There are a few joints back home that I have to visit at every opportunity, especially now that I live halfway across the country. One of those places is 54th Street Bar and Grill, a location that is definitely not on a 54th street. It’s booths are filled with mostly pleasant memories, and I have personally drained many a glass while sitting in those booths. Although the circumstances that last got me home were not the best, I took comfort in familiar food. The place itself looks exactly like what you would expect of a place with ‘bar and grill’ in the name. It’s every wall is lined with booths, and the bar itself is almost directly in the center of the dining area. We had a seat in a booth at the far side of the building. It turned out to be a pretty quiet location to enjoy a late lunch. This is probably one of the first times I was in the building for a lunch. The crowd was much more laid back than the people who show up for dinner!
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Last weekend, I returned home to Illinois for the funeral of my husband’s grandfather. He was a good man, the sort of person we can only aspire to be like as we go through life. Many times, he showed us such love and compassion that I never felt any different from the rest of his grandchildren. He and his wife would go out of their way to make bacon of all things when we were with them for breakfast despite the fact that they themselves were vegetarians. He’ll be deeply missed.
Our trip went smoothly, but in the midst of grief, there were many bright spots. Some of those bright spots began in the forms of meals, snacks, and desserts gifted to the family by friends of my mother-in-law. It was in the moment that we sat down together as a family over a beautifully prepared lasagna that I realized just what a meal is really capable of. Consider the last time someone cooked for you. Was it Thanksgiving? A date? Going out to eat? Two of the three are expressions of care. Hosting Thanksgiving is a generous undertaking. Cooking for a date adds a personal touch to the evening. Going out to eat removes such a touch. Delivering a meal that can easily be warmed up and lose none of it’s integrity in the process to a grieving family is a level of love and care which involves such consideration. That lasagna arrived in the house a day before I did. We ate it the day after we arrived, and yet it was as pleasurable and pleasant a thing as any fresh slice of lasagna I’ve eaten at any Italian restaurant. There’s something about that. How do you pull that off in an item that’s potentially going to sit for a few days? It was a comfort for all of us, and it’s a lesson that I will take with me for the rest of my life. Food is the highest form of love. It nourishes and it comforts. You can do so much for someone in a single plate of food. The worry over what to eat goes away. There is just the moment over the meal, and for a little while, it is easy to forget about whatever troubles might have brought you to the table in the first place. Food is love in its most obvious form. December 1st was a busy day. PAX Unplugged was in full swing at the Philadelphia Convention Center, and we were hungry. Lucky for the con-goers, Philly’s Chinatown was just a few blocks away for us all to explore. My little group was just one of many following the tide into Yamitsuki Ramen, appropriately decorated with a Naruto mural and serving the checks to customers in Death Note mangas.
Given the event going on just down the street, we had a long wait. It took us about thirty minutes to get a table. Once we were settled, however, the service came as quickly as it could be expected in such a full restaurant. I give them huge credit for keeping up with the flood of con-goers that started at lunch time and likely didn’t end until closing. In a little Cleveland suburb, there exists a Korean chicken wings joint that was my father-in-law’s suggestion a few years back. Now, we go almost every time we are in the area. It’s got great food, great cocktails, and an environment that we are okay bringing little sibling-in-laws to.
They sport a menu of choices other than the wings with an appetizer menu full of different Asian small plates such as potstickers and takoyaki. We often use these to help supplement the table of wings and strips we order. Among the many beautiful places to see in Cleveland is the West Side Market, a destination for anyone who enjoys food. Like many big city vendor markets, it has a wide variety of vendors. It holds a special place in my heart as the first of it’s kind that I ever visited. I have loved it since my first taste of a cannoli, my first wide eyed stroll down the rows of vendors.
I first tasted a cannoli at the famous Theresa’s stand, a small bakery that gets my business every single time I visit Cleveland. They are, of course, best known for those cannolis, but I have fallen in love with their macaroons. They have a wide variety of flavors to choose from as you make a package. My husband and I always have a short wait til we order, and we need every second to decide on what kind of macaroons we could agree on. This year, they had a fruity pebbles flavored macaroon that truly did taste like that bowl of cereal from my childhood. The creamy middle mimicked the taste of the cereal milk perfectly to compliment the berry flavored cookies that surrounded it. They also had the flavors you might expect this time of year, such as pumpkin and cheesecake. My husband laid claim to those right away. Beyond these confections, West Side Market is packed with produce, meats, cheeses, and spices. I dream of one day being able to shop in a place like that for all of my food needs. Not only is the selection beautiful, but many of the vendors are locals. Supporting locals is the best part of places like this. Did I mention that Great Lakes Brewing, only two blocks away, sources much of their food for service from the vendors at the Market? |
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