Author Archives: tacodrew

No Reservations About Knocking No Reservations

Posted on July 13, 2010 | 22 comments

(reposted from here)

It was no secret, among many around town, that Anthony Bourdain came to Columbus last November, and it was no secret that he brought his camera crew with him.  Thanks to the efforts of a several local foodies with connections, Bourdain and crew were directed towards Kihachi and Clever Crow pizza.  From November on, we waited in anticipation for the airing of the show, which was finally aired last night.

The results?  The bit on Kihachi showed their chef, Michael Kimura, for the exceptional talent he is, and relayed the impression of two seasoned TV food personalities (Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman) made very happy by his creations. The ingenuity and passion of the man behind Clever Crow was communicated, for us, with great resonance.  Each segment was a suitable tribute to each restaurant, and each will provide them with well-deserved attention.

With that said, in total, the segment on Columbus was not a credit to Bourdain’s franchise… and it was constructed so as to emphatically not be a credit to Columbus.

Why? The narrative was essentially as follows: Columbus is a wasteland of strip malls and chain restaurants (they showed plenty of footage of both). Isn’t it amazing – just entirely beyond the odds! – that there are a couple of guys fighting the good fight in such a godforsaken place!

It goes without saying, among those who actually have experienced the full Columbus food scene, that such a narrative is lazy, sloppy, and untrue.  And it is a shame that people such as Bourdain and Ruhlman, who are ostensibly committed to recognizing the excellence of places like Rigsby’s, Alana’s, and Dragonfly, are so casual about slandering them with such broad brush foolishness.

There are a few obvious reasons for this.  First, the nature of the show.  Did you see Bourdain anywhere in the Clever Crow bit? You did not.  Only his camera crew visited them, and he simply did a voice over based upon someone else’s observations.  The man was only in Columbus for an evening.  He knew nothing about us when he came here, and he knew little more than that upon leaving.

Such is the nature of show business… frustrating, but understandable, and I can forgive Bourdain for it.  He has a lot going on.

Much less forgivable was the appearance of No Reservations consultant and Cleveland native, Michael Ruhlman (shown dining with Bourdain in the Kihachi segment).  Bourdain, quite reasonably, relied on Ruhlman to provide background on our city.  And Ruhlman simply parroted every inane negative stereotype ever spoken of the city, on air, with remarkable economy.  ‘Strip malls’, ‘chain restaurants’, on and on…

What follows is pure comedy gold:

Twitter, being twitter, was atwitter with reactions to the show last night.  Ruhlman is also on twitter, and quite deservedly was on the receiving end of a lot of criticism.  This morning, he responded:

“@michaelcoyote et al, YIKES, I think I’ll have to watch the show! I don’t know Columbus well enough to have an actual opinion about it!”

Well, Mr. Ruhlman, it’s a shame that not having ‘an actual opinion’ didn’t stop you from expressing one.

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Columbus Food Adventures – Food Tours in Columbus, Ohio

Posted on July 8, 2010 | 7 comments

I’m proud to introduce my latest endeavour: Columbus Food Adventures, a company specializing in food tours that highlight the best of the Columbus food scene.

I’m especially excited to make this announcement here since, in part, our experiences with alt.eats have led me to this point and given me the motivation to take on such a project.

Case in point: a few months ago, CMH Magazine asked the alt.eats team if we might be interested in working with them on an article based upon some aspect of this blog. Since there were so many alt.eats picks on Cleveland Ave., we suggested basing the article upon the theme of all of the great ethnic restaurants that nobody had heard about on that strip.

They bit.  Before we knew it, we were escorting a CMH writer and a couple of photographers from restaurant to restaurant.  With each stop, their excitement seemed to grow.  Comments like, “I haven’t had good Vietnamese like this since I left the East Coast”, and, “I had no idea a dish like this existed, but I really like it”, brought us great pleasure – these are the types of sentiments that both led us to start the blog and continue to give us the energy to keep it going.

The writer (and all around great guy) – Bob Paschen – was clearly captivated by the stories he encountered along the way.  He interviewed a Persian restauranteur for perhaps half an hour, then walked up to me and said, “This guy’s story is amazing!  Did you know he was previously a dentist in Romania?!”

Great food experiences, great stories… I couldn’t ignore the obvious: Columbus needs a food tour business, and we felt ourselves to be both uniquely positioned and uniquely enthusiastic about doing it.

