If you missed it - Columbus Food Bloggers in the Dispatch

Columbus Dispatch article from December 26th, 2007

 …

This article is about five local food bloggers including me. If you missed it, here you go.

Ohio Deli: Dagwood Sandwich - 1, Gourmand - 1

Ohio Deli
3444 South High St (South of 270 at intersection of Williams Road)
Columbus (South Side - about 3 miles south of German Village)

614.497.0577

I made recent trip to the Ohio Deli with Members of the Men’s Super Gang (MSG), a group of gentlemen that try to meet once per month to sample the fare our fair city has to offer and to introduce one of our members (an upstate New York Transplant) to the best dining destinations. It had been while since I was at the Ohio Deli. On my previous trip there I consumed their famous Dagwood Sandwich for the reward of a photo on the wall and a free T-shirt. I made it - but just barely. For a couple years I told stories (all true) of how big the sandwich was. When the MSG and I walked in for my recent visit - I convinced them to get one sandwich we could all share. When it arrived, I was disappointed - it was about 1/2 of the size I recalled from my last visit - but - it is the same price, still comes with a T-shirt and is even better tasting than I remembered it. I was kind of incredulous. I kept asking staff about ” what happened”. Most were kind of surprised by my questions..”don’t you think it is big enough”, etc. Finally, one of the employees told me that the bun had changed. They used to order (giant) individual sandwich buns for the sandwiches, now they just cut the bread from a long loaf of sourdough. And it turns out, the size of the sandwich can vary depending on who makes it. This helped me feel better, I did not want to think my previous effort with the sandwich was in vain or not the accomplishment I recalled it to be.

Here is the tale of my first tangle with the Dagwood

Here is tale is about a man, a sandwich, and what happened when the two met.

Desperate for anything that resembles an accomplishment, I ventured out to eat the much-ballyhooed Dagwood sandwich at the Ohio Deli.

The mission was undertaken some time ago (2004?) – but it took a while to recover and come to peace with what I had done. As has been for most life choices – I cannot be a good example – but I can be a horrible warning.

To protect the two people I conned into my mission I will refer to them as Mr. Scarlet and Mr. Gray

This is the Deal: eat the Dagwood and the fries served with it in 30 minutes and you get a T-shirt and your photo on the wall. While waiting for our table we looked at the pictures of past Dagwood eaters - most seemed kind of troubled yet relieved. The record time is 12 minutes. The bus boy - who looked like a combination of the teenager character and the Cletus character from The Simpson’s told us that the true “champion” is the guy who ate it in 13 minutes then had a piece of pie. (Sir, I salute you – there should be a beer commercial about that!) The busboy was a true supporter. He called us the three stooges and checked on our progress frequently.

Mr. Scarlet and Mr. Gray decided to make a go at the Sandwich as well. Mr. Scarlet did not think he could do it, Mr. Gray was ready to show he could.

The sandwich could best be described as gigantic fist sized portions of ham, turkey, and roast beef served with garlic mayonnaise, American and Swiss cheese in a bun that is as large as my head (my head is not small, one of 170 reasons I am single). The sandwich is the size of a hefty dinner plate. I regretted eating breakfast and lunch and not really being hungry at dinnertime, I worried about the task at hand.

I ordered my Dagwood without tomato or onion but offered to eat some extra fries to make up the difference.

As a benchmark I would say the sandwich equals two double beanie burgers (at the Gahanna Grill) or 1 and 3/4 of a Thurman burger (duh, from Thurman’s). I asked Cathy our waitress about the size. She thought the sandwich has two pounds of lunchmeat. The sandwich is big – everyone agrees on that.

A couple bites into the sandwich I felt good. A couple bites in Mr. Scarlet felt bad. At the 10-minute mark I had eaten the first half of the sandwich. Mr. Scarlet had 1/4 completed; Mr. Gray was near the 1/2 way point.

Three bites into the second half, I started to falter. The ham was very
salty and was going down slow. I disassembled the sandwich and started making mini sandwiches out of the pieces - each mini was the size of a white castle. A few more bites into the sandwich I realized I needed to pee. I decided not to go for two reasons. First, Cathy might think I was cheating. Second - the temptation to throw up would be too great, I had to press on.

