Arepas!

I'm happy to say that Columbia's "Soda City Market" is definitely alive, well and thriving.  What started small has grown to become not just a weekly market, but an event.  Today the venders were so numerous that they spilled over into Boyd Plaza at the Columbia Museum of Art.  

Ran into Grandma & Grandpa there

Boyd Plaza outside the art museum

Me and my sweet baby girl

Kettle corn samples!

The three of us enjoy going not just to check out the produce but to eat.  The food vendors now range from restaurant favorites like Rosso & The Oak Table to the other awesome street vendors serving delicious tamales & empanadas, African foods, soba noodles being stir-fried in giant woks, the BBQ bus, the Wurst Wagen, huge kettles of corn and my new favorite...Mary's Arepas.

 I'd never heard of arepas until today.  I approached their tent and saw two griddles with what looked like johnny cakes on them.  I had to ask.  

Arepas on the griddle

It was explained that this is a food from Colombia, South America.  It's a cake made from corn flour, butter, milk and fried on the griddle.  Then, it's sliced and filled with various yumminess.  Today's choices were a vegetarian mixture (eggplant, peppers, onions, etc.), chicken or beef.  They had already run out of chicken by the time I got there, so I chose the beef.  It looked like it was a combination of ground beef, onion and carrot.  I watched as the lady (Mary?) sliced about halfway into the arepa and spooned the hot beef filling into in then topped with a bit of cheese.  I'm always intrigued by anything I've never heard of and so I was truly excited to receive mine.

Fresh and hot right off the griddle!

Pretty disappointed I only ordered one; that means I have to share

The arepa is a lot like a johnny cake but it's much more tender and soft than the old Southern classic.  The outside was crispy & golden and then the soft interior cradled that beef filling.  In a word, it was fantastic. Neil and I shared one and afterwards I declared that next Saturday we're going back for another one, if nothing else.

The market itself was really fun today.  The awesome violin player was there.  So was the balloon artist.  Vivi got a nice rendition of "Frozen" face paint.  

In the artist's chair

Complete with jewel between the eyes

Glittery and Frozen

We got a sample of the kettle corn, which was really great (bringing some of that home next time.)  They use gourmet popcorn that pops up big and round and perfect.

Kettle Corn Fresh & Hot

 We had Vivi's favorite: the pork tamale & a beef empanada. She used her own money to purchase a ginger lemonade and a rice Krispie treat on a stick.  

Rice Krispie Pop

The Wurst Wagon was serving schnitzel today.  I would've loved to buy that too, but after sharing tamales, empanadas and arepas, I was about at the limit.  Next week, though, if schnitzel is on the menu, I'm there.  I've also never tried the BBQ bus, which I really want to do.  Oh yeah, that soba noodle booth was rockin' the house too.  

Island noodles rockin' the wok

Clearly, next week I need to fast after noon on Friday and just go to the market to binge eat on Saturday morning!


If you haven't put Soda City on your weekend calendar, you need to get a pencil right now.  I overheard a man today telling someone on his phone that he was at "some kind of festival."  I whispered to him, "It's the weekly local market, every Saturday."  He stopped and the face paint lady, Neil and I kept feeding him other details which he then relayed to his phone friend.  That's right, Columbians, it's EVERY Saturday.  Come load up on fresh veggies, homemade pasta, homemade goat cheese, local honey, handmade jewelry, birdhouses, art, photography, science demonstrations, freshly made juices, and boiled peanuts!  

Beautiful 'shrooms

Neil and Viv in market euporia dream sequence

We love the blue-haired peanut lady!

Don't forget, the businesses along the way are there for you too...Wine Down, Mast General Store, Good Life Cafe & Paradise Ice.  The market is held every Saturday in the 1500 block on Main Street, just outside the art museum.  If it rains, don't worry, they just move into the nearby parking garage!  See you next week at the market...

Chef Fusco Returns!

