Smoke Rings Amongst Other Things

I have had a love for hookah ever since I tried it.  It's delicious, the smoke is thick and smooth, and it is one of the most sociable activities I've ever taken part in.  Now, I'm no hookah expert. However I am an enthusiast.  I know how it ought to be done, and if something isn't done right I know, and I know why.  This being the case, I'm always on the hunt for friends who have hookahs and have the same knowledge on how to make the experience up to par, and of course, a well run hookah lounge.  Now I have some insider info on the opening of another lounge up in GR so I'm withholding my recommendation for my Michigander friends for a little while.  However if you're in my beloved CLE, by all means, stop by University Circle, and head to the Blue Fig Cafe.  

Now I have been a long supporter of Kanzaman a hookah bar and restaurant in Ohio City. Nonetheless, they only have four or five flavours that rotate constantly so you never know what you're going to be able to smoke, and the service has just come to be atrocious. Slower response, waitresses who know far less about hookah than I, lets just say it got bad.  Last time I was there my hookah, which was supposed to be apple, tasted like black licorice, there were too many holes which ended up scorching the shisha, and the water level was far too low.  So after years of faithfulness to Kanzaman, I left Ohio City in search of greener pasture, and that is when I heard about Blue Fig.

Blue Fig is a drive from the west side, but worth it.  They have over three dozen flavours, ranging from the classics like apple, rose, strawberry and pineapple to some interesting concoctions like tequila sunrise and peaches and cream.  The Blue fig is small but that just lends to its close and personal atmosphere.  Its dimly lit, loaded with couches,  and the music, thanks be to God, is audible not overbearing.  You can sit with your friends and talk at a normal volume and enjoy your hookah.  Now I tried both the apple and the pineapple shisha my first time, both were excellent.  Smooth and flavorful, packed properly, appropriate number of holes, and coals replaced often by the owner or a waiter.  Overall a great experience.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! The Blue Fig will, for a couple extra dollars, hollow out a fruit and use it instead of a bowl.  Now, I saw this on the menu and knew I had to give it a try.  So last night I went out to the Blue Fig, said hey to the very personable owner, sat down with my friends and ordered some hookah.  We were going to do pineapple in a pineapple but decided to go with apple in an apple instead. It was incredible.  Possibly the most flavorful hookah experience I've ever had.  Honestly the smoke was almost juicy, and you could taste the actual apple mingling the the apple shisha. Now, I'm still partial to my buddies, Luke and Jim,'s creation Bluebedew as far as my favorite flavor. However, I've never had anything with flavor as powerful (in a good way mind you) as at the Blue Fig.

So If you want some great hookah, head downtown and hit up the Blue Fig.  They have smoothies, energy drinks, other drinks and a few food options.  If its daytime when you go, just stop by next door to mi pueblo for dinner.  In any case, if you try the pineapple bowl or their smoothies let me know, and as always enjoy.  Thanks, more to come soon.

http://www.bluefighookah.com/index.html

Revertigo

I was about to write a blog about a pizza place I just grabbed grub at tonight with some off the charts margarita pizza.  Then I realized, I just wrote about food.  I mean I am a fat kid trapped in a fat body, I love my food, but I've got to switch it up.  So let me just let you know we gotta pizza, hookah, and probably something about one of my favorite indie/folk bands coming up. But enough of that, on to the issue at hand, revertigo.

Revertigo is not a real psychological term, and blogger must not even acknowledge it as a real word, because every use has been marked to me with red squiggly importance.  However, revertigo is quite real.  In fact, it probably has a better name and has, at least I would assume, had abstracts written about it.  Now I was first introduced to the idea of revertigo by guilty pleasure sitcom, How I Met Your Mother or HIMYM for short.  Now if you aren't familiar with HIMYM I'll key you in really quick so you're not lost when I start name dropping.  The entire show is the retelling of the main character, Ted's, life to his children, as he explains how he became the man he needed to be to end up with their mother.  The five friends that the show revolves around are: Ted, the oft love sick puppy, Marshall, the quirky best friend, Lilly the aspiring artist and Marshal's wife, Robin, the reporter who we all wanted to be Ted's wife, and Barney, author of the bro code and play book, as well as a the ultimate ladies man.

