Hedging on the Veggies

Vegetables, exotic and more familiar, at Columbus's Saraga International Market

Kids hate their vegetables, right? At least, the conventional wisdom leans that way, but when you look deeper into the matter, there’s not much defining data. One article in the Mirror UK shows people have a natural aversion to green and other “weird” colors, yet an article in The Daily Meal notes Broccoli as one of the most well liked kids' veggies.  Meanwhile, a report found in HuffPost’s Australia posits a double-whammy: a natural human instinct to avoid off-putting bitter or sour flavors plus a lack of instinct to like veggies in the first place.

However, there are plenty of articles to be had about the strategies and hacks a parent can use to get their youngsters to actually eat these generally nutrition-laden foods.

Would any of those have worked in my case? Who knows, but I could tell you that a vegetable's texture played a bigger role than than the taste, and still does to a certain extent. Mushy vegetables (peas for some reason were a notable exception), especially those used in the traditional soup-based dishes my parents would make, were enjoyed as much as my parents' Andy Williams or Perry Como albums - tolerated, but nothing more. On the other hand, green beans and carrots, like my mom's Tom Jones' albums, offered more snap, so I favored them more. And corn and potatoes, from fries to baked to mashed, proved much like Santana's "Abraxas" (on 8-Track cassette to boot) album - they could be repeated ad infinitum as far as I was concerned.

Time to Splurge: 101 Beer Kitchen Beer Dinner feat. Jackie O's Brewery

The Rainbow Trout dish courtesy of Graze Restaurant in Madison, WI,
at their November 2013 beer dinner featuring Tyranena Brewing.

Our first experiences with the beer dinner actually happened outside of the Buckeye State: my spouse enjoyed her very first one back in the late 2000s in Grand Rapids with the popular brewpub HopCat and New Holland Brewing. And as a couple, we took the lovely evening backdrop of the Capital Building in Madison, WI, while indulging in the sublime preparations of Graze Restaurant matched up with the brews of Tyranena Beer.

However, it wasn't until recently that we were able to experience this format here, with the incredibly fun Columbus Craft Beer Week "Weird Science" dinner, which mixed food from CBC Restaurant, beer from Actual Brewing, and a dose of science from COSI.

Our second encounter came this week with, a nice celebratory splurge to celebrate a months' worth of special days for us both.  And in this case, we were particularly excited as this dinner paired one of our favorite brunch spots in Gahanna's 101 Beer Kitchen (originally opened up in Dublin in 2012 and now also sporting a Westerville location) as well as one of our favorite Ohio breweries in Jackie O's.

I Feel Pretty (Hungry) - West Side Market

During my relatively short time as a younger lad when I lived within the boundaries of the city and county of San Francisco, some of my most memorable moments came with spending time with my grandparents. From hours at the Municipal Pier fishing and crabbing, to strolls through Chinatown (if we kids were lucky, we would pick up some pork buns or packages of haw flakes,) or trips to Mitchell's Ice Cream to pick up some tropical-fruit-flavored ice cream, the world grew exponentially large during these times, and my brain would try to absorb all that was whirling about me.

Another fun place for me was the Alemany Farmers Market. Decidedly unfancy, this market, the first-established in the state, was a working family's nirvana, with vendors selling loads of produce from concrete stalls. While I admittedly was a kid who often claimed to be veggie-allergic most days, the bright color vibrancy I spied from tomato red to bok choy green to eggplant purple, the push and pull of the bustling crowd, and the multilingual chatter of vendors and visitors was a sensory extravaganza.

The latter memories had nestled within me in deep dormancy, almost forgotten. But then, nearly unexpectedly, those same cues I had experienced in my younger days sprouted to life again as I strolled the produce arcade of Cleveland's West Side Market in the Ohio City neighborhood.

What catches the eye immediately is the market's main building, a grand neo-classical brick construct with clock tower completed in 1912 (with some refurbishments and upgrades since.) This structure continues to draw your eyes to it as you wander inside upward to its tiled walls and vaulted ceilings. For me, it is not hard to think of the similarities between it and San Francisco's Ferry Building, a place I used to wander through on a regular basis.

Unlike the two other such markets I have had the most recent experience with (Columbus' North Market and San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace), however, the stalls at Cleveland's West Side Market don't generally sport bright signage, hint at hipster cool, or even try to grasp at anything froufrou. Aside from some personal touches from vendor to vendor, the products offered are the main distinguishing feature from one booth from another.

