Cincinnati and Easter Specials

We finally got out of the 'Ville. We visited Cincinnati for the day, our agenda clear save for our usual aspirations - eat something yummy and walk somewhere pretty. Both were easily accomplished on our first trip together to this surprisingly charming city.

I laughed as we drove down the last stretch of highway into the city because it struck me that this city looks like the flip-flop of Louisville. Both are on the banks of the Ohio River. Louisville is all on the Kentucky side, the northern side of the river in Indiana looking oddly peaceful and empty. Cincinnati and all of its tall buildings are on the Ohio side, the southern Kentucky side looking green and rural by comparison.

We squeezed between skyscrapers and zipped through the CBD making a bee line towards the more hip and charming Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. It's here that I had scouted out a park and lunch destination for us on the drive up.

We parked in a pristine garage located beneath Washington Park - a picturesque green spread next to the historic Cincinnati Music Hall.

Bordered by beautiful brick buildings and perfectly manicured for spring, filled with lunch-breaking businessmen and happy families, this park offered a great first impression of the city.

 

But we passed through the park quickly, our stomachs reminding us that our destination awaited us. It's the building on the right, with the yellow crown sign - A Taste of Belgium.

Atmosphere, tastes, style - this place aces all three.

And something happened that is a rarity for whenever we eat out - Isaac and I ordered the same thing! Spicy chicken and belgian waffles, served alongside a sophisticated tangy salad to cut through the grease and sugar, and to make you feel a little less guilty.

We called it brunch and went all out with drinks too - a fancy Belgian beer for him and a candied orange peel and dark chocolate iced coffee for me.

After our hearty and perfect brunch, we walked around Over-The-Rhine a bit and window shopped. It's full of striking old buildings, now housing unique restaurants and cute independent stores stuffed with locally made goods.

We waited at a street corner for the light to change for me to get this shot. At first I was annoyed at this guy crossing the street, but then I realized he's the perfect local to be strolling along in this scene. He's wearing an OH/KY shirt - a Cincy-inspired logo I saw on a few items in the shops around here.

Above is another shot of that same cute stretch of buildings, below is an old Kroger just further north at the edge of what seems to be OTR's gentrified and polished-up stretch.

We had such a fun day away in Cincinnati, and it made me remember how mentally recharging it is to do this kind of thing. To intentionally plan a time of fun, a day out of the ordinary devoted just to relaxation. With summer quickly approaching, I am feeling inspired.

I also want to share a few quick glimpses of the food highlights from our Easter weekend. We didn't have a huge spread, with it being just the two of us, but I did try to make the weekend special with two interesting dishes.

The first is spaghetti medici - a simple tomato sauce with anchovies that we fell in love with in the Tuscan countryside of Italy. The recipe I found took canned anchovies, red wine and a long time, but was totally worth it in the end. The cooking process was fascinating for my nose - smelling the changes in flavor and complexity as the cooking went along.

 Anchovies don't get enough appreciation for the tastiness they add to many dishes. I'm so happy that a container of this sauce awaits us in the freezer for the next time we want to pretend to be fancy on our balcony.

I also made my first carrot cake from scratch. Shredding three cups of carrots on my handheld grater was no small feat, but was again worth every ounce of trouble. There was plenty for coffee breaks and tea times and enough to share with friends and family too! I just decided to try and make this an Easter tradition. Partly because it's festive and I love carrot cake, but also because I don't think I have the mental or physical strength to grate carrots more than once a year.

One of the many things I learned from my mom is that a holiday isn't done well unless it leaves your kitchen looking like the apocalypse. I proudly took the picture below before taking a deep breath in and putting on those dish-washing gloves.

Speed Art Museum

It's funny how a handful of extra degrees can improve your mood. It warmed me up to the Speed Art Museum, this local place that I've read about, and that we've even walked and driven by a few times and still managed to ignore.

It's Louisville's biggest and oldest art museum, nestled in the heart of the University of Louisville campus. Unlike its name and my false impression, the Speed Art Museum has nothing to do with quickness, it's just the last name of the founding couple. Its 60 million dollar renovation and expansion in recent years has made it into an impressive and impeccable palette to showcase and share art.

A local wine and spirits company called Brown-Forman made a huge donation (in honor of its former CEO and art-lover Owsley Brown II) which allows anyone to visit the museum for free every Sunday for the next five years. And so, on a cool but sunny Sunday, we finally checked it out.

Its variety, its size, its style - we were thoroughly impressed.

Their collection is like a painter's palette with tasty samples spanning the ages and world - memorial artifacts from ancient cultures of Egypt, China and Rome tucked just around the corner from European art made in the last few centuries. Tribal creations and modern mixed media and folk art. Improv musicians and interactive art for kids and a theater. Private trinkets of the museum's founders and a floor dedicated to bluegrass grown pieces. Can I stop rambling and get on with the highlights? Gosh, I'll try. There were a bunch. I'll mention them as we saw on our meandering walk through the floors.

The eye-catching color combo in this Picasso above and this remarkably detailed unfinished work below. Can you see her tear? It seemed to be glistening and hanging off the canvas.

This room filled with giant King Louis tapestries and other stuff of Francophilic dreams. I gave up trying to take a picture of the stained glass windows that did them justice.

This elaborately carved wooden room from a house in England that was disassembled, moved and reassembled a handful of times before ending up here.

This impractical but oddly satisfying dresser.

The many tributes to Kentucky's favorite son, Abraham Lincoln.

A tiny handcut silhouette.

An incredibly patient and cute husband hanging in after 120 minutes of museum wandering.

Lovely, calm strokes and colors.

Adam naming the animals in this huge piece that took up a large wall, letting you lean in and see the hare stretched out next to the fox, and the dogs already at man's side.

It is a wonderful place, and we both reached our art appreciation limit before we reached the museum's end. Lucky for us, there are plenty more Sundays open for us to take our time exploring the Speed Art Museum.