The Columbus to-do-list project was an amazing way to get us freshman out and into our new home. I am from Cincinnati, which is growing a strong downtown community with new restaurants and things to do, and I have heard nothing but good things about the city of Columbus. I was very excited to explore this new city, that I could not pick a category at first and just wanted to explore. The first time I went to downtown Columbus was for a Kendrick Lamar concert, which was the best concert I have ever been to. It was at the Life Communities Pavilion, which is very similar to Riverbend, which is a common location for concerts near where I live (I see Jimmy Buffett perform there every summer). The next thing I did was explore the area around Columbus. I went to Easton mall with my sister and cousins not too long ago and boy was I blown away at how nice it was. My favorite part of it was seeing the Tesla dealership right at the mall. I absolutely love Tesla’s and so it was nice to check that out with one of my cousins while my sister and my other cousin were shopping for clothes. After shopping at Easton mall, we all went to dinner at Bakersfield, a Mexican restaurant in the Short North. This restaurant had the best tacos money could buy, and turns out that is only four dollars a taco (they are a bit small, but very delicious)! A confession about me is that I am a total foodie, I love everything about food: the way it looks, and of course, the way it tastes. Therefore, I decided to do my Columbus-to-do list on great foods in Columbus. I did a bit of research, and found a place called the North Market. It has so many different types of foods, I knew I would have no trouble in this place. My roommate and I decided to go together since we could split everything, which meant being able to buy more food.
In order to get to North Market, we took a Cota bus to a spot a little past the Short North, where the North Market was located. When we arrived to North Market, we knew right away that this was a good decision. The outside of the building looks very inviting and homey. This is complimented to when we walked inside. Instantly feeling welcomed into a conglomerate of food, we started our journey. First, we went to a place called Firdous Express, which was a greek restaurant. We, of course, had to try a gyro from it and it was one of the best gyro’s I have had in my entire life. My taste buds, and my stomach, were hungry for more, but there was so much more still to try. The gyro had onions, lettuce, tzatziki sauce, and some other heavenly spices that I cannot name off of the top of my head. All of this was wrapped in a warm, fresh pita.
The second place we visited to acquire more food was called the Best of the Wurst, which is a clever use of wurst, as in bratwurst. I sought this place out before we went mostly because of my German heritage. I absolutely love German food, and was pleased that the North Market contained such items. The chosen bratwurst was Chicago-stlyed, and contained mustard, relish, onions, diced tomatoes, a sliced dill spear pickle alongside of the bratwurst, and all of these messy ingredients were kept together in a poppy seed hotdog bun. One bite of this caused a party in my mouth, and everyone was invited. What was truly spectacular about this bratwurst was that although it had a lot of ingredients that looked overwhelming, each ingredient added to the flavor of another ingredient, one did not dominate another. The next thing I want to do in Columbus is visit German Village. I visited my extended family in Germany a few summers ago, and ever since then I have been craving Wienerschnittzle, but not to my surprise, not many restaurants serve that item.
The third place we visited was Bubbles: the tea & juice company. This place caught my eye because of how healthy and organic it appeared to be. There were numerous fresh fruits around the counters of the place, and to be honest, I was really feeling a smoothie. The smoothie I got is an all-time favorite of mine: piña colada. This smoothie always brings back memories of going to the beach with my family, because I normally order one or two during the vacation (non-alcoholic of course). This was the best piña colada I think I have truly ever had. Drinking it around the North Market made me feel like I could go outside and it would be eighty-five degrees and sunny outside, and the beach little ways from the market. This is one of the things I enjoy food most for: the memories it brings back and the memories it makes. To me, food is like a picture. You can forget details here and there, but once you eat something that was the same as you ate somewhere else at a different time, all of those warm and great memories come back as you take the first bite.
Next was Omega, a small bakery in the far left corner of the market. Looking at all of the delicious breads, one spoke out to me: a pretzel roll. Only being a dollar, I got one for myself, and can easily be the best decision I made in my life. The pretzel bread had the most wonderful texture. Biting into it, it was soft like a soft pretzel, but also a little hard, almost like a Snyder’s hard pretzel. Normally when I eat a soft pretzel, mustard, especially German mustard, is necessary. However, there was none around, and I was not complaining at all. The pretzel roll itself had the most amazing taste, I feel as if putting mustard on it would disrespect it in some way.
Right next to the Omega bakery was a Mexican restaurant called Dos Hermanos. My roommate and I split an order of two tacos with barbacoa as the meat, which each came with lettuce and onions on top, and two slices of limes and two cups of salsa on the side. After sprinkling some lime juice over the top of the tacos and drizzling on some hot salsa, the taco was ready for consumption. This taco was very, very delicious, not just because of the perfectly seasoned pork and the fresh salsa, but also because of the fresh tortilla. The tortilla had a distinct taste that I have never experienced before because these were fresh, authentically Mexican tortillas.
We were sadly just about done with our North Market experience, due to our full belly’s and almost empty wallets, when we saw Btretzel. Yes, another bakery, but one that only makes bakery items with pretzel bread. Although we had had a pretzel roll earlier, the temptation was too much and we decided to each get a small pretzel stick, which had cinnamon sugar all over. The fresh, salty taste of pretzel was complimented by the sweet taste of cinnamon sugar, an unstoppable combination. This concluded the journey we took, but also the journey our taste buds took, and we went back onto the bus to take us back up High Street with very satisfied stomachs.
My experience at North Market was phenomenal. I am most certainly going to go back someday because although I tried a decent amount of food, there is still much more to find at North Market. I would highly recommend going to this great place to anyone who enjoys food (which hopefully is just about everyone).