West Side Market and Christmas Eve

One thing I miss from Ohio is being close to Cleveland. Sure, I live in a "city" now, and I was 45 minutes from Cleveland, and Cleveland is kind of a dying industrial dump of a city, but I love it. One of my favorite things to do in Cleveland is to go to the West Side Market. The Market used to be a real, important market with ethnic foods and incredibly fresh meats and produce. It continues to have all those things, but is becoming a little less vital to the community and more of just an interesting place to be. There are still many of the old vendors, family businesses that have been there for ages. Those are the places where you're most likely to find odd, eastern European sausages or cuts of meat you won't find at a grocer...say a whole half a pig, perhaps. But now there are also new, "chic" vendors, who will make you crepes as you watch or sell you "urban herbs" or pre-made food to nibble on while you shop. It would be sad to see the Market lose it's traditional vendors and purpose, but I'm glad to see the space have continued relevance while the rest of Cleveland kind of flounders.
















Christmas Eve day my dad decided he wanted to go to an organ concert at a church by the Market, so we looked up the hours and determined we had to go shopping if we were in the area. I have never had a trip to the Market that wasn't amazing. We were short on time before the concert, so we started with snacks - I had a new take on a traditional Scottish meat pie - it was a breakfast pie, with egg, sausage, cheese, and potatoes instead of the normal meat and potatoes. After the concert we went back for more deliberate shopping. I bought a whole pound of Manchego, because the price was $6 per pound less than it is at the grocery store, and because the vendor let me taste it and it was superb. I got an apple fritter, which is something I always do there, and picked up some Mediterranean sea salt and some pot stickers at some newer vendors. My parents caved and bought us chicken satee and asiago pretzel rolls to snack on, and a huge bunch of asparagus for later. My dad got goose liver and a rice ring, both of which are disgusting, and my sister found Kinder chocolate at the imports store. Overall, it was pretty awesome, and I recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Cleveland.

After all that fun, we went home for the annual "trying a completely new and possibly complicated appetizer recipe for the Christmas Ever party" extravaganza. This year I made cheese puffs with Italian salami, and my sister and dad made some strange sausage rolls. Although we really tried to choose the easiest recipes in the book, our efforts took us forever. For some reason my cheese puffs came out tasting like a breakfast food - too much egg involved to make them "puff." They seemed to go over well with the family though.

I think we've decided to add the Market to our Christmas traditions. This year we had a great Christmas Eve.