I continued, somewhere around the 19 minute mark I had a panic attack and possibly went into a fugue state - I lost sense of time. Around minute 23 I came out of this state and saw that Mr. Scarlet was almost done. I still had a solid 1/3 to consume and Mr. Gray was really struggling. At 24 minutes, Mr. Scarlet was done. I burped which gave me the extra strength and belly room to carry on.

The feeling I had was similar to what I have read about marathon runners - after you hit the wall and pass through it you know you will make it and a strange nirvana sets in. I moved forward with gusto and finished at 27 minutes. Mr. Gray, still struggling made a bold move and dipped the remaining bun in his orange drink for the extra moisture needed to get that behemoth down. (This is the same tactic used by professional eaters at hot dog eating contests – Eye of the Tiger, baby). He finished at 29 minutes and more than a few seconds - he still had a good number of fries left but Cathy seeing that he had gone the extra mile let that slide. I later learned that Mr. Scarlet - during my fugue episode - had done a series of yoga moves to stretch his stomach, which allowed him to finish strong.

You can see the photo of the three of us together on the wall - we are listed as Curly, Larry, and Moe. The “I defeated the Dagwood” t-shirt is a good shirt. That sandwich destroyed me. In the photo, I would not say we look sad, but we do not look happy either.

Some suggestions for when you go.

1) Don’t eat lunch if you are going for dinner, don’t eat breakfast if you
are going for lunch.

2) Use the pickle on the side as an eating aide - (something I discovered a little late) - a small bite of pickle every 8-10 bites seems to help things go down better.

 

3) Make sure you have someone with you - you really need the moral support to push through. And you need someone to drive – but that is another story.

 

3) Consult your physician

 

4) Exercise a lot.

 

5) Have that orange drink ready – no way you want to fall short at the end.

Round Two

Thanksgiving week 2007, I went back to do battle with the Dagwood again. Another thing I forgot, Ohio Deli has awesome fries. I ordered my sandwich. I ate it with plenty of time to spare (you have 30 minutes) and even had time to be interviewed by Kevin Joy from the Dispatch while eating the Dagwood. When I was done, a woman sitting nearby asked me to stand up because she wanted to see where I put the sandwich because she figured someone would have to be bigger than me to put a sandwich away “that fast”. What can I say, I am task oriented.

A real good deal from CBC…

CBC - Columbus Brewing Company jumped into my top ten in 2007. Here is a deal that may make a first trip to CBC more appealing to you.

The info in italics is from an e-mail sent to people on their mailing list.

Give Columbus Brewing Company
Gift Certificates this holiday season -
We’ve brewed up a delicious deal!

Receive a $10 complimentary certificate with the purchase of $50 in gift certificates.
Receive a $25 complimentary certificate with the purchase of $100 in gift certificates.
Receive a happy hour party including complimentary appetizers for up to 50 guests with the purchase of $200 in gift certificates.

Hmm… so for $200 you get $250 in gift certificates ( a 25% return on investment) as well as free appetizers for 50 people. The appetizers at CBC are really good. So do the math. Figure about $1 per appetizer each person eats. OK - now do the math again splitting with 4 people or 50. You have a cheap party at a great restaurant.

Another option is to go to the Dine Originals website, click on gift certificates and see if there are any available for CBC (or another great Columbus dining spot). Typically a $25 certificate costs $17.50.

Hoppy Holidays

Columbus vs. Cleveland; Zagat zips by Columbus

A little debate has popped up on Chowhound. Which city has better food - Columbus or Cleveland? I can name 20 places in either city that can hold their own against any east or west coast eatery. Columbus can be prone to strip mall chain restaurants and can fess up to a culinary disability in the burbs - but CMH is a great restaurant town. Go support your city and your state, speak up for Columbus without dissing Cleveland on Chowhound.

I received my 2008 Zagat America’s Top Restaurants in the mail recently. Zagat raters get rewarded  with a free guide from time to time in exchange for submitting restaurant rankings and pithy comments. The new guide covers 1,415 restaurants in 42 cities and metro areas. The guide lists pages of restaurants in Cleveland and Cincinnati but not a single Columbus restaurant.

Hmm…. Columbus is the 15th largest city. Columbus is larger than Cleveland and Cincinnati. And at least a few people outside of 270 have heard of Alana’s, Basi Italia, Handke’s, The Refectory, Rosendale’s, Rigsby’s and many more well known restaurants. How about local treats like Jeni’s Ice Cream, Denise’s, Just Pies, Pistacia Vera….

