Ham Sandwich Indicted!

While the East Coast was battening down the hatches, 12,000 Central-Ohioans came out to the Columbus Commons to celebrate the awesomeness that is food truck culture.  Some of the local stand-bys were there, (Mikey's Late Night Slice, Jeni's, The Cheesy Truck) as well as some out of towners/newer offerings (Flippin' Eggroll, Kolache Republic, Lotsa Lobstah).    What follows then, is a collection of images of what turned out to be a delicious and weather-perfect evening. Taking orders at Flippin' Eggroll. Teriyaki chicken and Ruben Egg rolls. Both were delicious. Mojo TaGO had lines the whole night. But then, I think everyone did... "Meating" up at The Sublime Smoker The Paddy Wagon Pulled pork from the Paddy Wagon Scallops from The Munch Box Ladies and Gentlemen, The Munch Box. Tacos from Juniors! Lobster Rolls!!!!! Smoothies and more from Earth's Crust/Crazy Monkey A fine

Lobsters. Spiders of the sea. Bottom-dwelling bugs whose flesh requires an array of tools and a healthy supply of brute force to access. When you think about it, they seem an unlikely candidate as a luxury foodstuff, and, as David Foster Wallace pointed out in his 2004 essay Consider the Lobster , they were originally considered a cheap and plentiful source of protein for the poor. Now, of course, they're for special occasions and seaside treats.  Or, if you have a couple friends who are willing to pitch in some cash for your crustaceans, backyard dinner parties. A girlfriend requested lobster rolls after seeing my prior post about Rhode Island: soft, top-sliced buns stuffed with a mixture of lobster meat, mayo, and green onions.  Here in central Ohio, we have a surprisingly large number of lobster purveyors, including The Fish Guys at The North Market, and The Lobstah Shack in Mt. Vernon...someplace I've not had the opportunity to try, but have been informed is nothing s

When I first started college, I was pretty convinced I was going to go into medicine, psychiatry, to be precise, and started my freshman year on the pre-med track.  This meant biology, chemistry, and their accompanying labs.  Somewhere in the middle of the second semester, I realized that I was terrible at chemistry, and even the help of a tutor (who patiently and repeatedly walked me through chemical reactions and equations) was not enough to get me much past a low C.   Thankfully, I did have the brains to realize my talents lay in the humanities, and made the switch to history and foreign languages.  Life (and my grade point) got back on track. Since then, however, I've always had a deep appreciation/admiration for the sciences, and those individuals that make them their profession....doctors, physicists, chemists, biologists...they all do things that my literature-minded brain can barely grasp.   So when Dan Siegal-Gaskins founded the Columbus Science Pub last year, I was ex

Like a scene from the predictably cheesy Jim Carey flick "The Yes Man," sometimes you just have to say yes to an invitation...no matter how ambitious or bizarre.  If the invitation is to drive from Columbus, Ohio to Providence, Rhode Island and back in a weekend, a brief consideration of the logistics is understandable, but then I strongly suggest that you say yes, pack a bag and book a room.   I was presented with this very invitation, with the goal of visiting the Rhode Island School of Design to see the last days of an exhibition on cocktail dresses and accouterments.  A few weeks later, I found myself in a car with a girlfriend, blasting our way Cannonball Run-style across Pennsylvania and up the coast to Providence. Our first stop on our brief tour of Rhode Island was RISD, were we were treated to an incredibly well curated exhibition illustrating the history of cocktail culture, from its roots in the 1920s to its retro-revival popularity today.  Cocktail dresses,