Well, I spend last weekend in Cleveland, as I had been planning to do for some time now. The first place I went was the Westside Market. I loved it. The prices were great and the meats and sausages available were astounding. I got some apple-smoked bacon and kolbassi at one stand and a cherry-smoked cottage ham at another. I was tempted by a leg of goat but I decided to wait for another trip when I had a little more money. The produce was also great. I got a ripe, juicy pineapple for 2 bucks and a yellow honeydew for a buck fifty. Also got a half pint of raspberries for $1. The green beans weren't quite as much of a bargain at $1.25/lb. but they were beautiful. Much nicer looking than some I saw back here for $1.29 per lb. I can't wait to go back there on my next trip. Then there were the restaurants. We went to dinner on Sat. at Empress Taytu Ethiopian restaurant. The decor was great - all kinds of Ethiopian furniture and textiles. They have the traditional basket tables which I've never had the pleasure of eating from before. The other Ethiopian restaurants I've been to (one in DC and one in L. A.) just had regular tables. The food was also very good. My daughter got the t'ibs. I never did get a taste of it but she liked it. I ordered the combination dinner with 4 meats and 4 veggie dishes. There was doro wat, sega (beef?) wat, lamb stew, and something with ground meat (can't remember the name). The veggies were red lentil stew, a yellow split pea thing, a salad, and a potato, carrot, and green bean thing. Everything was tasty, although I would have liked the wats to be less hot. Unfortunately you can't specify how hot or mild you want it. Only a couple of the dishes on the menu had that option. For an appetizer we each had an order of kita which consists of a bread called ambasha and either homemade cottage cheese mixed with hot chile powder (cayenne, probably) or stewed collard greens. I got the cottage cheese and Kyla got the collards. We both liked it a lot. I've found some recipes for the bread, which I can't wait to try at home. On Sunday, on the way home I drove to the Cleveland Heights area for lunch at BD's Mongolian BBQ. I was quite impressed with the food if not the ambience which was a little too "TGI Friday's" for my taste. I like quieter restaurants. However I was glad to find that the food was much more similar to what I was used to when I lived in the L. A. area than the stuff they served at the place out in Wexford (which has been gone quite a few years now). They had pork, lamb, beef, and chicken and seafood, too - shrimp, scallops, and 2 other things I can't recall as I was only interested in the shrimp. They also had Italian sausage which was really weird. The veggies were quite varied - bean sprouts, green peppers, water chestnuts, cabbage (bok choy, I believe), bamboo shoots, pineapple, sugar- snap peas, celery, carrots, etc. They also had spaghetti-type noodles and those spiral pasta thingies (rotini?). There were 4 oils, olive, garlic, chili(?), and sesame. (I guess the olive was to go with the Italian sausage. ;-)) Then there were about 8 sauces - hunan, black bean, peanut, chile, tomato (for the sausage???), soy, others I'm not sure of. And that's not all!!! There were various spices and stuff like ginger, some Indian spice blend, sesame seeds, cayenne pepper, and more. There were also a salad bar and 2 soups available. And you also get a bowl of rice and tortillas! (what's that all about?). Rob, I didn't get to the Mexican place you recommended this time. I'm looking forward to trying it soon, though. Kate Kate Connally " If I were as old as I feel, I 'd be dead already."
Cleveland, OH