Asian Town Center was announced two years ago. It’s managed by the family that owns Asia Foods. I’m a [...]]]>

I've never had a banh mi that I didn't like. They get extra points for making the bun. But you have to remember to ask for the hot peppers which I thought was weird.

Asian Town Center was announced two years ago. It’s managed by the family that owns Asia Foods. I’m a fan of the small tea house/restaurant that they have in the back of their grocery store. I asked about progress on the Center as I always do on visits to the tea house, resigned to disappointment as I always am. So, I was surprised and very happy to hear that the Center will finally be opening very soon. According to early reports the building has four restaurant spaces in addition to a new market, but from what I can glean it will ultimately open with only the new market and one restaurant. They still seem determined to fill those other spaces with authentic Asian restaurants so I’m hopeful that this will turn into a gem of Cleveland’s food scene.

I've never had bun bo hue that I didn't like either. Asia Foods had good sausage in theirs, too. This is available in the "tea house." I'm not sure tea house items will appear in the new market so you'll have to check out the original location for this.

These are some of the things I do expect to see at the new market along with a variety of other Chinese bakery items. Also some steam table items like duck feet, squid, beef tendon. Of course, I don't really have any idea. Those are just some of the things they carry at the current market.

In the mean time, I couldn’t be more excited about the one tenant that is already set to open: The Crumb. I’ve been waiting to try Ismail Samad and Vanessa Robinson’s food for longer than I’ve been waiting for Asia Town Center to open. I ventured to Crust and Crumb’s industrial neighborhood location after reading a glowing review only to find them closed. According to the posted sign, they were open from 2-4am every Groundhog’s day. Then they closed entirely:

Bites

Crust and Crumbs, the impeccably fresh breakfast-and-lunch cafe located in a former security gatehouse, has closed — but only temporarily. Vanessa Robinson and Ismail Samad served their last meal at the 4700 Lakeside location on January 31, and hope to be up and running in their new space by June 1. “We’re hoping the move will make our operation more visible,” Robinson explained. “Plus, for a restaurant to really succeed, you need to be open weekends. We never were.”

This bit especially caught my eye:

During the downtime, each chef will be interning out of state, her in Italy, him at Aureole in New York. “We’ve been doing this for three years now,” Robinson added. “You cannot predict anything in this business, but we’ve learned that people are loyal to good food and service, and if they like a place, they will promote it for you.”

They’re obviously ambitious and dedicated.

I lost hope after many months of waiting and then I heard that they would be tenants in the already amazing Asia Town Center Project. Months later, as construction seemed to languish indefinitely, my hopes in that project faded as well. Then some hope. Then less hope. . .

They expect to have a rotating assortment f pastries and the rest of the menu has some interesting items. I know that a lot of people have different opinions about which restaurant in Cleveland has the best pastries but that’s really a trick question because there isn’t one.

The Buckeye Beer Engine recently sold burger #48324. You may remember when I made note of their announcement for #40000. I goofed on the calculation in that post. They’re now around their two year anniversary so that’s about 66 burgers every day. There were 113 days between announcements [...]]]>

fried cod sandwich with cajun tartar sauce

The Buckeye Beer Engine recently sold burger #48324. You may remember when I made note of their announcement for #40000. I goofed on the calculation in that post. They’re now around their two year anniversary so that’s about 66 burgers every day. There were 113 days between announcements so the pace has picked up to around 74 burgers per day. I imagine that the promotion will drive the burger rate even higher. I know I’m definitely going to have one or two.

The prizes are substantial gift certificates: $500 for ordering #50000 and $200 for ordering #51000. At a pace of 74bpd, 1676 burgers will take 22-23 days. My guess for the jackpot winner is March 22 and I will be there. You can sign up for their mailing list to receive an announcement for #49200.

In other Beer Engine related news, they’re having a beer dinner on March 24th, they debuted some Lenten specials and their brunch garnered some very positive remarks on the Cleveland.com food forum. I enjoyed my cod sandwich. I’m looking forward to trying the fish tacos and then it’s back to enjoying the Beer Engine on non-weekend days. I’m also really eager to try the brunch. Together with The Flying Fig’s new brunch, it gives me hope that there may be some relief from the brunch wasteland that is Cleveland. I think I’m going to arrange my Film Festival schedule so that it coincides with a visit to the Fig for brunch.

