CORNUCOPIAN CLEVELAND

We were casting about for things to do in Cleveland last weekend. Sure, we had a wedding to attend Saturday afternoon and evening, but that still left plenty of time for getting into trouble with the Local Amusements.

I’ve already mentioned our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. It’s a must-see for anyone with the slightest interest in the popular music of the second half of the twentieth century onward. We spent several hours there but could just as easily have spent most of a day.

Acting on the advice of longtime blog-buddy Erin O’Brien, we decided to take a spin by the West Side Market, one of Erin’s “fave haunts.” I’m not sure what I expected to find, but what I ended up with (aside from some easily transportable, nonperishable goodies and a whole buncha photographs) was a massive case of Food Envy.



The West Side Market - housed in a grand structure that dates back to 1916 - is one of those Urban Institutions that makes me think that despite Cleveland’s horrific climate, it might just be a fine place in which to live. It is nothing other than a gathering spot for over one hundred diverse Food-Merchants, a place where you can purchase pretty much everything edible. Comestibles of every description were there in abundance, and the vendors all seemed friendly and happy to talk about their wares.

There was a Cheese Aisle I could happily get lost in.


Say cheese! [Click to embiggen.]

There were meats and meat products galore. Beef, poultry, pork, lamb... I even saw a disassembled goat, complete with head, its eyes staring in seeming surprise at what had happened to it.


Acres of mouth-watering steak.

The fruits and vegetables were a greengrocer’s dream.



I could imagine myself as a Clevelander, making my weekly foraging expedition to the Market, exchanging greetings and cracking jokes with my regular purveyors. It was a sweet, albeit fleeting, vision: I was merely a visitor, and one without access to kitchen facilities and refrigeration. I would have to content myself with merely looking at the gorgeous cornucopia that was spread out before me.

Thank Gawd I had my camera to hand. [What I cannot eat, I can at least look at.]