A Coffee Education

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Cleveland, coffee, coffee roasting, Starbucks, Troubadour Coffee

A cup of La Lagunilla from the Oaxaca region in Mexico. Brewed with a lot of help from Troubadour Coffee, one of two small-batch coffee roasters in Cleveland.

If there’s one thing that is universally agreed upon it’s that we humans need coffee to function. In some parts of the world, tea is the hot beverage of choice but it seems more for tradition’s sake than out of biological necessity. Coffee drinkers demand their daily cup(s) of joe.

This Last Summer Meal

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blogging, Cleveland, Crop Bistro, mandible, restaurant, summer

Caprese Martini (heirloom tomato vodka, balsamic reduction, mozz, tomato, basil) & The Hot Fuzz (Bourbon, peach nectar, spiced black tea, bitters). I craved caprese constantly these past few months, so of course this drink sat just right with me!

I was going to write a post about the last meal of summer, but it appears that summer just won’t quit. My A/C unit knows what I’m talking about, I think. It’s still September, even if the weather is screaming July, and that means a couple of exciting things. First, Matt’s birthday. And second, this blog’s birthday! That’s right – Mandible turned one on September 1. Last year at this time, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted this site to be, or even what to name it, but I started writing nonetheless. Thanks for hanging in there, readers. I can’t wait to see where Mandible will be in another year. As for Matt’s birthday, we spent it on a summery, utterly satisfying tour of Crop Bistro‘s menu. 

This Cleveland Summer

Tags

Cleveland, craft beer, dining, ice cream, Mitchell's, MOCA, Porco, summer, The Third Plate, travel

The patio was hopping at Platform Brewing Co’s Grand Opening. Yes, they’ve already released a Prodigal Pale Ale in honor of King James’ return.

It’s been quite a summer in Cleveland. Not only has the weather been completely reasonable and summery, but good things are happening here.  I’m basically indifferent to the basketball scene, but I appreciate the sentiment behind Lebron’s announcement to return home and I know that it means a lot to a lot of people (and not just Clevelanders) that he chose to come back. It strengthens Northeast Ohio’s reputation as a beacon of culture in the Midwest, as a desirable place to live, and a freaking cool place to visit. This summer especially it seems like there is an endless list of openings and festivals and tastings going on around town, many of them new (or at least new to me). I spent quite a bit of the spring and early summer physically or mentally elsewhere, and in the past few weeks I’ve finally had a chance to take a look at all the wondrous people, places and things making waves right here in the CLE. It feels good to be home – and as it just so happens, today is Cleveland’s 218th birthday! Just one more thing to celebrate.

And Five Spoons

Tags

Cleveland, creme brulee, Irish, soda bread, spring, St. Patrick's Day

Irish soda bread: simple & hearty

My family loves St. Patrick’s Day. It’s not necessarily because we are so strongly Irish, although with Bailey as a last name, it’s hard to convince people otherwise. As far as I know, I’m no more than one-quarter Irish. But my parents dig Irish music, and Irish whiskey, and it’s just a perfect excuse to gather and enjoy a hearty dinner. My mom always makes the corned beef and cabbage, although apparently this is a uniquely Irish-American tradition. As we are headed to the Emerald Isle in a little more than a month (!) for our honeymoon, Matt and I were feeling especially festive. He whipped up a few stellar cocktails (more on those later), and I set my sights on dessert.

Some Like It Hot (Bibimbap)

Tags

bibimbap, bulgogi, Cleveland, Korean, spicy, Sung's House

bibimbap, at home

I’m slowly coming to terms with the virtues of Twitter, although “virtues” might not be the right word. Redeeming qualities – that’s more like it. At first I found myself endlessly scrolling and scrolling through hundreds of tweets. Looking for what, I couldn’t tell you. Now I feel like I’ve got it somewhat under control and have developed a vaguely defined set of filters for picking out “important” tweets. The mechanisms behind this process are for a group of social scientists to investigate, but for me, they result in a handful of interesting or truly informative messages each week. That does not include my devoted following of Chelsea Peretti’s tweets. Anyway, this week one that struck me in the midst of preparing to make bibimbap was a retweet from another Korean food blogger: “If you ask for a dish spicy and return it for being TOO spicy, you’re making it hard for the next #SpicyFood fan! #SpicyPeeve”