(beer dinner listing at upcoming.org)

The old Kan Zaman space has a temporary sign announcing that “Kasablanca Cafe” is coming soon. I drove past and noticed that the neon “Open” sign was lit. I’m not sure in what way this new place will be any different from the old, unremarkable Kan Zaman. Still, the cuisine itself is so appealing that I’m sure I’ll check it out. Apparently, what seemed like a slump along W 25th was only a very temporary phenomenon. The book store is being replaced by a different book store. Something called Ohio City Blooms (neighborhood development or flowers? I hope flowers.) threw up a sign. I guess Dish and The Monastery have yet to be replaced but it’s nice to see the new life.

There’s still a website for Kan Zaman. Did they move to another location?

There are two upcoming events involving Sapore’s Matt Anderson. One is Sapore’s own wine dinner.  “Join Chef Matthew Anderson and Cline Cellars, Keith Morris, for a wonderful evening of food and wine.  $75 per person.  Tax and gratuity not included.  Reservations”(Here’s my posting on Upcoming.org)

The other is a benefit for The Culinary Vegetable Institute’s Veggie U.

beets at a Culinary Vegetable Institute Earth to Table dinner

I’m not exactly sure what Veggie U does but the event features more of my favorite chefs: Chef Jonathan Bennett of Moxie , Chef Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern and the Culinary Vegetable Institute’s own Chef Johannes “Johnnie” Klapdohr. I’ve only eaten Chef Klapdohr’s food once but after that meal I know I’ll make the hour+ drive out to the Culinary Vegetable Institute again sometime soon. He was also exceedingly gracious and seemed genuinely enthusiastic when he offered to let me take pictures of the preparation and cooking at the next event I attend. He obviously takes great pride in his craft. I may not know much about Veggie U, but I know it’s affiliated with Lee Jones’ The Chef’s Garden and their reputation for produce is unparalleled. Virtually all of the very best restaurants in the country use some of his products. I’m a little more interested in the other chef participants merely because they’re affiliated with the Chef’s Garden.

I eat at a lot of restaurants that I trust to feed me food that’s healthy if eaten in moderation. When I eat at restaurants that I’m less familiar with, I’m willing to accept the fact that I’m almost certainly eating a certain amount of food that I would ideally avoid. I [...]]]>

Butter Mt. Rushmore

I eat at a lot of restaurants that I trust to feed me food that’s healthy if eaten in moderation. When I eat at restaurants that I’m less familiar with, I’m willing to accept the fact that I’m almost certainly eating a certain amount of food that I would ideally avoid. I eat indiscriminately when I  visit a  new restaurant. If I like something and expect to eat it regularly, I’ll try to find out whether it contains hydrogenated oils. If it does, I’ll stop eating it.

This is particularly difficult with bakeries. Almost all bakeries use liberal amounts of hydrogenated oils in their baked goods. It’s cheap, easy to source, increases shelf life and supposedly has a good “mouth feel.” I’d like to find some bakeries, particularly some donut shops, that cook without it.

I’d also love to see Ohio follow the example of New York City and ban the use of hydrogenated oils in restaurants. According to the FDA, the appropriate amount of artificial trans fats in a healthy diet is none. I shouldn’t have to ask every restaurant whether they use partially hydrogenated oils any more than I should have to ask them whether or not they use melamine.

I’ve started to pay more attention. What’s far more depressing than finding a bakery that uses hydrogenated oil, is finding a cook or an owner who looks at me like an alien when I ask. Of course, the worst is when someone quickly and confidently claims to use pure vegetable oil. Great. Is it partially hydrogenated vegetable oil? Good luck finding out.

Here follows a few scraps of info that I’ve collected. Despite the frustration, I hope to continue collecting and posting updates. Feel free to add any info you have or find. I can use all the help that I can get.

• Lax & Mandel uses hydrogenated oils in most of their products – everything that has any fat.
• Amy Joy doesn’t know what hydrogenated oil is. Doesn’t seem interested in finding out. Uses a commercial mix – too many different mixes to bother reading all the ingredients.
• Great Scott’s bakery used to have good donuts. When I went there recently,  I was told their supplier closed its nearby location so Great Scott’s no longer has donuts. Great Scott’s seems to use un-hydrogenated oils in most recipes that call for oil and butter in most places where you would expect butter. Their supplier was Spudnuts which still operates at least one location. The person who answered the phone didn’t know what hydrogenated oil was but someone else checked. They fry in hydrogenated oil.
• Dunkin Donuts’ recently got a lot of news coverage for reformulating their donuts to be “0 grams trans fat.” The ingredients still include a blend of oils with some partially hydrogenated but the amount of trans fats in the final product is lower than .5 grams and consequently, Dunkin can label their products “0 grams trans fat.”
• Becker’s donuts:”Yes, we use regular vegetable oil.” Where regular=hydrogenated.
• Apparently, the only donut in the area that can be trusted is from Lucy’s Sweet Surrender.
• Unger’s has been advertising that they’re now trans fat free. Are they trans fat free like Dunkin Donuts? Or have they completely done away with partially hydrogenated oils? Do they have donuts? Are they worth eating?

the highest form of art

butter sculpture

butter sculpture

butter sculpture

butter sculpture

During dinner at Taste, my waiter informed me that they’ll be debuting a new menu in a couple weeks. The new menu will be larger than the current menu. I’ve had some good food there so I’m looking forward to it.

