What's Been Good: 10/19/2020

Lazy Sunday...or Pandemic weekday? The past few months
have made it tough to tell

Hi there - you miss me?

Most likely, probably not - my Instagram feed has been going pretty strongly, and the blog...well, when the turmoil that has marked 2020 washed through, I admit I didn't feel much like writing.

There's a lot to say about the year that has been, and I thought about venturing into topics that were never the focus of this blog.  After much consideration, I decided it should stay that way.  There's more than enough places to get the back and forth regarding those subjects, and I've done my share of checking up on things at sources I trust and respect the past several months.

But, with this blog being a food- and travel-centric one, I will say something in relation to the food industry as it had been.  If it wasn't clear how much of a true bargain the old model was for many consumers, it should be apparent now.  The size of the industry somewhat shrouded the very imperfect model of long hours for low-profit margins for a vast majority of establishments, especially the mom-and-pop, locally oriented ones, but the pandemic has fully lifted that cover.

The crisis has also exposed the very much underappreciated and bonus benefits (such as free music entertainment, or the fact that a fairly modest investment (an extra cup of coffee or a dessert plate will give you and your buddies extends your ability to hangout at your brewery/restaurant/bar/cafe of choice for an extra hour or two)) the diner basically took for granted in local restaurants, cafes and breweries during pre-pandemic times. 

Considering those factors, as well as the fact that you essentially are relieved of almost all work related to the dining process when you do, in fact, dine out, I realize now how much of a bargain dining out really was for us the past several years in most cases. And like many in the restaurant industry have stated, the old model needs to be revamped to keep local restaurant scenes thriving post-pandemic.  I don't know about you, but I don't travel around from city to city to prove that a Starbucks Frappuccino tastes the same in Columbus and San Francisco.  

To keep with the comparison, I travel between the two cities to see how the coffees of One Line Coffee and Mission compare to those of Four Barrel and Ritual Roasters.  And, I for one, am willing to pay for that privilege in our future travels, no matter what city we may journey to, if it means thriving and eclectic dining scenes throughout the country.

Whether the public as a whole is willing to do so, well, only time will tell...

Let Your Fingers Do The Eating: Bonifacio's APAHM Kamayan

Subo (Su-bo; Tagalog) - Verb

1. sumubo', isubo' (-um:i-) to get into trouble. 

2. to feed or put food into the mouth

Subo - that was a word I was quite familiar with as a child, more so the second meaning than the first. Often times, it was a request from my parents, grandparents, or other adult relatives, who wanted me to feed younger members of the family whose focus was intent on playing, not eating. This was fraught with its own dangers: catching one of my younger siblings or cousins was not unlike grabbing a chicken in its pen at times, and spilled food and liquids on the floor were fairly common.

Another implied meaning of this word for me lay in the method of feeding. For all but the youngest, feeding involved using my fingers to grab just the right-sized morsel to fit inside the target's mouth. Often times, that target would be my own mouth, and this process felt natural and instinctive to me.

Food Truck Dossier: Ajumama

Food Truck: Ajumama

My First Thought: "I haven't ventured into Korean food too much, and for no particularly good reason, but that truck looks promising."

Reality: In many ways, this is an elaboration and reaffirmation of this previous post I had written well over a year-and-a-half ago in relation to two of Columbus' most prominent food trucks, Catie Randazzo's Challah! and Laura Lee's Ajumama. Challah! itself warrants an update post in the near future as they have expanded their horizons, but for now, we concentrate on Lee's venture.

Home Bass for Beer: Four String Brewing

Four String Brewing, launched in late 2011, got its name in part from owner
Dan Cochran's background as a bass player with the Columbus music scene

On our recently taken Columbus Brew Adventures Grandview Brewery tour, as detailed in this blog post), we had in fact had visited all three breweries prior. However, unlike Zauber and Smokehouse, where we had logged numerous visits over the years, we had logged only one visit just a mere couple weeks prior to the tour to Four String Brewery, and we figured it would be only appropriate to give them a separate blog post.