Taking on such a project seemed like a crazy idea, but research suggested otherwise.  Culinary tourism is a growing trend, and food tour companies thrive in cities as small as Milwaukee and Raleigh-Durham.  We signed on for a couple of food tours offered in Chicago, and our takeaway was clear – we could do that.  Hopefully, we can do it better.

I’m exceptionally proud of Columbus’s food community, and have put a lot of effort into exploring it and chronicling it here, at tacotruckscolumbus, and at hungrywoolf.  We’ve long believed that Columbus’s food scene is a story worth telling and tasting, and I’m excited to have a new platform for doing so.

If you’d like to take a look at our tours (taco trucks, alt.eats, and more), please see Columbus Food Adventure’s new website – columbusfoodadventures.com

Thanks,

Bethia Woolf (aka Hungrywoolf)
Owner and Operator, Columbus Food Adventures

P.S.: We are still entirely committed to maintaining alt.eats and all of our other blogs.  Every day, someone somewhere in town is working towards their dream of owning and operating a new restaurant.  We’ll still be on the lookout for ‘grand opening’ signs wherever they may pop up, and we’ll still be around to tell you about ’em.

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Creole Kitchen

Posted on June 29, 2010 | 12 comments

Cuisine: Creole
1052 Mount Vernon Avenue
Open: 7am-7pm, Mon.-Sat.
(614) 372-3333
creolekitchen.biz

Click here to map it!

You can’t talk about Creole Kitchen (hereafter ‘CK’) without talking about Chef Henry Butcher.  Unfortunately, of late, it has become increasingly hard to talk to him.

I’ll cop to it right off the bat – I’ve long been a fan of CK. For the past 4 years, I’ve kinda thought of it as my own little secret – easy in, catch a quick and often hilarious chat with the Chef, easy out with a great meal.  But as time has gone by, this has become the routine for an increasingly larger number of people as CK has become the go-to spot for many in the King Lincoln District.

As a result, chat time with Chef has turned into this:

The man’s so busy he’s a blur.  It’s a shame, perhaps, that it’s much tougher engage in the always interesting conversations with him, but it goes without saying that he’s there to do his job and the seemingly constant open-to-close business he’s pulling is very well earned.

A quick outline sketch of the business can be found in the name: CK serves creole (and/or cajun – many think they know the difference, but few seem to agree on what it actually is…), and the physical space really isn’t much more than a kitchen, most of which is visible from the order/waiting area.  There’s no seating, so take-out’s the name of the game.

Here’s what we’ve taken out recently, starting with breakfast:

Moving clockwise from top left, we started with the beignets, a doughnut-like fried pastry sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Every bit as delicious as they sound, these are an absolute steal at 4 for a buck.

Next, the creole omelette, another tasty creation filled with andouille sausage, tasso ham, onion, tomato, and cheese.  If you’re starting to pick up on a ‘death-by-cholesterol’ vibe,  reading on probably won’t disabuse you of that notion.

Creole eggs benedict on a biscuit could have something to do with that – two eggs on a biscuit slathered with rich bearnaise sauce, served with your choice of home fries or grits.

Finally, the eggs Basin St., a bed of red beans topped with rice, two eggs, bearnaise, and a generous helping of andouille sausage.  Like the rest of the full breakfasts we tried, this was sinfully rich and delicious, practically enough for 2 people to share, and priced out at a very wallet-friendly $5.

At around 10:30, CK’s focus shifts to their lunch/dinner menu:

Moving clockwise from top-left in the above photo, we start with the crawfish etouffee.  Etouffee, roughly translated from French, means ‘smothered’, and at CK we find their excellent traditional dark roux committing this felony.  Plump little crawfish tails play the part of victim, and with one taste  you know that this was a crime of (the Chef’s) passion.  Your choice of two sides stand in as spectators… yeah, they know what happened, but when asked, well, they didn’t see nothin’.

Next, we have the creole fettuccine – fettuccine pasta noodles with tasso ham and andouille bathed in an almost comically rich cream and butter sauce.  As delicious as anything so decadent damn well ought to be, this dish also packs a serious spicy heat punch.  CK will adjust heat to taste, and if you don’t, say, routinely eat raw habaneros just for kicks I’d recommend exercising the option.

Moving on, we next tried the chicken andouille jambalaya, which was probably the most divisive dish we tried – to the tune of a 4 for/3 against split at the table.  Part of this may be attributable to spice fatigue, as, not unlike the last dish, this was hot. Personally, this dish was the least exciting for me of the evening, which – to CK’s credit – is to say still quite good.