For me, much of what fuels the West Side Market is threefold: first off, its sheer size is mesmerizing - over 180 stalls total (many vendors double up on their spaces) are available within the main building and the outdoor produce arcade combined. The Ferry Building Marketplace comes close to that number when it combines with the Saturday version of their Farmers Market with normal operations, but on a year-round basis, the West Side Market stands alone in comparison

Also striking was the heavy presence of what I'll call "meat and potatoes" - the sheer number of meat and other protein vendors to me was a eye-catching aspect. Combined together, meat and produce sellers make up over half of the 110-plus total vendors doing business at the market.

Finally, the vendors reflect the current and historic cultural diversity found in the Cleveland metro area. From Polish to Hungarian to Middle Eastern and onward, the smorgasbord of goods for sale makes it that much harder to keep your wallet inside your pocket or purse.

Perhaps it speaks to the West Side Market's essence that the item that draws the biggest line isn't some fancy coffee preparation or artisanal ice cream but an everyday sort of item in the gyro sandwich. However, the gyro made by Steve's Gyros, with its homemade tzatziki sauce and lauded nationally in broadcast shows such as Man V. Food and The Best Thing I Ever Ate, is an uncommon creation, and folks hoping to land one this day were in plentiful supply.

It's perhaps a blessing and a curse that we came to the West Side Market this day with full bellies. On the plus side, we weren't tempted to spend more than we should have on various food items. And while we did spend some money on some delicious tasting vegetables from Bacha Produce (yes, chatting up potential customers does work,) fresh-baked pumpernickel bread from Vera's Bakery, and a bouquet of flowers from Ohio City Flowers for a gathering later on that day, the fact that we didn't have that temptation to delve in deeper felt disappointing strictly from an explorer's mindset.

We look forward to soothing that latter disappointment soon.

West Side Market
1979 W 25th St. (Google Maps)
Cleveland, OH 44113
Monday & Wednesday: 7am – 4pm
Friday & Saturday: 7am – 6pm
Sunday: 12pm – 6pm
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Arcadia in the Alley: Pearl Market

While Columbus' downtown is less imposing than other downtown areas I've visited, there's more than enough concrete, asphalt and the urban jungle atmosphere around to get one's dauber down.

Thankfully, escapes from this motif are not too far away for many.  One such escape lies in the Riverfront area, where an continuing project seeks to restore greenspace along the banks of the Scioto River.  Another escape that has become a welcome ritual lies in the Pearl Market, which operates in an alleyway between Broad, High, Gay and Third Streets from mid-May through October.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, Pearl Market sandwiches the typical lunchtime hours of downtown workers (operating hours: 10:30 AM - 2 PM.)   As a semi-regular visitor over the years, I've found the market's spectrum of vendors who regularly ply their wares here give downtown workers and visitors a solid opportunity to knock out some needed shopping before the workday ends.

While Pearl Market is built around the shopping experience, I've found the market valuable as a mental reset as well just by the simple act of strolling around.  The cornucopia of colors and smells, mixed in with a tuneful serenade from the market's musician of the day and the general bustle of mingling people, warm up the generally unremarkable and sometimes cold-feeling backdrop of faded brick or concrete walls, rear business entrances and erratic splashes of graffiti in this alleyway.

Those wanting to explore their culinary side are by no means left out.  Basics like produce, meat, eggs, bread and coffee are available to patrons; salsas, preserves and even Jeni's Ice Cream are among the food items available at this year's market.  Lunch options are also solid, with some of Columbus' more recognized food trucks (Challah, Paddy Wagon and Pitabilities) regularly setting up shop in Lynn Alley on market days; the The Good Frank hot dog cart and the Columbus Athenaeum also offer more consumer choices. Bakery-style goods also abound - I personally enjoy picking something at random from the various offerings to see what kind of magic can be created from a mixing bowl and a little oven heat.

In Greece, Arcadia is a province that became associated with idyllic nature and unspoiled wilderness due to the isolating nature of its mountainous terrain.  While no one is going to ever come to think of the isolating alleyways of Downtown Columbus as anything close to unspoiled wilderness, Pearl Market in its own way hearkens back to time where life was a little less complicated and concerns were more basic.

