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April Highlights

April 30th, 2009    •  by Bethia    •   6 Comments »

img_2709What a month….

More visits to the Mi Li Cafe and I have almost worked my way through the menu. On our last visit the owner told us ‘you are so brave, you will eat anything’. This was after a bowl of Bo Kho, a delicious beef stew with brisket and beef tendon and a glass of Che Ba Mau, a three bean drink (more of a dessert really) with three layers of different beans (mung beans, adzuki beans and I’m not sure of the third) with shaved ice and coconut milk. Bizarre, very sweet and defies all your bean expectations. No photo – it has to be seen to be believed. Despite my love of the frozen taro bubble tea, I promised on my next visit to try another Vietnamese drink speciality Sam bo Luong made from seaweed, lotus and barley.  Apparently it is also really sweet. hmmm. I am skeptical (especially because in her description lotus sounded like locusts) but I now have a reputation to maintain!

The Details Experience and several other trips to Details to eat fish tacos, sip cava and mourn the departure of Chef Drew and his smoked pastrami and maple syrup. foie_gras1

Earth Day, celebrated in my usual style with a free veggie burger at the Northstar Cafe and as if that wasn’t enough, we got free coffee at Kick Start too. We thought that they had all of the lights off because of Earth Day, but it turned out that the West Side of High St in the Short North had a power outage. 

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Some new discoveries at Jeni’s – the manhattan float with bourbon soaked cherries and Boylan’s cherry soda and the cocoa rococo sundae. Look at all those nuts! I can’t wait for their Mother’s Day special flavors (although I think they may only be available online). Cafe au lait and mimosa sorbet sound amazing. 

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Morels from the Greener Grocer sautéed in butter. I believe these ones were from Oregon, but they have had local ones too. Definitely a splurge item – unless you are lucky enough to pick some yourself. img_2722

Ohio versus the World wine tasting for Columbus Foodcast at Oinosnervosa’s comparing some of the best of Ohio wines with similarly priced wines from around the world. I discovered some more Ohio wines that I like. I was already a fan of Kinkead Ridge but I particularly enjoyed their (other label) River Village Cellars Syrah Ohio River Valley 2006 and Ferrante Golden Bunches 2007 is a very good local Riesling. It was a fun and educational evening and there some excellent cheeses to boot.

The much awaited return of Bono TO GO, currently serving Pizza from their mobile wood fired oven in the parking lot outside their new premises in Grandview. They hope to be open sometime in June serving pizzas, crepes and caesar salad – watch this space.  

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The famous San Rolando. Pizza Perfection.

The Taco Truck Tour. It was a fantastic day and we had a great turnout. It was really exciting to share our enthusiasm for taco trucks and see how much others enjoyed their food. I am already looking forward to the next tour. There will soon be a Columbus Foodcast about tacotruckscolumbus.com.

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Taco trucking. We still continue to check out leads on new trucks (our most recent discovery was Mi Chula) and revisit old favorites. One of our favorites is Los Potosinos and I love the family that owns it as well as their food. It is evident how much they enjoy what they do and how proud of their product they are. Every time we go there seems to be some delicious new dish or drink – last night hibiscus water and sopes. Lydia assures me that drinking the hibiscus water will make me skinny, which is much needed after all those tacos. They have a lot of dishes that are not on standard taco truck menus including their famous Pollo al Carbon and tostada borraches.  Their coconut ice cream is perfect for a hot afternoon and was a favorite on the taco tour. 

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Hibiscus water and dried hibiscus

Hibiscus water and dried hibiscus

We have had several fun evenings sitting eating and chatting in front of Los Potosinos. Here CMH Gourmand attempts the Mexican equivalent of the Dagwood – the torta loca especial. Inconceivably, CMH Gourmand was again defeated by a sandwich. Even with help from the Foodcast crew he only managed half. It truly is a Mexican monster.

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Home smoked salmon thanks to Donna who caught it, brought it back from Alaska and generously shared it with us and BB who smoked it and paired with a beautiful cocktail of dill infused vodka with a dash of tomato oil.

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One of BB’s experiments this month wasa bacon explosion. This became a group project with no shortage of volunteers and skills on offer and plenty of bystanders to drool and crack jokes. Whether you think the idea is genius or crackpot you can read more it here

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One of our taco tripping discoveries was the bakery Otro Rollo on Sullivant Avenue (close to the Taqueria Little Mexico). Our favorite items so far have been the elusive caramel filled churros (we have been back twice for more to no avail – only one of their staff makes it and it seems to be a lottery when) and vanilla cream filled donuts with chocolate sauce. Unbelievably good.

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6 Comments to “April Highlights”

  1. Christine D.
    April 30, 2009

    Delurking here to encourage you to try sam bo luong! Yep, it’s super sweet. I can only drink a few sips of it and I don’t like to eat the stuff in the drink…but it’s nice.

  2. “CMH Gourmand was again defeated by a sandwich”

    Again? In the words of HW, Hmmphh! I ate 1/2 of the sandwich on my own with no assistance. It did defeat me – but it is the only sandwich to defeat me. Do you think I am Roland? In my defense I had a late lunch at Creole Kitchen that day and was still full when I ordered the Torta Loca.

    “again defeated”….Hmmmphh x2

  3. You can find those elusive caramel filled churros at La Plaza Tapatia supermarket (in Westland next the Firestone tire store) – we’re absolutely addicted to them. As a matter of fact, I just picked up a dozen to go with homemade taqueria-style tacos for dinner. So I know for a fact they have them today (since I left a few dozen behind, LOL).

    Tell me more about this torta. We’ve had the chicken milanesa torta at Los Potosinos, but not familiar with this behemoth of which you speak. You’ve got my attention. 😉

    • hungrywoolf
      May 1, 2009

      This is the official description:
      Torta Loca Especial
      Beef, chicken and ham on a large bun served with yellow cheese, beans, lettuce, sour cream, tomato, and avocado.

      but that doesn’t really do it justice…. and there were certainly hot dogs in there as well!

  4. Love your blog! I just discovered it while searching for pictures of Bono’s pizzas. Am hoping you don’t mind if I borrow one for a blog post I just wrote. Will link back to you (of course). I am trying to help publicize that Bono TOGO has reopened in the Short North for one month only. If you prefer I not use the photo please let me know and I’ll remove it immediately.

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