Prior to this visit, our lone experience with Four String beers had been out on tap at various restaurants and via six-packs bought at local beer-selling establishments. Our taste of beers like their Brass Knuckle American Pale Ale and Big Star IPA were generally favorable - definitely not knock-your-socks off brews, but solidly in the "keep-a-six-pack-in-the-fridge for-after-work" category. However, we had not actually visited their taproom to try to get a better idea of their offerings after all this time, mainly due to their somewhat hidden location on 6th Avenue behind the Shoppes on 5th strip mall.

We finally got the motivation to get over there through a unique food-related event: the Ajumama Food Truck, well-known in the Columbus area for chef Laura Lee's take on Korean favorites, was hosting a special pop-up featuring Chef Sean's take on Filipino favorites. With our radar constantly on the lookout for that cuisine, we decided to make it a night, and sampling Four String's offerings would be the proverbial bonus sundae cherry to top it all off.

On our first visit, the combo of Ajumama's takes on Filipino favorites
and flights of Four String brews really hit the culinary sweet spot

As it turned out, the Filipino menu that Ajumama offered that night proved with mostly untraditional (exception: the Puto steamed rice cakes were pretty traditional and spot on very good) but really fun takes on staple items such as the Bacon Cheeseburger Lumpia, grilled Adobo Ribs, and the Chicken Afritada Sandwich (perhaps my favorite of the mains, with a taste profile reminding me of my parents' versions of Menudo and Mechado.) '

Meanwhile, the appropriately music-themed Four String taproom provided a dimly lit but otherwise nicely intimate setting to enjoy our eats. We also got a much higher appreciation of their beer offerings in the process, especially with Skeleton Red Rye IPA (the spouse and I are both fans of rye beers in general; this ended up as our second pint for the day) their new Devilock Hazelnut Stout, part of their ongoing Solo Series of limited-quantity releases (this nicely chocolaty, nutty stout was our actual favorite on this visit, but the hot & humid weather made the rye IPA the more appealing choice for a second brew.)

Columbus Brew Adventures helped provide some history to Four String's
emergence in the local craft beer scene, including their "Frankenbrewing"
beer production and their decision to go with canning their brews. 

During that first visit, it was quite noticeable that Four String Brewery's equipment certainly did not look like the traditional-styled brewery vessels we were used to seeing on other brewery and taproom visits. Indeed, on our return visit to Four String during Columbus Brew Adventures' Grandview Brewery tour, our host Jim Ellison as well as our brewery hostess provided us a fascinating history behind owner Dan Cochran's efforts to successfully transform Four String into one of the more prominent players in Columbus' current craft brew scene.

We learned all the equipment still remaining in the 6th Avenue taproom was designed for other purposes; Cochran bought the equipment for pennies on the dollar and with outside assistance adapted those device to brew beer instead. This "Frankenbrewing " method of brewing beer came with its challenges: one particularly revealing visual was their brick-lined boiler (as pictured above.) The heat generated from the brewing process was so intense, it was melting the container's legs off  - the rather clever installation of a rope around the rim provided just enough of an heat escape to tone the heat down without affecting the brewing process.

Other interesting fun facts we learned were the decision to can versus bottle their beers (Cochran found that mobile canning would be the most inexpensive way to get his product to the market, especially with a host of volunteers who would help package the cans in return for pizza and beer) as well as the fate of the 6th Avenue taproom. While Four String is nearing completion on a new larger production facility on the west side of the Columbus metro, the 6th Avenue taproom would still remain open and become the home for the brewery's more limited and experimental brews.

Of course, we tour-goers were treated to samples of their beer, and in a way it was like deja vu all over again from our first visit, as Chef Lee from the Ajumama food truck brought over some tasty spicy pork mini-sandwiches. These little toothpicked bites were welcome as we sampled beers that we had had on our first visit (including the rye IPA and hazelnut stout we so enjoyed) and are sure to have again on some future trip to Four String.