Moxie’s menu seems to be in near constant flux [...]]]>

scallops at Taste. wonderful creamy leeks

During dinner at Taste, my waiter informed me that they’ll be debuting a new menu in a couple weeks. The new menu will be larger than the current menu. I’ve had some good food there so I’m looking forward to it.

Moxie’s menu seems to be in near constant flux but they recently debuted a larger than usual update. One of the most interesting additions to their menu is a lamb dish. The kitchen recently acquired an immersion circulator. The first dish to benefit from the sous vide treatment will be lamb. I’m very eager to try it.

Thomas Keller's "Under Pressure" is geared to cooking professionals but it looks like it would make a good coffee table book

TJ, Moxie’s Chef de Cuisine, tried to explain a little about how sous vide cooking is complicated by issues of food safety and food safety regulation. It all went a little to fast for me to catch it. There was mention of a 72 hour short rib. Needless to say, I want to eat that. I hope they’re planning to do it somewhere down the line.

Moxie is using a Polyscience immersion circulator. That’s probably the first choice for professional kitchens but home cooks on a budget have options, too.

I started eating hamburgers again this year. And pizza. And chicken, pancakes and falafel. I had given up hope of finding decent renditions of those items so long ago that I forgot I even liked some of them. Rediscovering them was just like that Claritin commercial. I can see clearly [...]]]> My Year

Awesome chicken from Sapore

I started eating hamburgers again this year. And pizza. And chicken, pancakes and falafel. I had given up hope of finding decent renditions of those items so long ago that I forgot I even liked some of them. Rediscovering them was just like that Claritin commercial. I can see clearly now. I’m glad I found a decent place for falafel and a couple places that make an acceptable piece of chicken.

I started this blog. The archives for this blog contain posts that date back as far as four years ago. At least. But I was originally motivated by a curiosity in blogging technology, never by the feeling that I had something to say.

New Around Cleveland

These are pictures from every set of Cleveland food that I’ve created over the past year. Some sets were created for old favorites for some organizational purpose I certainly forgot long ago. Other restaurants aren’t represented because for whatever reason, I neglected to create a new set for its pictures. All in all, this is a pretty good first approximation of all the new things that I found in Cleveland over approximately the last year. My descriptions on flickr are purposefully terse or cryptic. I added to these descriptions for this slide show so that they include my opinions of (soe of) the restaurants and not just the particular dish in the picture. You can see these comments by enlarging the slide show (click the icon with four arrows pointing to the corners of a rectangle).

Resolutions

Texas Monthly published their list of the 50 best BBQ joints in Texas and a trip to Texas instantly shot to the top of my travel short list.

I’ve also never been to Los Angeles or Vancouver. I’ve read that the Asian food on the East Coast and in Canada is a level above that which can be found in big East Coast cities. Supposedly, big East Coast cities have fine Thai restaurants but Los Angeles is full of Thai specialists – small restaurants that take a particular Thai dish and perfect it.

Around the country

Time Magazine published a review of what they saw in 2008. These are the things that I found most interesting:

7. Goat

8. The backlash against local foods

Really? I’ve been waiting for it. I eat local foods for my own reasons but two of the apparently most common reasons for locavorism just don’t make sense to me. One, that it’s sustainable. Second, that it’s good for the local economy.

I’ve been waiting for goat, too. I’ve had it a couple times at special events and it’s available in some Caribbean restaurants but that’s not really a trend.

(Throughout this post, my comments are flush left and quoted material is indented.)

Looking ahead

Epicurious’ ten predictions for 2009.

1.    “Value” is the new “Sustainable”

Luxe and L’Albatros immediately occurred to me. Also, I’ve been hearing a lot about happy hours at high end restaurants.

2.    The Compost Pile is the new Flower Garden

The Greenhouse Tavern was the first thing that I thought of. Lucky’s also grows a lot of their own products. The folks who left Lure to open their “ultra high end” restaurant in Geneva will be growing much of their own food, too.

