Taste of Tremont

Today, our neighborhood held a food fest, the Taste of Tremont. This is the first time we've exerted an effort to attend the event, having lived here nearly 15 years. In previous years, we stayed in and were oblivious, finding out a week even a month after it took place.

Parking

We noticed people parking 3-4 blocks away from the festivities, as well as parking illegally along the sidewalk. The police didn't nitpick.

It appears there was a fairly strong turn-out.

The crowd at 15:00

We decided to cap our spending to $10, so we had to be judicious and agree where we would spend our money. We could have easily spent $100 trying something from every food vendor. There were 23 booths serving food out of 54.

Chef Whalen and crew grilling behind the tent

Fahrenheit had an impressive presence, with two areas to buy food - their tent and taco truck.

Yes, taco truck! (I'll talk about the tent in my next entry.)

Rocco's taco truck

This sounds silly but the large chrome taco truck was unassuming and therefore missed by many people.

Taco truck food prep

I happened to mention the tacos to Bug as we were sitting in the shade after rounding the entire circuit. He looked at me quizzically and stammered, "Tacos?! Where?!" I pointed to the truck. We walked over to the little window and ordered two tacos, chili beef and roasted chicken, for $5 total.

Chili beef taco served

Both tacos came with two amazingly thin, soft, and strong tortillas, packed with pickled cabbage, jack cheddar, and pico de gallo.

Chili beef taco

The tart, crunchy cabbage blended beautifully with the cheese and rich, spicy beef. No chintzy meat servings here!

Roasted chicken taco served

The roasted chicken was tender and nicely textured. Again, the pickled cabbage and cheese went well with the juicy chicken.

Roasted chicken taco

Which taco was better? They were both fantastic. Yes, I ate them even with pico de gallo! I remarked to Bug that I would like these tortillas at home. The tacos were definitely the best deal around.

Ever since I saw Dish Deli recently while walking the dog, I've been interested in trying their food.

Chef Chriszt and the Dish Deli crew

The rosemary lavender cookie stood out as the one thing I wanted to try of all the menu items I saw from everyone. Something so simple as a cookie? Certainly Michael Symon's Lolita had something, Lago, or Fat Cats? Actually, I wanted to check out Fat Cats' spicy Korean style ribs, but I just had the real thing a few nights ago.

Rosemary lavender cookie from Dish

The chorizo kebab at Southside sounded pretty good too. However, I've never had a rosemary lavender cookie. The cookie had an intriguing flavor, in a great way. While I've read about putting lavender in cookies, I've never actually tasted it before.

I carefully opened the clear gift bag the cookie was wrapped in, as if it were a golden ticket. The bag opened like a blossom and out wafted the scent of lavender.

I believe I would have elicited stares if I walked around with a bag around my nose while eating a cookie, so I decided to conform to societal norms and gobbled the buttery, slightly bittersweet cookie. We need to pay Dish Deli a visit in the near future for more.

Dish also had pomegranate lemonade that sounded pretty good in the heat. Lolita had mint lemonade that I wanted to try, but I forgot about it when it came time to decide.

Oh, speaking of golden tickets, Bistro had an ingenious hook. Select french fry cups were marked. Winners received a $25 gift certificate to their restaurant.

We left before the Michael Symon commemoration because we needed to walk the dog before she snacked on her poop.

- Cassaendra

Fahrenheit
2417 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113-4629
(216) 781-8858

Dish Deli & Catering
1112 Kenilworth
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 523-7000