The phrase "it's a small world" isn't just a cliche.  At least, not if you live in the South.  It's a FACT. This phenomenon is more than likely true in all areas of the world, but I can attest to its omnipresence here in the Southern United States. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at least once daily I meet someone that I have a connection

to, in one way or another.  Good example... today I overhead a man mention a "swing dancers club" and then it hit me that I'd met this guy before.  Sure enough, he was one of the organizers of a swing dance celebration a few years ago during which Neil's grandmother was honored.  Why, you ask?  Betty Wood, or Nana as we called her, was one of the original Big Apple kids.  She WAS swing dancing.  And sure enough, this was in fact the guy who arranged a weekend long celebration during which Nana taught Lindy, Big Apple and Jitterbug classes and received the key to the City from former "Mayor Bob" Coble.

Another example of the small-worlded-ness to which I refer?  Michael Fusco.  Mike Fusco was (is) the older brother of my high school buddy Dave Fusco.  When we were in college, the Fuscos opened Irmo's first gourmet, upscale restaurant called Restaurant 1-2-3.  

To this day I believe it was truly the only high caliber restaurant Irmo has ever enjoyed.  Later, the Fusco family moved on to open yet another high quality restaurant, this time in Lexington...Cinnamon Hill.  And then they hit the Vista with the Rhino Room. All of these ventures were successful, top quality, something-to-talk-about restaurants that we Columbians were fortunate to experience. Now, Mike has hit Main Street and true to form, we are all going to benefit from his experience and his talents.

Michael's Cafe & Catering officially opened today for breakfast & lunch.  They are located at 1620 Main Street.  Yes, that's the "Mast General" block.  For those of you who work downtown, you might be interested to know that just around the corner is a 24/7 gym.  You can work out, pop into Michael's for a coffee, juice or smoothie and grab breakfast to eat or take with you to your office...granola, yogurt parfaits or a hot breakfast burrito.  Something for everyone.  And, as you've certainly surmised from the title, Michael's provides catering services, including a full services, tech-outfitted conference center adjacent to the cafe for your big events.  And for those of us who attend downtown churches, Sunday brunch is on the near horizon!

Tonight, Michael was uber-generous and opened his cafe up to me and some of my friends from the food blogsphere.  We were able to tour the beautiful shiny new kitchens, the sharp conference center, the hip yet warm cafe itself and we were treated to some of Michael's menu treats!  We tasted, photographed, tweeted, instagrammed and otherwise bragged to our friends about the experience.  Let me tell you this...if you are ever invited to a restaurant preview, dry run, soft opening, whatever you want to call it, GO!  They are so fun and you really feel a connection to the place when you've been included in something so special.

So, anyway...you want to know about the food, right?  Tonight, we sampled lots of goodies.  Here goes:

• Frieda's Special: this is a Greek salad, but it's a kick ass Greek salad.  Know why?  Frieda is a wonderful Greek lady who is a mutual friend and the salad is reflective of her; high class all the way.  Quality lettuces, ample feta, pitted Kalamata olives, tender & spicy pepperoncini, outstanding dressing.  Not your typical Z@#&b's iceberg lettuce salad, for sure! 
  
• White Russian sandwich: OMG! It's not complicated.  Turkey, bacon, swiss and a homemade "not your typical" Russian dressing.  This is a fabulous sandwich, friends.

• Pimento Cheese: We had this as a dip and also as a grilled cheese sandwich. Let's face it...pimento cheese rocks as long as it's homemade and made with really good quality cheese.  

• Philly Cheese Steak:  I'm super picky about Phillies.  This is it.  Lean, well cooked "grilly" tasting steak, spicy peppers and yummy onions and cheese.  Add high quality hoagie roll and, well I don't need to say anymore.
• Pasta salad:  We tried two.  The first was bow-tie pasta with pesto, artichoke hearts (I mean, can you go wrong with artichoke?  NO!) and red wine vinegar/olive oil vinaigrette.  The other was a multi-color fusilli with a rice wine vinegar vinaigrette...my fave! 
• Shrimp salad: Ok, see, we live in the South.  If anybody can work with shrimp, it's those of us in coastal states.  This is a great example.  The shrimp are what my dad and I call "creek size" shrimp. They are just the right size for a salad on lettuce, in a cup, on a croissant.  Large, stuffable sized shrimp are not right for this job.  They are flavored with herbs and mayo, but lightly so.  It's not heavy, it's just what shrimp salad should be. 
• Breakfast burrito:  Ok here's the one place I have to insert something personal.  When I heard that Michael was opening a new place, I told my 7 year old about it.  I'm proud to say that she is a very adventurous eater and loves to participate in the "grown up world."  As soon as she heard about Michael's, she said, it "must" have a breakfast burrito.  So, I told Mike about it and Viola! he added it to the menu.  Viv is so proud.  If only it were titled the "Breakfast Vivverito" or something...Just kidding Michael!
  