3.    Peruvian is the new Thai

Yes, please.

Lomo saltado: very tasty. Juicy strips of beef, seasoned well. The fries were the best part of the dish, maybe because they soaked up all the greasy flavor :) (photo and caption by dongkwan)

4.    Noodle Bars are the new Sushi Joints

Yes. Seriously, who do I have to kill?

These lists are something of a reality check for those of us who get a little carried away touting the wonders of the local food scene. While Epicurious is telling use all to get ready for Peruvian food and noodles bars, I’m still waiting for my goat.

8.   Portland (Maine) is the new Portland (Oregon)

I’m still working on Portland (Oregon).

How did the prognosticators fare last year?

Epicurious’s 2008 Food Predictions, Revisited – Eat me daily

2. Niche dining: Very specific focus food outlets such as ceviche bars, chocolate lounges, and kebab counters.

In all fairness, Epicurious seems to be predicing “Food Trends in New York and San Francisco” more so than “Food Trends in the United States.”

5. Head to tail dining: Yes, innards are on the menu.

All the same, I’d like to see more of this.

10. Small is big: The small plate phenom continues.

Lolita and Muse have moved away from their small plates, right? Wonder Bar isn’t doing small plates or even serious food at all, right? Bodega opened. Light Bistro is still doing small plates.

Driving from Strongsville to Lakewood for that burger, I happened to catch a glimpse of an intriguing sign: “Juba Somali Cuisine.” Or something like that. I was lucky to see anything at all passing so quickly in the dark. So, Cleveland has a Somali restaurant? There [...]]]>

Amen! I've been delinquent in my encased meat exploration.

Driving from Strongsville to Lakewood for that burger, I happened to catch a glimpse of an intriguing sign: “Juba Somali Cuisine.” Or something like that. I was lucky to see anything at all passing so quickly in the dark. So, Cleveland has a Somali restaurant? There was an article in the PeeDee about a recent policy change at the airport and how many felt that it discriminated against independent, frequently Somali cabbies. (Cleveland.com is worthless, as usual, so the article is no longer available but you can get the gist of the issue from this blog post.) My immediate concern was that this would hamper Cleveland’s chances of supporting a Somali restaurant. I’m delighted to report that Cleveland’s political establishment can’t keep a good cuisine down. Actually, I know almost nothing about Somali cuisine. Columbus has one of the country’s largest Somali (the largest?) populations and supports at least two Somali restaurants – Darbo and Marka Bistro. One interesting feature is that Somali food is influenced by Italian cuisine.

I keep track of many of these restaurants at tagzania. When tagzania finally gives up the fight against Google Maps and I loose all this data, I will cry. This blog is years behind my tagzania database so there are hundreds more restaurants there than I’ve talked about here. Hopefully, I’ll mine the list for future blog posts. And hopefully I can get some help scouting them. Even though I eat out almost every day and try to go to a new place a couple times a month, I’ve still only eaten at a small fraction of these restaurants. In the mean time, I’ll just note a couple more restaurants that I stumbled across en route to somewhere else. Angie’s Soul Cafe (name? again, driving…) is “now open” at around 79th and Carnegie.  Seti’s Sausage operates from a van in Dean Supply’s parking lot. Finally, I had to google for a while to reconstruct the details of Quisqueya La Bella.

I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about eating at random restaurants that I pass by. Normally, I get my restaurant leads from Cleveland Magazine, Northern Ohio Live, Scene Magazine, The Plain Dealer, etc. . . Obviously, this way you miss out on most of the little hole in the wall Guatemalan/Somali/Caribbean restaurants. But you also avoid all the bars frying up frozen jalapeño poppers, mozz sticks and stuffed potatoes. These three restaurants are perfect examples. Encased meats?  Clark Avenue? The papers may occasionally delve into these subjects but generally the vast majority of these restaurants languish in obscurity. Unfortunately, many of them deserve it. I’m still working on finding a balance that works for me.

When an entirely unrepresented cuisine pops up I’m not going to let my trepidation deter me. I’ll definitely find my way to Juba Somali Cuisine some time in the next couple weeks.

Stuart’s Fundamental Theorem of Ethnic Food Evolution
Obscure “ethnic” cuisine is delicious. Then we find it and bland it all up. See Chinese, Thai, etc. . .

First of all, good for them! They deserve it. In honor of this momentous milestone they’re going to award a prize to the customer who orders the 50,000th burger. I don’t know what the prize is.

They opened on March 13,  2008. They announced that the 40,000th burger was sold [...]]]>

billions and billions served (by phogel)

First of all, good for them! They deserve it. In honor of this momentous milestone they’re going to award a prize to the customer who orders the 50,000th burger. I don’t know what the prize is.

