On Monday, after I handed in my ballot at the Board of Elections, I decided to drive to one of Cleveland's landmarks, the West Side Market. It is located across the Cuyahoga River from downtown in the neighborhood known as Ohio City.
The market dates back to 1840. The present building was built in 1902 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Inside the main market building there are 81 vendors, and the variety of foods reflect Cleveland's ethnic diversity. Some of the stalls have been operated by the same families for generations.
In addition there is a separate arcade where fresh fruits and vegetables are sold.
I resisted temptation and did not buy any of the scrumptious looking treats at the numerous bakery stalls.
The market is open five days a week. Although it is not crowded on Mondays, perhaps one third of the stalls were not open that day. I wanted to buy some pierogis, but the "Pierogi Palace" stall was closed. I bought some at another stall. The pierogis went into my freezer, and I am going to have some today for dinner.
At an Irish stall I found pasties, the baked pastry filled with meat and vegetables that come from the British Isles. Pasties are one of my favorite foods from my trips to England, so I bought several. They also went into my freezer for dinners in the future.
The stall which I was most interested in visiting was "Orale" which sells Mexican prepared foods.
I bought four tamales to have for dinner that evening. I heated them up in the steamer, and unfortunately they were terrible. The corn dough was dry and grainy and tasted like dried out cornbread. It was as if in order to create a healthier version of tamales they had not mixed any lard with the corn meal. I ate two of them and threw the other two out.
Hopefully my pierogis and pasties will not be a disappointment!
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