• Veggie Hummus Wrap: My girl April is a vegetarian.  If you have veggie friends, you know that there are varied types.  Some are vegan (NO animal products at all...this is a very hard, rigid lifestyle), ovo-lacto (ok with eggs, cheese, milk), pesci-tarians (fish, shellfish ok), you get the idea.  My friend April describes her vegetarianism very simply as "no flesh."  That, I love.  I don't have to think for 10 minutes about what she can or cannot eat.  So, Michael's has several offerings for our veggie friends.  <<Let me insert here that I am a HUGE veggie fan, just not exclusive, so I want to be clear that I am, in no way anti-vegetarian. I'm an omnitarian, I guess. OMG...did I just make up a word?>>

• And last but not least...SMOKED TOMATO RANCH. Holy mother of Krypton.  The mere description doesn't sound like much, it's true.  But after hearing a few others comment about this dressing, I had to make my way down the table to try it out for myself.  I don't really know a better way to say wow, other than wowza, shazamm, holy something...  We all know that in many cases, a salad is only as good as its dressing.  This is fantastic.  You just have to trust me and try it for yourself.  I loved it so much, I asked Michael if he could think of using it as a base for a pasta salad. And, I think this would be the ideal dressing for any salad, even Frieda's, if you want to deviate from the norm!                         

The evening was just fantastic and I know that the downtown community will love and support this new eatery. I want to thank Mike, Rebecca and Lisa for inviting all of us in and giving us the opportunity to try out the menu. Michael's is focused on good quality, culinary talent and supporting other local culinary businesses along the way. Those of you who read me know my opinion of the importance of supporting local people and local businesses.  Try out Michael's Cafe.  For a few reasons: because you love and appreciate good food, you need an efficient space for parties/meetings, and need a fantastic caterer for your special events. 

And, because I said so.  :-)   

 

Cali's Cafe

The Main Street revival that so many of us have craved for years is finally beginning to happen.  Mast General Store is attracting retail shopping back to Main St.  Paradise Ice is cranking out the best ice cream known to man. Cantina 76 has opened a 2nd location there. It's starting. 

My dad had read about a little place just off the corner of Main and Taylor. He's been wanting to go check it out, so we headed that way.  At first glance, one might think opening a cafe right next to the Oliver Gospel Mission might be an odd location.  And frankly, if Main Street weren't finally coming back to life, I'd agree completely.  But, this location may work just fine.  Especially since they feature many vegetarian menu items and a large healthcare organization, owned by a health-conscious vegetarian, is renovating 3 buildings right around the corner on Main.

Cali's Cafe is probably the smallest restaurant I've ever been in!  It has 3 booths and a few stools at the window.  But its smallness creates a friendly, intimate environment.  Within 2 minutes of entering, we had been welcomed and introduced to the owner, her sister and her mom, who are all in the restaurant helping out.  I posed my age-old question about the chicken salad...you know the one..."Does the chicken salad have celery in it?"  Yes.  Yes it does.  However, the owner told me that she doesn't really care for it either so she chops it finely.  She sent me a sample of the cranberry chicken salad to try.  It was very tasty, but a little too sweet for me, so I chose to order one of the sandwiches.

I ordered the "Redwood." I really liked the flavors of this sandwich, especially the brie.  If you look closely, you can see the good ooziness of the cheese.  My one critique of the sandwich would be that the meat was a bit scant. Just one more slice of turkey and one of ham would have given the sandwich the "heft" to stand up to the bread and the horseradish.  Would I get this sandwich again?  Yes, but with my suggestions.  

The sandwich was accompanied by some pasta salad. I must be honest.  I got burned out on pasta salad at its advent...in the 80's. Yes, of course, I've had some pasta salads over all these years that have been pretty good, but for the most part, I'm over the whole pasta salad thing. Unfortunately, Cali's is serving exactly what I hate about pasta salad.  Pasta with some bell pepper, carrot, whatever, drowned in bottled Italian dressing.  Not a winner on any level.  I'd rather have any other side on the planet. Even just simple chips would do.  