They opened on March 13,  2008. They announced that the 40,000th burger was sold on November 7, 2008. That’s 240 days and about 167 burgers a day. At that pace, they’ll sell another 10,000 burgers in 60 days. If you assume that they’re closed three days for various holidays, I guess that the 50,000th burger will be ordered on January 8, 2009. I wasn’t really careful with the arithmetic so I’d be happy to have someone check it.

Of course, this aproach is hopelessly naive. I’m sure that there are seasonal variations and I assume tht the burger orders are higher now than closer to the opening. Hopefully, they’ll make some interim announcements to give us a little extra guidance.

Also, 167 burgers a day? I never would have guessed that. Very impressive. As I said, they deserve it. I haven’t gotten around to eating their burger but I think I’ll get it on my next visit which I’m sure will be much sooner then January 8th.

I sometimes find myself interested in checking out a performance but it’s been years since I actually did it.  I’m never familiar with the music – even the stuff that everyone is supposed to know – and [...]]]> Last weekend, the Cleveland Orchestra performed Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. Here’s the first movement (free, legal and complete):

I sometimes find myself interested in checking out a performance but it’s been years since I actually did it.  I’m never familiar with the music – even the stuff that everyone is supposed to know – and I’m intimidated by choosing between dozens of options which consequently seem indistinguishable. I listen to classical music. Like other genres of music, I find much of it unremarkable and some of it inspiring. But I’m a casual fan and I don’t make a point of tracking down titles and composers and remembering it all. Attending a concert would focus my attention on individual works. I’d anticipate the performance. I’d read (skim) the program notes. And I’d hear the music as it was intended, not with my $4 Boze earphones. Attending a concert would educate me and help me appreciate future concerts but I need help with the first steps.

There’s been a lot of ink spilled about the classical music community’s need to reach beyond their traditional audience. Cleveland is far from immune from these pressures. The orchestra should do all that it can to make selecting a concert as easy as possible and the biggest thing they could do would be to embed real, representative samples of the music. I have no way of knowing but I suspect that a lot of people have the same feelings as I do. So, this is an easily implemented suggestion that could have a big impact.

This post is a quick demonstration. It took enough work that I won’t be doing it often but it would still be measured in minutes. Just like when I cobbled together a post about the Kent State Folk Festival, I grabbed the first result of a search for “mass in c minor.” In the same time that this took me, someone familiar with the music could choose a section that would give the best idea of what to expect at the concert. It’s a natural evolution of program notes to the internet. The richness of the web is a huge advance over traditional program notes. One could add recordings of similar works to help illustrate musical concepts… previous works to trace musical influences… subsequent works for the same reason. There must be countless further ideas that didn’t occur to me in a few seconds of brainstorming.

Incidentally, the orchestra posts their program notes online. I was pleasantly surprised by that but disappointed that they’re presented as pdf’s. Send .pdf’s to your printer. The web uses HTML. The last time that I checked, people hated .pdf’s. Has that changed? They still annoy me. It took me a minute to repost a couple pages as a scribd widget. (Press the button at the right of the bar at the top to enlarge the document to a readable size.) It’s better but I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be HTML to begin with.

Mozart Mass Inc Minor

There are also signs [...]]]> Doug Katz is planning to open a “lounge” in the space next to fire food and drink. The space was previously Shaker Beverage, right? It will have a menu of small plates which will change frequently. It’s always great to have another restaurant that makes the effort to keep their menu fresh.

There are also signs in the window of another Shaker Square space announcing the imminent debut of Darna Fine Moroccan Cuisine. Are there any Moroccan restaurants in Cleveland? I don’t think there are any fine Moroccan restaurants so I’m looking forward to this one, too.

Finally, there are also signs of life for a new wine bar. Grotto is a project of the owners of Lago and Gusto.

According to Shaker Square Connection, you can expect Darna to open in about a month and Grotto to open some time this year. It sounds like Water should be open some time in Spring ’09.

[geo_mashup_map height="200" width="400" zoom="11" add_overview_control="false" add_map_type_control="false"]

This post was an excuse to test out a new feature of Outside.in. I’ve been meaning to explore Outside.in but I never seem to get around to it. It seems like a good way to find local news and blog items that I would otherwise have missed. I’m waiting to see how long it takes for them to process my post. Once it’s processed, it will appear in the map widget they provide for blogs. I’ve added GeoRSS tags to this post. The map you see above is a feature of an unrelated WordPress extension.