Alt Eats Galore - Columbus Food Adventures, and a Sidney Surprise

A month ago, I was honored to be mentioned in a posy written by longstanding local blogger CMH Gourmand in regards to local blogs worth following. In my little summary/questionnaire that I filled out for the post, I mentioned that in terms of overlooked area restaurants, I thought the African restaurants were as a whole overlooked, and that we needed ourselves to start exploring that part of the Columbus culinary world.

Well, we got that effort off to a fine start when we were invited by Columbus Food Adventures to join them on a tour that was actually on our "next-to-do" list: the Alt Eats Tour.

As regular readers of my blog may know, my spouse and I are big fans of the Columbus Food Adventures food tours, run and owned by Bethia Woolf and her husband Andy Dehus. Founded in 2010, the tour company continues to thrive, adding a Downtown Old Worthington walking excursion this year to a diverse selection of tours that combine sampling of the city's tastiest treats with history, both in terms of the featured restaurants as well the surrounding neighborhood.

The San Antonio Stroll (Pt. 1): La Colorido Tierra

Mamma'd smile and say, "Child don't you know

There ain't a thing in this world

To make you fall in love girl

Like the San Antonio stroll"

Tanya Tucker - "The San Antonio Stroll"

San Antonio lingers in the distance as you drive south through Texas' Hill Country

San Antonio, clocking in at just 1.4 million people (seventh largest in the U.S.) at the end of 2014, might have changed quite a bit since our last and only visit for both of us, but our visits were too brief to know for certain. One thing we did know for certain was this wouldn't be just any ordinary warm-weather escape for us northern climes living folks.

My spouse fully realized this after hearing the all-Spanish-chatter of gathered diners during a late-night-eats run at the Southern Texas mini-chain Taco Palenque (whose founder started the more familiar El Pollo Loco chain of Mexican quick eats.) Memories of visits to similar eateries came flooding back from her years spent as a grad student in the state of Texas.