Four String Brewing
985 W. 6th Avenue (Grandview Heights)
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 725-1282
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Food Trucks to the Second Power: Challah and Ajumama

Continuing my double food truck posts, and with the season winding down for the year, here are two more mobile vendors who I have grown familiar with during my time here in the Buckeye state:

Challah: This food truck's offerings are advertised on their Facebook page as the owners' reinvention of the childhood Jewish comfort food they grew up with. Indeed, a glance of their typical menu offerings fit that motif perfectly, with items such as the Reuben Burger and their Potato Latkes.

My spouse and I have sampled their menu separtely at various locations around the metro area and have found all their offerings quite tasty. My spouse's favorite so far has been their Smoked Salmon Sandwich ($9), with nicely smoked fish topped with cucumbers, tomatoes and a pleasant herbed cream cheese spread. Meanwhile, Shoshi's Chicken Salad sandwich ($7) has turned out to be a personal favorite of mine, with a nice blend of herbs in a creamy chicken salad filling, topped off with red onions and pickles.

In addition, I found their just-released seasonal Beef Brisket Sandwich with Brown Bourbon Apples special ($9) quite delectable, with plenty of tender chunks of brisket and apples that is especially well-served by its soft challah roll.

Their new seasonal menu also includes their Matzo Ball Soup ($6; weather dependent), which might prove to be the perfect solution to battle the chilly temps. I think I just might have to test that notion sometime in the near future.

I must note one more informational thing before finishing: in our experience, Challah's main food items are generally on the saltier side of the ledger. This may be an issue for folks with salt-intake issues or whose palates are adverse to saltier food items. However, we have never had anything that's veered into the too-salty range for us, and we look forward to sampling more of this food truck's offerings down the road.

2019 Update: Challah!'s Catie Randazzo has been one busy gal, as she has now expanded her food truck offerings into a brick-and-mortar kitchen (Grandview's Woodland's Tavern.) In addition, her efforts with chef Matthew Heaggans has the Brewery District's Ambrose and Eve providing top-ranked comfort food classics.

Challah!
Various Daily Locations
(614) 579-0601
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Ajumama: I have admitted in the past that, for no particularly good reason, I haven't really actively sought out Korean food, despite all the indications that say it would become a favorite of mine if I gave it a shot. Based on my first encounters with Ajumama's offerings, I may be getting my butt in gear in short order.

The first thing one might notice about this truck is the display of shiny trophies along side the order window. In Ajumama's case, they are a sign of the excellence this mobile food vendor has produced for local food truck customers since their debut as a food truck in 2012. In fact, a nice chronicle of Chef Laura Lee's hard work to perfect her offerings can be found at this series of posts over at the Seoul Eats website.

Ajumama's offerings line up with the popular Korean-American fusion theme started with food trucks like Kogi in Los Angeles. Unlike other similar trucks (I was familiar with the similar Seoul on Wheels back in San Francisco,) Ajumama has stayed away from the Mexican food motif and focused on Korean street food basics with some American-based twists, as in their very popular Bulgogi Cheesesteak Sandwiches ($8; Korean BBQ with "kimcheese" and onions on a hoagie roll) or a Kimchi Hot Dog ($6; served with spicy mayo, cucumber kimchi and a vegan or beef/pork hot dog from The Good Frank.)

As tempted as I was by those, I was determined to try out the more distinctly Korean street food items on my first visits, all around some variations on the old reliable pancake. The Pajeon Dak, an egg-based pancake which reminded me a bit of my dad's Filipino egg-based beef and potato tortas. These beauties, filled with green onions, zucchini, soybean sprouts filled with sesame soy chicken with mushrooms, provided a unique and scrumptious blend of flavors that was accentuated well by the soy and vinegar dipping sauce. The bag of specially-blended OH! Korean BBQ flavored chips ($2) was also quite good, and I spent the rest of the day finishing off my bag.

On a return visit, I went with the Hodduk, which closely resembles a traditional breakfast pancake. Their Bulgogi Hodduk (2 for $7) reminded me of when I would wrap pancakes around my sausage links as a kid. Except in this case, the bulgogi was stuffed within the pancake itself, making this pleasantly savory item the bonus feature of being preeminently portable.

2019 Update: Instagram was added to the social media links below.

Ajumama
Various Daily Locations
(614) 859-6119
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