana's and A Cow to Cone tour at Jeni's Ice Cream. Coincidentally our Slow Food Locavore Dinner at Otter Creek was also held during local foods week, so it really was a localicious week. As soon as I heard about the tour of Jeni's I called to book a spot and I am so glad that I did. This rare behind the scenes tour guided by Jeni was limited to twenty people (the reason became obvious as we squeezed into the kitchen and completely disrupted production) and had a wait-list of 50 plus.
Read moreI am a big fan of Pistacia Vera and I was excited to see that Spencer Budros, the head chef and co-owner was teaching a class in the Dispatch Kitchen. Anyone who knows anything about Pistacia Vera’s macarons could have guessed that we would not be learning how to make them in a 2 hour
Read moreDeepWood hosted ‘The Pig Who Went to Market’ dinner on Monday night. To be precise there were two prime Ohio hogs involved in the preparation of this 7 course porcine feast and DeepWood is a restaurant. But otherwise the name was fitting, this dinner was truly a celebration of all parts pig. A true snout
Read moreWith its combination of end-of-the-summer sweet corn and cosy warmth, corn chowder is the perfect comfort food for windy fall day. It makes you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a good novel. I had had the idea of making corn chowder for a few days but I can’t remember who
Read moreAt the end of March we attended a mushroom log workshop hosted by Janell Baran at Blue Owl Hollow Tree Farm near Newark. Janell told us that it would probably take a year before we saw any mushrooms appear. Imagine our surprise and delight when we ventured outside between rainstorms last week and found our
Read moreYes, its a sequel, but we think this is one time that the sequel will be even better than the first. This time we will have the movie showing of The 3 Amigos and we have refined the route and learned a few lessons and have a few improvements from the first Night of 1000
Read moreI first heard about Cafe Bella when I went to the WCBE Coffee Klatch on locavorism in July. I have biked and driven past its North High Street location many times but never really noticed its unprepossessing exterior. What intrigued me were the stories of a patio garden filled with plants being grown for a
Read moreThis post is also posted on tacotruckscolumbus.com Before an event I always worry about how it will turn out. I worry about whether enough people will come, or too many people and I worry about the weather and traffic and toilets. I am usually told that things will work out fine, and in the case
Read moreLast year when I tried my first pawpaw, I had no idea that a year later I would be judging the best pawpaw competition at the Ohio pawpaw festival. Although this was my first experience food judging I did feel somewhat qualified. I have watched CMH Gourmand in judging action many times and as well
Read moreAs well as being packed with food events, this has been a technology intensive week. I have been playing with google reader (why didn’t I do this before?), my iphone, which isn’t new but I have some great new apps (love the new flickr and skype apps) and twitter (I could only resist for so
Read moreSeptember has been a month jam packed with food events and it shows no sign of abating. I don’t want you to think that I am complaining, I’m not, I’ve been having a great time and lots of wonderful experiences. The title is a homage to the first event I want to mention, a panel
Read moreFollowing the success of our Cleveland road trip, we decided that it was time for a food filled excursion to Cincinnati. This time we weren’t following in the footsteps of Anthony Bourdain, but we did have some great suggestions via comments on the Cleveland post. Thanks to the readers who were so forthcoming with ideas.
Read moreThe winner is Kate B. Congratulations. I hope that you have a wonderful dinner at Basi Italia. The photo was taken on the Patio at Basi Italia last Halloween, so there is still plenty of patio time left. I think our last patio dinner there last year was in November wrapped in blankets and surrounded
Read moreThis week is the second Dine Originals Restaurant Week and lucky for you, I have been given a $25 gift voucher to giveaway on Hungrywoolf. Dine Originals is a group of 40 Independently owned restaurants, varying from casual to fine dining. They are mainly in Columbus but include some out of town restaurants such as
Read morePlease note the change of date to September 18th and that there is no longer a screening of The 3 Amigos on this date. Check back for details of more taco events in October. Click here for full size (printable) version of flyer Taco Trucks Columbus and Columbus Rides invite you to join us for a
Read moreI was lucky enough to be a guinea pig and accomplice in Project Octopus. Octopi are something I haven’t given much thought to as a foodstuff. My experience with them has been mainly through sushi where I find them to be overly chewy and not worth the effort. But Bear had been eager to try
Read moreLancaster is to me synonymous with Pennsylvania Dutch food and a trip to Lancaster is always a great excuse to indulge in some of my favorite Amish delicacies. Although Ohio has a large Amish population and you often see Amish butter, cheese or vegetables I haven’t found anything quite like Lebanon Bologna, my all time favorite
Read moreI was staggered by how many entries I received for the competition and I loved the additional the comments and observations that people added to their entries. There were so many touching responses and reasons why people wanted to visit the Inn that I am sorry that I only have one prize. I hope that
Read moreRegular readers will know what a fan I am of farmers markets and Union Square market was a real treat. It therefore warranted its own post separate from my NYC round-up. There was an astonishing array of specialty foods and produce available. We were there fairly early on a scorching August saturday and it was
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