Finally, there was no way we were going to miss the fried gator.  Exotic though it may sound, I’ve come to characterize it as nothing more challenging than the other other white meat – similar to well-cooked pork in texture, the flavor is largely that of the deep fried cornmeal crust.  Nice enough, but somehow almost a letdown… until you dip it in the truly wonderful included sauce. Chef wasn’t eager to give up the whole game on the sauce, but he did let slip that it’s ingredients included orange juice and mustard.  It was definitely a crowd pleaser.

——

In exchange for our gluttony, we experienced eight different flavors of satisfaction and found ample excuse to reacquaint ourselves with the Pepto. Carnivores should check Creole Kitchen out post haste, pescetarians should find plenty of contentment, and vegetarians might find their selection limited to sides… though even that might well be worthwhile.

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The Food Corner

Posted on May 21, 2010 | 20 comments

Cuisine: Indian (and Mexican and Greek and American and…)
60 N. Wilson Rd.

614.208.3600

Click here to map it!

Note: As of 10/9/2010, The Food Corner is closed.

Anyone remember the Kentucky Taco Hut that used to be in the OSU campus area?

I think we found its indie cousin.  Much as you could leave KTH with a bucket of original crispy, a meat lovers pie, and a burrito supreme or two, at The Food Corner you can take your pick from a menu with such divergent items as quesadillas, fried bologna sandwiches, gyros and tandoori chicken.

We’d driven by The Food Corner on numerous occasions, and while we’ve gotten a chuckle out of the ‘American – Mexican – Kabobs & Curry’ sign, we can’t say it inspired us to try them.  It took an Indian gentleman’s suggestion (we bumped into him during a fruitless attempt at finding a rumored Filipino grocery on the west side) to nudge us into entering.

It’s clear this used to be a fast food restaurant – perhaps a Wendy’s?  At any rate, for such a conversion, it’s unusually clean and well sorted out, if maybe just a bit lacking in the charm department.  The process seems to be that you order at the counter, sit (your meal will be brought to you) and then return to the counter to pay.

 

Click to enlarge

 

The menu (above) that shows the aforementioned motley mix o food is surprisingly extensive and almost comically wide-ranging, but it really just scratches the surface.  There is also an entirely separate full Indian menu – with, I kid you not, 102 additional items – as well as an Indian lunch buffet.  I don’t think we’ve ever seen a more ambitious range of items on offer anywhere.

Since the owners appeared to be of Indian origin and the recommendation came from an Indian man, we stuck to the Indian menu.

First up was the vegetable samosa, served chaat style – with chickpeas and a variety of sauces.  There were a lot of flavors playing well together in this dish, but the samosa itself struck us as being a bit on the chewy side.

Next came the ‘bread basket’ – a mix of naan, garlic naan, and aloo naan. All of these were enjoyable – particularly the aloo naan with its potato and onion filling – but they’re not quite up to the heavenly deliciousness of Mecca’s wonderful bread offering.

We have no idea what came out next.  We ordered an item off of a photo on the wall that is not on the take home menu we intended to rely on… and what came out most assuredly was not that item anyhow.  It was a chicken dish in a brown sauce, and was surprisingly bland by the standards of Indian cuisine.  The chicken was on the dry side.

Last, but not least, was the mattar paneer… which, mercifully, was both as-ordered and on the menu.  The paneer – a light, rennet-free cheese – was as good as any I’ve ever had, and the sauce that came with it was enjoyable if curiously subdued.  This is but one of twenty vegetarian options available on the Indian menu.

The buffet (which went untried on this visit) seemed a good value at $6.99.

The Food Corner’s service was solid, and the owners were thoroughly kind and helpful.  Our recap of our experience isn’t entirely glowing, but it’s hard to suggest that that should mean anything when there was (due to the size of the menu) so much left untried. To that end, if any of our readers do try (or have tried) the place, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

20 Comments

Posted in Indian, Middle Eastern, Restaurant, Uncategorized

Luc’s Asian Market

Posted on May 17, 2010 | 19 comments

3275 Sullivant Ave
614.274.6757
Kitchen hours – Sat-Sun 9am – 7pm
Market hours – 9am – 8pm every day

Click here to map it!

As we walked into Luc’s, I was immediately enchanted by a melange of aromas from the herbs, spices, vegetables, and incense – one deep breath, and I’m flooded with memories of my time in Southeast Asia.

