Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I am going to this fabled city for 2 weeks over Easter. Any can't miss tips?

Thanks
Mary

The CI event threads from last year are here and here.

Highlights were Westside Market and Michael Symon's Lola. Saturday we ate at Flying Fig. Interesting menus, although I recall that Fuzzy thought it was recycled California Cuisine.

The Westside Market, Flying Fig and Great Lakes Brewing (where many of us had lunch on Thursday) are located in close proximity to each other. Lola is downtown.

If you can catch an airing of the Cleveland No Reservations episode you might see some other recommendations (HotSauce Williams for breakfast, for example)

Pete,

Well, my general attitude about the Fig is that, if you're eaten in Napa Valley, you won't be impressed. For CA Cuisine in Ohio, though, it wasn't bad.

Do not miss the Westside Market.

Ugh, pushed pm instead of reply (that's why you have a deleted pm Josh). Anyhow I basically said I was in N.CA last summer and the food was so amazing I don't want anything to cloud those memories. My brother (who I am visiting) has been telling me about the Westside Market for years so I am excited about that. He brought some fantastic bread from there when I saw him last summer in PA. And to be impressed with any American bread after living in Switzerland speaks very well indeed for it. I am also really up about going to a real Penzey's! My brother is also a big food guy so I should have some culinary tales to tell.

Mary

Hi Mary,
One nice thing about Penzey's is that they sell most if not all of the spices in soft plastic wrap sealed bags, you can skip the space hogging and breakability of jars or hard plastic containers. Enjoy.

eb

ps: i.e. for travel in suitcases. I had the TSA people practically scatter spices in my suitcase once. A whole canister of monkey picked jasmine pearl tea was all over the place. I had to pick it off all the clothing with a tweezers. Ugh.

"monkey picked"??? What the hell is that?

I love the plastic bags too. I haven't had any problem with them so far. Of course the Swiss are quite tidy about these things and are not too fussy about bringing food in. I do put them into a 2nd plastic bag though just for a little added protection.

Mary

http://www.teavana.com/Tea-Products/Best-Sellers/Monkey-Picked-Oolong-Tea.axd

Here is the link to the product. I confused my Jasmine Pearls with the Monkey Picked Oolong....anyhoo I got a bunch of it and TSA managed to dissappoint me. The tea was good, and I liked the monkey picked name. Good conversation piece.

Let us know how your trip goes!!

I like the monkey picked name too. I will give a report when I get back.

Mary

Mary,

If you haven't left yet: make sure to pack a cooler with icepacks if you can. The meat and cheese in the Westside market are incredible.

Also, there is a spice merchant at one end of the market whose quality may not quite match Penzey's, but their prices ... vanilla beans for $2 each, etc. And they have weird dry goods like green bamboo rice.

For Penzey's advice, see this thread.

Green bamboo rice? The only way that would be cooler is if a monkey picked it. I don't leave until next Thursday and I tend to be a last minute packer so I have plenty of time.

Mary