A Wednesday Foodie Kind of Evening

After this past Wednesday's Food and Culture Colloquium, colloquium participant and Denison colleague Maureen and I went to the Charity Happy Hour at the Veranda of The Hills Market which we had learned about at the tail end of Bear Braumoeller's presentation on Slow Food. Every Wednesday, a special guest serves as bartender (in this case, Bear) while a portion of the pizza sales goes to the group raising money (in this case, Central Ohio's support of its nine Terra Madre delegates).

Along with Maureen's [sustainably farmed] Vigilance Cabernet Sauvignon and my [certified organic] Borealis White Blend, we ordered two pizzas. The first one was topped with the Hills' own sweet Italian sausage. I'm typically not a fan of sausage on pizza, but wow this was good.

And of course we had to get the "Slow Food" pizza, the ingredients of which were donated by Wayward Seed Farm located in Marysville, OH: Nelson's Gold Giant (heirloom) tomato, cherry mixed tomatoes, Gunnison onions and Rossa Di Millano (Italian heirloom) onions. In many ways, the bright contrast of the vegetables against the warmth and perfect amount of cheese of this pizza was a great accompaniment to the colourful fading sky and as a signal for the official end of summer when the summer harvests are being used up. Check out the complete menu/flyer from this charity happy hour here.

Following a quick walk-through of The Hills, Maureen and I went on an impromptu journey to Jeni's Ice Cream in Clintonville. Indeed, what better way to celebrate local Ohio food fare than with Jeni's unique flavours? After trying limited edition Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar Nuts, which definitely had a bit of spicy kick, I eventually settled on the second limited edition flavour, Claudio Cantaloupe, which is made from Ohio cantaloupes and can only be purchased at the scoop shops. For its pair, I asked an Ice Cream Ambassador (i.e., scoop shop employees) what her favourite flavour is and subsequently got a scoop of the Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Unintentionally and in retrospect, I found the two flavours to mimic the pizza themes of a cooling summery flavour (cantaloupe) against a warmer fall flavour (almond brittle). And as if this wasn't enough food for the day, we concluded our foodie evening with a trip to Trader Joe's which I had no idea was located in Easton and was happy to have finally found. For additional photos from this evening, click here.