Cleveland’s West Side Market

I finally made it to the famous West Side Market here in Cleveland. Unfortunately, the weather was nasty when we went…but fortunately, it’s inside so we stayed (relatively) dry.  The market was really neat. They basically have a “farmer’s market” set up in one part of the building, and the other part has vendors selling all sorts of goodies from meats, to breads, to candies. The reason I put “farmer’s market” in quotes is because I’m pretty sure the produce comes from a greenhouse (nothin’ wrong with that!). Each stand had the exact same thing and a number of those items aren’t in season or don’t even grow in the U.S., or at least not in Cleveland (haven’t noticed any banana trees around these parts). I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this…there’s definitely not! That’s how the Dallas farmer’s market was too, each vendor had the same produce.

The real star of the show here was the main building. This is where the unique vendors sell their goods. There were homemade desserts like cupcakes, pies, and pastry’s and also things like homemade pasta, bread, and fresh fish.

Well, my hunny did buy me a bunny! We actually got 1 rabbit and cooked it last night. I’ll post on that later!

I thought this sounded really good!  I love sweet sausage like chicken apple sausage, so raspberry sounded really unique!

Cupcakes!

How do you even eat that pastry on the right? I guess you just go for it…no shame in puff pastry all over your face!

Fresh bread is always hard to resist. I was so tempted to buy one but reminded myself how we already have bread at home (even though I’m sure it’s not near as good!).

Spices and beans!

I’ve never had bison before but have heard pretty good things about it.  I guess just because it’s really lean it’s a recommended protein for people trying to eat “healthy” diets. Maybe one of these days I’ll pick up a few burgers and try it out!

We did pick up a few things while we were there. We got some homemade pasta: lemon pepper fettucini and garlic and basil fettucini.  To go along with the pasta, we also got some pesto and apple walnut butter.

For dinner, we made some of the pasta and slathered on the apple walnut butter and pesto! It was so good! There is a huge difference between fresh pasta and store bought.

It was so good! Luckily, we still have another pouch of pasta and leftover pesto!

Of course, we couldn’t leave the market without getting some sort of dessert. I heard the cannoli’s there were amazing so we picked up 4! This picture only shows two because we couldn’t wait until we got home to eat them…we sat in the car in the pouring rain enjoying our cannoli’s.

I had a peanut butter one that was amazing.

Cannoli’s wouldn’t necessarily be my dessert of choice. I’m not sure why though because these were really good!

I really enjoyed the market. I’d love to go again, maybe not on a Saturday and hopefully when the sun is out so we don’t have to sprint to our cars. I thought it was really neat though. I wish it was closer and open on more days (it’s only open 4 days a week)! It really is the kind of place you could get all your groceries from (perishable items that is). They even sell cheeses and olive oil!

So, if you ever come to Cleveland (which I’m sure all of you are dying to come), definitely stop at the West Side Market!