As you can see from the photo, this all came served on a styrofoam 3-sectioned plate.  Styrofoam..well, I don't need to say much here.  But, if you're going to use a 3-sectioned plate, be it plastic or china, there should be something in that 3rd section.  Presenting a plate with an empty slot, well, it just screams "Something's missing!"  And that's because it is.  I mean, even just plopping a pickle there would solve this problem.  But, please,make it a good pickle. 

So, it may sound like I'm all critical and $%&t, but I'm really just telling it like it is.  And this is what it is...I like this little place. I like the wonderful, friendly and inviting family of women that run the place. I want them to succeed.  Thus, my comments and suggestions.  I hope you will check out Cali's Cafe.  If people keep them going they will do well when the Main Street explosion happens, which I think is on our near horizon. 

Paradise.  Utopia. Shangri-La. Heaven.

Lost Horizon is one of my favorite books I was forced to read in high school!

There are many, many names to describe our definition of the ultimate pleasure, environment or experience. Some imagine waves softly lapping a sandy beach, maybe think of living in the rain forest, some think of simple things like food.  Specifically ice cream.  Yeah, you heard me.

I've been reading and hearing about Paradise Ice on Main Street. Yesterday finally presented an opportunity for me and the Vivver to check it out.  Now, Viv is an ice cream connoisseur (connoisseuse?)  Well, to be honest, she's a connisseur of sweets and desserts in general.  She knows what she likes.  Although I'm not a big sweet addict, I do know a good dessert when I taste it and I can appreciate it.  I just don't seek it out.  However...there's Paradise Ice.

We walked in and were greeted very warmly by the husband-wife owners.  As we perused the menu board, we were told to ask for a sample of anything we were curious or unsure about. Paradise Ice serves up homemade (the old-fashioned way: custard) ice creams, sorbets and Italian ice.  They use organic, fresh ingredients and the menu changes frequently.  We were focused on ice cream rather than ices.  So, from the ice cream menu, some of the choices facing us were White Chocolate Raspberry Almond, Strawberry, Cinnamon Chocolate Chip, Irish Cream and Salty Caramel.  My baby requested a sample of Irish Cream...she's 7...what prompted that?  But she loved it and ordered a scoop.  I opted for the Salty Caramel.  We chose a table up front by the door so we were in prime people-watching position.


I have to hand it to the Wunderkind.  Her Irish Cream selection was rockin'!  I'm so impressed that this flavor appealed to her.  The Salty Caramel was exactly what I was hoping for and I was diggin' every single spoonful.  Their ice cream is what you really dream about when you dream of ice cream.  Thick, rich, cream infused with flavor that you just can't and never will get from a carton at the grocery store. What we both also appreciated about the experience was the atmosphere (comfortable and friendly) as well as the art. Viv pointed out to me that the pictures of  fruit that adorn the walls 
 were actually kind of holographic.  They are really beautiful photos which complement the cheery environment of this awesome, family ice cream parlor.

So, here we are one day later and as we were out geocaching, Paradise Ice came up.  Well, that pretty much brought our caching to a stand-still. The little one could no longer focus on treasure hunting.  So, we headed over to Main Street and upon entering, the nice lady who owns the place remembered us from yesterday.  I pointed to the Vivver and said, "You have a new addict!"  I refrained today, but the little one today sampled the Chocolate Cardamom Chip, liked it and ordered it. She gave me two (very) tiny tastes and it was damn good!  I'm impressed and wish I was such a good ice cream maker.  But, sadly, I am not.

For those of you here in Columbia, this place is worth a drive, no matter where you are.  We live in the Rosewood area and a short drive to Main Street is certainly worth the few minutes to get there.  As a non-sweet freak, I can tell you this. When I do want something sweet, I'll forego cookies, soft-serve, brownies, whatever, to drive to Paradise Ice and use my calories wisely!  If you haven't checked it out, trust me and do it.  Soon.  Like first thing tomorrow.  And, as you know I love, they are local, local, local.  A super-cool husband and wife team who are making ice cream like BOSSES! 

Oh, and full disclosure, I stole borrowed all these photos from their site. :-)