Eating Cleveland - Picky Eater Style

The Picky Eater had the good fortune to secure a summer internship at the flagship headquarters of Lubrizol, world renowned manufacturer of industrial lubricants and a Berkshire Hathaway company, in the Lake County (as in Lake Erie) suburbs just east of Cleveland. I really can't explain what she was doing, beyond what she seems to do best in both the kitchen and the lab- mixing unlikely ingredients together and making it work.

Despite her transport limitations (bicycle & public bus) in an auto oriented culture, she managed to hit a few of the high spots for dining during her sojourn in this rust belt metropolis, which she announced, prior to decamping there, "had a vibrant food scene."

Too much meat @ the Westside market!

Arriving with California sensibilities, the Picky Eater and her devoted mater quickly learned to follow their own instincts, rather than popular opinion, when it came to foodspotting. The highly touted historic Westside Market, overloaded with meat products, pierogies, commercially grown produce, and PEOPLE(!!) ran a distant 4th to the delights of the Saturday farmers market at Shaker Square, the University Heights Whole Foods, and her local suburban upscale grocery store, Heinen's.

Our two Saturday visits to the Farmers Market at Shaker Square were somewhat hindered by the onslaught of showers blowing off of the lake, which pretty much nixed the possibility of photos, but we loved seeing the local produce & producers. They were both somewhat different crowds from those at our local farmers market- homemade syrups, potatoes, meats, Amish and Mid-Western family farmers instead of nuts, Asian and Hispanic vegetables and ex-hippies. We loved the Mackenzie Creamery chevre-style goat cheeses, Chagrin Valley handmade soap, and the Shagbark Hickory syrup. Edible Cleveland, Northeast Ohio's edition of the locally focused food guide that has bloomed from coast to coast is a great source for farmers market locations and food purveyors in the area.

Wherever the Picky Eater ventures in the continental U.S., the local Whole Foods market is her home away from home. With limited internet access in her subterranean apartment, her regular Saturday routine was to ride her bike two miles to the eastern-most edge of Cuyahoga County, catch and transfer on two buses, and spend half the day availing herself of the free wi-fi and prepared vegetable dishes at the University Heights Whole Foods. While there are those ( like the Pater) who trash the Whole Foods concept on principle, in our travels we have been impressed by the efforts that are made to reflect local food mores, i.e. the Cleveland store is the first that I have ever seen to feature a "Smokehouse BBQ" hot foods bar and cook to order burgers and fries. (At our local Whole Foods it's burritos and udon.) I was disappointed that we left Cleveland before the launch of the cheesecake bar!

Bacon Chocolate Cupcakes @ Whole Foods!

In addition to the farmers market, Shaker Square offered two of our most promising restaurant finds in Cleveland- Sasa & Fire Food & Drink.

Sasa was a Cleveland-style Japanese izakaya with a cool dim gray-toned (my new favorite color) interior, the requisite bar, and intriguing menu listings like "Salt and Pepper Wild Norwegian Mackerel," "Kobe Beef Meatballs," "Panko Hamachi Cake," and its namesake "SASA Fire Roll (lobster, crawfish and masago salad with Chinese broccoli, topped with shrimp, spicy mayo, unagi sauce and furikake and served flambeed!)" Second of all, it included guilt-free veggie dishes for the Picky Eater like "Agadashi Tofu Salad" "Shishito Peppers Sauteed with a Szechwan Sauce," and plain old "Steamed Spinach." And, third of all, with a menu divided into small, medium & large size dishes, you are encourgaed to order as you go along, rather than drive yourself nuts (as I do) trying to figure out how much you want to eat up front. I decided to forgo any sushi (as the Picky Eater would say, "This is the Midwest, after all.") as well as their signature "Sasa Fries" (too guilt inducing), but did enjoy the aforementioned mackerel and Kobe meatballs, as well as the Creme Brulee Trio for dessert.

                           

Sasa knows the way to the Picky Eater's heart!

Sasa Restaurant
13120 Shaker Square
Cleveland, OH 44120
216.767.1111

Fire Food & Drink's stripped down rustic interior (and food) hardly hint of Cleveland, and would feel right at home in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York, especially with its locally sourced produce, meats & cheeses. The big draw are the tasty results when meats & breads are thrown against the walls of the resident clay tandoor. There is even an outdoor seating area for those precious balmy nights when the winds on Lake Erie have taken a siesta.
We had two lovely meals there, including the following-
~ Il Follo Cuvee Rustat prosecco, Italy NV - for me nothing beats starting a meal with prosecco
~ Artisanal cheese plate (Ohio Bucheron, Wisconsin Buttermilk Blue, St. Nectaire) seasonal fruits, jams, nuts and croustades - Picky Eater stole all the candied walnuts

Baba ganooj, etc. @ Fire

~ Heirloom tomatoes with baba ganooj, sweet pickled cucumbers, clay oven bread and herb salad - Picky Eater main course
~ Tandoor roasted local pork chop accompanied by roasted rittman orchards fruit, arugula, spoonbread and bacon jus - a 3" thick chop, they do meat right in the Midwest.

The Picky Eater refused to share her Fire Split!

