This week marked hungrywoolf’s second anniversary and as with the first anniversary, it seems an appropriate point for some reflection and thank yous. The most common reaction of people that I mentioned this milestone to was ‘really, it’s only been two years?’ and while it does seem like a lot has happened in the last two years, I did check to make sure.
The continued popularity of Taco Trucks Columbus has been a source of great pleasure. I never tire of seeing people’s reactions when they taste their first gringa, and I love that we encourage people,who otherwise would not, to try the taco trucks. I also still love finding new trucks, like Las Catrachas. As well as being successful in its own right, taco trucks columbus also spawned our new blogs alt.eats.columbus and (soon to be launched) streeteatscolumbus as well as being a huge spur to our new business – Columbus Food Adventures, which launched this month.
Alt.eats.Columbus, sprung both from our taco truck research and our desire to share great food experiences. Just as we had brought some attention to Mexican street food, we wanted to encourage people to try some of the other lesser-known ethnic cuisines and to support some of the small businesses that are turning out amazing food in the strip malls of Columbus. During the course of our alt.eats research I developed a deep affection for ethnic grocery stores with kitchens hidden behind their aisles of exotic goodies. Luc’s, Arirang, Mecca, Apna, Michoacana (Sawmill), Salam – it was amazing how many of these gems we found.
I have been thrilled with the new wave of street food in Columbus, in particular I have a soft spot Foodie Cart with their innovative Japanese Crepes and I want to commend the ECDI for their help getting many of these businesses started. With the growth in both the number and variety of street food, we felt that these mobile vendors deserved their own reference site and so we are working to put StreetEatsColumbus together.
Freed from my job I finally found time to explore more of Ohio over the last year and we have made a couple of trips each to Cleveland and Cincinnati as well as a winery tour of the Ohio River Valley and some other day trips (many involving food). I also took my first trip to Chicago, mainly for research on food tours.
This year has included many wonderful food events (some as guest and some as volunteer) and highlights of the year include our Slow Food open air dinners (Otter Creek and Girasole), Bacon camp and Asparafest at Wildgoose, Field to Table at Franklin Park, Off-the-Menu at Nida’s, the North Market Apron Gala, market to market rides, The Hill’s Market’s oscar dinner, the Veggie U fundraiser, many cooking classes at the North Market and the Night of 100o tacos.
Over the winter I was involved in several fun/interesting/crazy cooking projects including pig’s head torchons, octopus confit and making my own haggis. My favorite recipes over the last year have been: apricot and almond tart, spring quiche, David Chang’s fantastic salad, lavosh crackers, kiwi and elderflower pavlova and corn chowder.
Thank yous go to many friends (and my family) who have been willing accomplices over the last year. I am grateful to everyone who has come on trips and tours, participated in cooking experiments, offered encouragement, provided (often) crazy ideas, eaten beyond comfort, tried weird and wonderful foods, proof read, taste tested, organized amazing events and many other kindnesses. Thank you also to everyone who has read or commented on hungrywoolf, taco trucks columbus and alt.eats, linked, liked or followed me.