This certainly isn’t coincidental – the owners of Luc’s are Cambodian/Vietnamese, and most of the staff is also Cambodian, Lao, or Vietnamese.  These origins are largely shared by their customer base as well – that’s where I discovered how I can easily get the Vietnam online visa. Why not! And, far beyond just the aromas, Luc’s is probably as close as a Columbusite can get to being in Southeast Asia without traveling.

In support of my thesis, I submit this bit of pure awesomeness:

I ordered a glass of sugar cane juice, and, next thing I know, they’re peeling sugar cane stalks by hand to prepare them for juicing (am literally checking juicer reviews now to get that at home).  While this is flat out unheard of here, it’s an omnipresent part of the street scene in just about any city from Bangkok to Hanoi.

But I’m getting ahead of myself – a quick overview is in order.  Luc’s is first and foremost a grocer, carrying a wide variety of ingredients for the cuisines of the aforementioned locales.  They also function as a quick-bite carryout, providing pre-made banh mi sandwiches, small prepared meals, desserts, house made beverages, and more.  Their most recent addition is the opening of their kitchen, which now allows them to provide a range of maybe 30 dishes cooked to order.

Accomodations, should you choose to eat in, are meager – they have perhaps 8 seats in total, and upon taking one you’ll definitely feel a part of the market scene going on around you.  The cooks, which can be seen through a window (or by peeking around the wall that divides the kitchen from the market) are also there to take your order.

Our bun thit nuong & cha gio (grilled pork & eggroll w/vermicelli)  and chicken laab arrived in short order.


As some of our readers may have observed, bun thit nuong (the name changes slightly from place to place, but it is the same dish) is a staple for us – anytime we’re anywhere that serves Vietnamese, this is a must-order item.  And, perhaps never more so than here.  Luc’s interpretation is a wild ride – the pork and the egg rolls are intensely flavored, with deep lemongrass notes, and intensely satisfying.  We suspect that the intriguingly novel pungency may reflect the multicultural makeup of the staff… to which we say, ‘three cheers for diversity!’.

The chicken laab was similarly satisfying. This is not a subtle dish – the lime and fish sauce assert themselves in no uncertain terms – but is nonetheless a faithful and enjoyable interpretation of a Thai/Lao classic.  We ordered it prepared to a mild ‘heat’ level, but the cook made it clear she’d be happy to bring the pain if so desired.

It was about at this point that the head cook (who is also co-owner) started to take interest in the oddball white folks happily slurping up her noodles and clumsily chopsticking her laab.  “Ever had chicken feet?”, she queried.

“Does it matter?  Bring it!”, we thought.  “We’d like to try it”, we said.

The feet were prepared in a black bean sauce redolent of Chinese five spice, and were about as tender as any we’ve ever had. The texture is of a gummy-meets-gelatinous, ‘you either love it or hate it’ nature, but I couldn’t imagine anyone arguing with the flavor.

As we nibbled flesh off of tarsals, another dish appeared.  “These aren’t on the menu”, she said, and explained that they were Vietnamese crepes rolled with a pork and mushroom filling.  I’ll save you the details… it’d be unfair… but suffice it to say that it’s a damned shame you’ll be unlikely to try them yourselves.

You can, however, sample from their range of unusual and eye-catching Vietnamese beverages.  Check out this basil seed drink:

It looks something like frogspawn and it has the slimy texture that its appearance suggests, but served with ice it is very refreshing. Banana syrup is commonly added to the drink which gives it a somewhat artificial flavor, but apparently it is quite bland without it.

With all of the above said, we still feel as though we’ve barely scratched the surface in describing all that Luc’s has to offer.  From fantastic fresh Asian greens to the largest variety of rice I’ve ever seen to an impressive array of fresh exotic fruits, fascinating offerings abound.

We’ll make it back to Luc’s soon.  Hope to see you there.

Note: Vegetarians will find plenty of satisfaction in the grocery offering, but the meals definitely skew towards carnivore territory.

Edit:

We’ve already made a couple of returned trips to Luc’s unable to resist what we think is some of the best Vietnamese food in Columbus. The spicy beef salad really packs a flavor punch with fermented black beans giving another dimension to the spiciness.

The pho (not pictured) had some of the most tender tendon I have ever eaten and the broth was sweet and fragrant with five spice.

The highlight was the grilled pork chop with lemongrass – essentially the same meat that appears in sandwiches and noodle dish. The pork chop with rice is actually two tender juicy pork chops served on a huge pile of rice with an optional dipping sauce.

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Posted in Asian, Bakery, Grocery store, Laotian, Restaurant, Vietnamese

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