~ The Fire Split, a fudge brownie with salted caramel ice cream and brûléed banana - the Picky Eater blew caution to the winds and indulged.
~ Popcorn ice cream sundae, popcorn ice cream with caramel sauce and candied pecans - one of their signature dishes, but eclipsed by the split.
Fire Food & Drink
13220 Shaker Square
Cleveland, OH 44120
216.921.3473

A little further afield is Taza, a reliable Picky Eater pick introduced to her by her Lubrizol mentor Mark. Located in an upscale suburban Woodmere shopping center, it offers huge portions of fresh Lebanese food. The Picky Eater stuck to her regimen with the Lebanese Salata, greens with the usual Middle eastern salad veggies, kalamata olives, and feta, all tossed in a lemon-herb dressing. I had to take half of my "Vegetarian Feast" (tabouli, hummus, baba ghanoush, and falafel) home.
Taza
28601 Chagrin Blvd
Woodmere, OH 44122
(216) 464-4000

Even further afield is the picturesque village of Chagrin Falls, sort of the Carmel of Northeast Ohio, with an impressive double-sided waterfall (the "Falls") highlighting the center of town. With several intriguing restaurants & stores, and an epic ice cream shop, Chagrin Falls makes for an inviting excursion. The Picky Eater picked up a pair of cool designer pants on sale at Juicy Lucy, and I drooled over an ersatz antique chocolate sign that was too big to transport home for the kitchen in White Magnolia, a home decor & accessories shop.
On a return solo visit while the P.E. was slaving away in the lab, I enjoyed an outstanding lunch of goat cheese dumplings with a mu shu flavored mushroom & vegetable saute and seared scallops with bok choy and black rice flavored with a sweet tamari that added notes of blackberries, ginger, and balsamic vinegar at Umami, a tiny 8 table Pan-Asian restaurant on Main Street. It was fun (on the way to the bathroom) to pass by the tiny kitchen and see the handcrafted dishes being assembled.

Umami seared scallops

Umami
42 North Main Street
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
440.247.8600

I held back from dessert at Umami in order to treat myself to a double scoop of ice cream (Salted Caramel & Queen City Cayenne) at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, famous from here to Pittsburgh and beyond. (A pint of Jeni's goes for $12.00 at my local Mollie Stone's Market.) And splendid it was! On my next visit to Pittsburgh when I have access to the Picky Eater's freezer, I will treat myself to a 4-pack of ice cream sandwiches, because even I can't manage four in one sitting.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Scoop Shop
67 North Main Street
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
440-247-2064
Other outlets in Central and Northeast Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, & Georgia. Also available nationally packed in dry ice via FedEx delivery.

Other places we loved in Cleveland-
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A museum of the first rank with a collection built in the first half of the 20th century. A famous antiquities collection, tapestries to rival the Metropolitan (just not so many of them), early Renaissance masters, a Caravaggio, and more modern masters- Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh. A new wing has been skillfully appended to the old with an enormous glass enclosed landscaped atrium, which must be a real delight during the long Ohio winter. On the day we visited, it was set up for an after hours wedding, and was absolutely magical.

Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Boulevard
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Free admission; closed on Monday

Frank Gehry's Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western University
11119 Bellflower Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Amazing. One of those cases where a picture is indeed worth a thousand words! Luckily, we stayed one night at the nearby Glidden House Hotel (also recommended) and could saunter over and around this modern masterpiece at leisure.

Cleveland places that I loved whose doors the Picky Eater would never darken-

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Almost, but not quite worth a special trip to Cleveland. Especially appealing to those of us who survived the 60's. Memorabilia and artifacts, including Elvis's 1975 Lincoln Continental, pieces of Otis Redding's airplane which were recovered from the crash, Janis Joplin's psychedelic Porsche, and Jerry Garcia's custom-made guitars. Great music going 24/7. I loved watching dads sharing their favorites with their kids- clearly the kids got big doses of the music at home. (In our house when the Picky Eater was growing up, Otis Redding was known as the "Shake Guy," and she used to dance to him standing on her daddy's shoes.)

Janis Joplin by R. Crumb c. 1970

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1100 E 9th St  Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 781-7625

Slyman's Deli
Immortalized by the Bare Naked Ladies in "Slyman's Corned Beef- Rhymes with Flyman," Cleveland institution Slyman's Restaurant offers 5" thick corned beef sandwiches that defy your mouth. The only solution is to eat half the meat of half the sandwich with your fingers, chomp down the rest and take the other half home for dinner. Pungent dill pickles, hot mustard and horseradish, a non-stop auto meat slicer, and gruff but genial wait staff make Slyman's an "A"  list stop for this deli deprived Californian.
Slyman's Restaurant
3106 St Clair Ave NE  Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 621-3760
Open Mon-Fri 6 am - 2 pm; Sat 9 am - 1 pm

Internships may come and go, but we'll always remember the fun we had exploring the Cleveland food scene, just as vibrant as predicted. In honor of the Picky Eater's sojourn, I experimented with a batch of Ohio's official state candy- the Buckeye. Sort of a spherical Reese's peanut butter cup, this borrowed Smitten Kitchen recipe is a breeze until the chocolate dipping begins- definitely more of a challenge than it first appears!

Buckeyes
(from Smitten Kitchen)
Makes at least 3 dozen

1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (smooth, but you can use chunky if you are looking for more texture)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 14 graham crackers)
1/4 t salt
3 cups powdered sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

Make the filling:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat for 10 seconds. Add the salt, sugar and butter, and mix on the lowest speed until it stops floating off everywhere, then increase the speed until the ingredients are combined. Scrape down the whole bowl well, then mix again. The mixture will be quite sturdy and a little dry — perfect for shaping. Set it aside while you prepare the coating.

Make the coating:
Melt the chocolate either over a double boiler, stirring until it is completely smooth. Let it cool to tepid (about 100 degrees) while you shape the peanut butter centers.

Assemble the candies:
 Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out about one tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared sheet and repeat the process until all of the candies have been shaped. They can sit close to each other but make sure they are not touching.

Using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate and roll it about so that almost the entire candy is coating, leaving a small circle uncoated. Play around with a few practice pieces; it's easiest to stick the skewer in the side, angle the bowl towards you and make sure it became submerged as you roll the candy around.

Chill the buckeyes until they are set, about 30 minutes.