Hills Market Holiday Wine and Cheese Tasting

The Hills Market
7860 Olentangy River Road
Worthington Hills
(S.R. 315, just North of I-270)
614.846.3220

The Hills Market continues to host great food events. I stumbled into the Holiday Wine and Cheese Tasting on November 29th. Hills does a Thursday wine tasting which is 4 pours for $2 from 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM. I thought I had shown up for that but it turned out that I landed into something much better. As luck would have it, there was a cancellation and I was able to slide in.

For $30, this is what I sipped and supped on. The pours were generous and the samples were sized to please.

---

J. Laurens Cremant de Limoux (French sparkling wine) - may pre date champagne…

paired with - Brie Le Chatelain (French)

Wolfberger Cremant d’ Alsace Rose (French bubbly)

paired with Wenleydale with Cranberries (British - well liked by Wallace and Gromit)

Elizabeth Spencer Sauvignon Blanc 2006, (California)

paired with Mountain Gorgonzala (Spain)

Clean Slate Riesling 2006, (Germany)

paired with Chevre (goat’s milk cheese) (USA)

Juan Gil Monastrell 2006 (Spain)

paired with Spanish Romano

Galil Mountain Shiraz/Cabernet 2003, (Israel) - Kosher Red Wine…really

paired with Boursin with Cracked Peppercorn (France) - Kosher as well

---

As if this was not enough, the staff mixed in some tapa like appetizers. The best of the bunch was a halved fresh fig (received that day) stuffed with gorgonzola and wrapped in prosciutto. This was so good, I groveled for a leftover sample. These two figs were worth at least $5 to me.The event started at 6:30 PM and intended to wrap up at 8:30 PM. We were all having so much fun and good conversation that we lingered past 9 PM. As a bonus we each received a 10% coupon for the market.

The event was created by wine coordinator Constance Begue and cheesemonger Kent Rand. Each offered plenty of commentary on the wine and cheese sampled as well as everything their departments had to offer. Hills plans to host events like this once a month. I’ll be back.

I mentioned Stinking Bishop cheese to Kent. This is a cheese other local cheese shops have told me they could not obtain. Kent called me Saturday (two days later) to let me know he would have some for me by Tuesday. As a bonus he gave me a print out with extra information about the stinky cheese I wanted.

I also stumbled on a good source for cheese and other gourmet information while looking for a Stinking Bishop link. The Reluctant Gourmet has all types of good gastronaut information.

The Hills is worth a visit any time as an alternative retail chains. Sign up on their site with your e-mail to receive updates on special events and an occasional excellent coupon.

Mail Order Cheese, Chocolate and Brownies… oh my!

Dedicated readers may recall my run to Amish country a few months ago. I drove by a sign for Steiner Cheese (a place I had never sampled) but I did not have time to check out their store because I was trying to get to Pearl Valley Cheese before closing time. Shortly after this cheese trip, I read that Steiner won several awards at the Ohio State Fair for their cheeses….drat.

I could not let this missed opportunity slip by but alas, I had no time to drive back. I did some research and found I could order online.

Steiner Cheese

I ordered the Farmer’s Cheese, Aged Cheddar and Aged Swiss. All three were great. The pricing was reasonable even with shipping added in. The Aged Cheddar was my favorite and the two pounds I ordered did not last a week.

I should mention that Pearl Valley does mail order as well. I tried them out a couple years ago and they did a fine job. The only downside with them is they sell in gift packs online.

On a related note, at about the same time I ordered from Steiner, I ordered chocolate from my favorite mail order chocolate company - Bissingers.

The photo of the chocolate did not come out so well. However, this is a photo of 1 pound of chocolate. If you order from the catalog at select times of year, Bissingers will send you a free pound of chocolate - Milk or Dark. I have tried different things with this free chocolate over the years, but my favorite thing to do is break off a piece of dark chocolate (I don’t bother with milk chocolate) and spoon on some chunky peanut butter. The best regular catalog item is the Almond Nut Bark. Bissingers Chocolate is among the best dark chocolate I have tried anywhere. They are based in St. Louis (I discovered them while there for work) and trace their roots to French chocolate making in the 1600’s.

A final find. Dayton’s Dorothy Lane Market does mail order - which for me means mail order Killer Brownies. If you place an order, say Sandie - via the Gourmand sent you.