Now the plot of this episode revolves around Robin's experiences with something called revertigo when her high school boy friend comes to town.  However I think that Lilly's trip down revertigo lane is far more comical, and in its simplicity, more poignant.  When Marshall witnesses Robin revert back to her awkward high school self, he mentions to the group Lilly has someone from her past that makes her revert in a far more humorous manner.  This woman is named Michele, an African American friend of Lilly's from college.  When Michele walks in, Lilly who is the farthest thing from "hood" yells out, "HAY GURRRRRL" and later proceeds to yell something to the effect of  'OH GURRRRL, Turn that shit up, you KNOW thats my JAM!'

Revertigo is the condition one experiences when one finds themself with an old friend, reverting to old habits, speech patterns, brews, bands, books, etcetera (is it a shameless plug to plug oneself in poor taste and all too cornily in the very medium you are plugging? Let me know).  Now when I watched the episode Sandcastles in the Sand, I found revertigo amusing, however after some musing, I found it intriguing.  When I hang out with my friend Big Nick, one hood motha, I start slippin inna ma slang, "Dude bro you hear that track Hova just dropped?  Fuckin killed that shit man! I keep tellin ya, he's a betta MC than Shady meng".  You put me in front of one of the big dogs in the Spiritual Formations office at my school and I unconsciously stop swearing, and start speaking Christianese.  You put me in a philosophy class, well I suppose one could assume where I'm taking this illustration, however Hobbes would say that without a precise definition of all the terms involved agreed upon by both parties involved...

Long story short, next time you're with your buddy and you start swearing, or talking to a family member and raise the pitch of your voice, or find yourself with an old  friend from high school and get awkward about not being at that party last week, well... let's just say, look out.  Revertigo is real, and if you know of an actual psychological condition that sounds something like this, let me know.  Thanks for reading, have a good one.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/

A Tasty Play on Words

It's getting warmer by the day as we move into June and my thermometer outside reads 82. But six months from now you may find yourselves in Cleveland thinking, "Well ain't that lake breeze a bitch" (pardon my French).  Well I'm here to let you in an a fairly well hidden gem in my beloved 216, the Souper Market.

Now before you dismiss this post because it's on soup, and the humidity's at seventy percent outside, let me note they have chilled soup!  Two different types of Gazpacho and a Strawberry Bisque, but thats just for this week.  You see, the Souper Market changes its menu weekly, offering a different variety, and some usual favorites.  One of my friends suggested the Souper Market the other day, we ended up going to a Thai restaurant (with great bubble tea), but it brought back great memories.  My dad drives a lot for work, so knows all the best spots to get grub around town, and one of his favorite foods is good soup.  As he always told me, "Soup is wet food".

So one day a couple years ago I was home sick, or it was Christmas break and I had the day off or something of that sort.  Anyway, I woke up to a call from my dad saying he was bringing home lunch.  When he got home he brought in a bag and pulled out two large chunks of bread and a couple plastic containers of soup.  The menu my father lined up for me is, in my opinion, the two best soups the Souper Market makes, their jambalaya and their lobster bisque.   Lets start with jambalaya.

Their jambalaya is delicious, great for a winter day or summer night.  Spicy enough to keep me coming back for more but not to spicy to stop my mom from eating it (in non familial terms, if you have a cold it will clear out your sinuses, but it won't stop you from tasting or enjoying your meal).  Their jambalaya is chalked full of delicious fresh prepared ingredients, but what makes it special is the meats and the broth.  Now all the Souper Market's broths are prepared with fresh ingredients and hand crafted at their stores, which I just adore.  Meat wise what took me back about the jambalaya was the lack of chorizo. Chorizo is a spicy pork sausage originating in Spain.  I've never had a good jambalaya without it, but the Souper Market's spicy chicken sausage, mixed with more chicken and shrimp absolutely blew my mind.