Pearl Market

Pearl Alley (Downtown - Google Maps)

Every Tuesday and Friday, June through October

(614) 645-5061

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My Secret Life In The CSA

After this particularly brutal winter season, the opening of outdoor farmers markets were a welcome sight to many local residents.  And with the warmer weather, the bounty of vegetables and fruits arriving to vendors' stands will only increase in the upcoming weeks.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has also proven to be a popular way for people to receive the freshest local agricultural products.  In short, the subscriber purchases a share of the whatever the farm or farm-collective is planning to produce for a prescribed time period (typically, a growing season.)  In return, the farm regularly delivers the subscriber their share throughout that time period, either directly to their residence or at a central collection point.

Typically, this is a win-win situation for the farmer (ensuring a customer base for their product), the customer (who can gain the freshest and widest-variety of local agricultural products with little time spent or effort), the local economy (as money spent generally stays local) and the environment as a whole (less resources are used due to the lesser distances required to get these products to the consumer.)

This blog was not around when my spouse decided to join a local CSA last summer.  It was definitely a worthwhile experience, and I wanted to share some of our experiences with the process.

1) The Search: We used online local resources such as Local Harvest to help us find the best candidate.  Based on a colleague's recommendation, the fact that fruit was part of the offerings (not all CSA's offer fruit), customization of orders (you could reduce and increase orders of certain items to a certain point) and the fact that delivery was available directly to our residence (we found we could not make the pick-up times and locations for most of the CSA's we looked into,) New Century CSA out of Circleville, approximately 30 miles south of downtown Columbus, was our choice for a small share subscription.

2) The Shared (Risk): Weather is often the biggest factor in relation to when something comes into season, and we found that we were essentially in the same boat.  Some fruits and veggies were delayed, while others were sent with a note that they should be used more quickly than normal (e.g. cherries that were affected by a surplus of rainy weather.)

3) The Season: When something's in season, you typically get that item for several weeks in a row.  With "multi-use" produce like carrots and tomatoes, finding new ways to use them in our cooking turned out to be a fun venture.  I confess that I was lettuced out after several weeks in a row of the leafy stuff, and there was a time when I didn't want to see another candy onion again.  Other items we knew we would struggle with (beets - we do not particularly care for them) but we went in willing to give those a fair chance.

Maybe size does matter?

4) The Sweet Surprises: One of the biggest reasons why a CSA appealed to us was the opportunity to expand our culinary horizons, and sure enough we were not disappointed.  A Napa cabbage led us to discover an easy homemade Kimchi recipe, and we found that pickling both radishes and kohlrabi can be very tasty ventures.  I personally have never found cantaloupe to be a very tasty fruit, but this big specimen we received from our CSA was something of a mind-changer.  It was so large, we made a cantaloupe sorbet, parceled out to some friends, cubed some out in the fridge for munching, and still couldn't finish it all.  Even more familiar items led to inspiration - a batch of green beans and a chance sighting of some Szechuan Peppercorns at a spice market led to our first (yummy) venture into Dry Fried Green Beans.

5) The Size: In the end, even the small size was too large for us.  We just did not predict at the time we signed up that we would be on the go as much as we ended up being during our subscription season, so there were a couple weeks when we couldn't get through everything.  If we do try out a CSA again, we may choose to have a partner or two to make sure the food does not go to waste (if you're trying out a CSA, this may be a good approach in general if you're testing the concept.)

6) The Service: New Century CSA provided great service to us and is definitely worth consideration if you are interested in joining a CSA.  There were some mix-ups with the initial deliveries (our house can be a little tricky to find) but they worked closely with us to get those rectified.  For our inconvenience on both misdeliveries, they provided us a credit to use on future weekly allotments and offered to bring a second delivery out the same week if our shipment could not be found (fortunately for both us, we were able to locate the wayward produce.)

They also kept us well-informed about general goings-on and potential issues with future shipments (e.g. the rain-soaked cherries mentioned previously.)  The quality of the produce received was for the most part top-notch, though at times even the hot weather got the best of our cheapo ice chest with the produce inside feeling the effects.

CSA Resources
Local Harvest - How to Choose a CSA
Local Harvest - CSA Index for Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Underground Article on CSAs

Our CSA's Information
New Century CSA
7370 Bell Station Rd.

Circleville, OH 43113

740-207-1073

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