A Quest for Sesame Pancakes & Jallab Juice

One of the biggest things I miss about New York is the food. New York has both quality and quantity -- really, really good food at many, many places. Columbus, too, has great food, but it's just not on every street corner (although it's coming closer, which is perhaps a post for another time).

But there are two foods in particular that I'm missing right now: one that I enjoyed the last couple of years of our time living in New York, and one that I was just introduced to on our trip back in June.

First, the old: a sesame pancake with vegetables from Vanessa's Dumpling House. As I wrote after trying this for the first time in 2011: "The pancake was really more of a sandwich in the shape of a pizza slice, filled with cilantro along with julienned carrots and cucumbers. So delicious, and really a meal by itself."

The bread is nicely crisped, and the seeds and whatever oil and/or spices they use give it a unique flavor. I made it my meal regularly -- and twice in June. It's only about a $1.50, but I would gladly pay more.

And the new: jallab juice, purchased at an old favorite. One of our last stops in Bay Ridge in June was Al Safa, the restaurant just across the street from where we used to live. It was our last morning in Brooklyn, so I splurged and ordered a glass of jallab juice: a mixture of rose water and date juice. Just sweet enough, deliciously refreshing and a wonderful complement to a crispy zaatar pie.

Now, to find these in Columbus. Help!

"Sunday Afternoon" in Columbus' Topiary Garden

I've lived in Columbus a total of nine years, but it was only last month that I finally visited the city's well-known topiary garden. The garden, a recreation of Georges Seurat's famous painting "Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grand Jatte," is located at the Old Deaf School Park downtown.

That's one thing that I got wrong all these years. I thought it was near the current deaf school, which isn't all that far from where we live here in Clintonville. But the old deaf school, which was in operation from the 1890s until 1953 (according to the self-guided tour paper I picked up at the park), is located behind the main library and just a short walk from the city skyscrapers.

The topiary garden has been there more than 20 years and sits on a seven-acre park with more than 200 trees. Climb the small hill in front of the topiary and stand off to the side of a relief of Seurat's painting, and you can clearly see how it took the form of trees. Even a pond is included, said to represent the River Seine.

Edith and I visited the garden on my birthday in mid-July, and it was a lovely way to spend a perfect summer morning. Next time, I'll bring lunch.

Photo Friday: Brooklyn Bridge Park at Night