As for the bisque, I can't really say I've had good lobster bisque that wasn't over priced at an expensive restaurant.  The Souper Market manages to make some great bisque, without remotely over charging.  The bisque is incredibly creamy, but light in cream flavor department, letting the seasoning and the lobster itself take charge.

Now to turn one of these delicious soups into a meal.  You already get a chunk of fresh baked bread from a local bakery with your soup.  If you want a beer to pair with these soups, you'll want something lighter for the bisque.  Probably an altbier or kolsch, lighter slightly hoppy beers, or maybe a white ale (Holy Moses is in season from GLBC).  As for the jambalaya, I'd go with a good IPA (Founders Centennial IPA, Bells Two Hearted Ale, Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA , or even Bessie).

All in all, the Souper Market is a great establishment.  Every soup I've had I've liked, and they switch up the menu often, just to keep me on my toes. I haven't gotten around to trying the cold soups, but I don't have a very good taste for gazpacho. So if you do, try it and let me know.  Also they serve a variety of salads that look pretty good.  So the next time you're in Ohio City or Lakewood, stop in and grab some lunch, and don't forget to check out their website for the weekly menu.

http://www.thesoupermarket.com/menu.html

Bessie: The Lake Erie Monster

Yesterday was Memorial Day.  My family decided to spend the day together, celebrate, eat and drink.  I didn't wake up till two in the afternoon, so I tossed on some clothes and went down stairs.  At which point one of the first things my father said to me was, "Check the fridge".  So I opened the fridge to see Cleveland's best micro brew, Great Lakes Brewing company.  My dad knows they're my favorite brewing company, and so he picked up a sixer of my favorite Eliot Ness (a hoppy amber lager), and a seasonal beer I hadn't tried yet.  Lake Erie Monster.

Lake Erie Monster is a Double IPA, or Imperial IPA, meaning hops, and lots of them.  Traditional Pale Ales are especially hoppy because of lower malt content.  However when the British were occupying India, they shipped Pale Ales over, but to keep them from going bad during the long months at sea they added more hops and raised the alcohol content.  Thus, the India Pale Ale was born.  Now, a Double IPA is, well, double that.  So, Pale Ale's lower malt content for hoppier flavor, whereas IPA's add hops and increase ABV (alcohol by volume), and a Double IPA adds even more hops.  Just a small note, with IPA's and Double IPA's it is often the case that the brewer will add more malt to level out the taste which will darken the brew.

Now this Double IPA is named after Bessie, a local legend, a sea serpent the roams the shallows of Lake Erie.  Being the beer fanatic I am, I popped one open on the spot.  As far as aroma goes, it was deceivingly mild.  It had a bitter scent but in a mellow sense, no bite, so I dove right in.  Bessie has a bold, beautiful taste with an interesting mix of malt and hops, that finishes with a bold hoppy bite that almost swirls in your mouth.  As the day progressed my family had dinner, home made pulled pork.  The rub used on the pork was chalked full of brown sugar for sweetness, but had some chili powder and cayenne pepper for a little kick as well, a great mix of flavors and the perfect food to pair my pal Bessie with.

Lake Erie Monster is a great beer, and a summer seasonal for good reason.  Bessie is a great beer to bring to cook outs, as she pairs well with pulled pork, burgers, steak, you name it.  It's not cheap at $9.95 for a four pack, but one thing to note is it tastes strong for a reason, 9.1% ABV to be precise.  When I first tried this beer I was drinking on an empty stomach, and I had two before we ate dinner and I drank my third.  Even for a hefty fella like me, I was feelin it.  So if you're smaller and you have one just remember you just drank almost three Bud Lights, and give someone else the keys please.

Nothing much more to say, you can find it around Ohio and parts of Michigan where they sell seasonal GLBC  Beer.   Enjoy folks.

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/