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| - The West Side Market is the singular thing that I miss about Cleveland. It is truly a food lover's paradise!
It was worth the half hour drive in each direction to cruise the market for fresh produce and meats and ethnic treasures from every culture. I grew up in the St. Louis area where locals loved the Soulard farmer's market (second to West Side Market, but not a close second...), lived in New York City with it's bustling Union Square farmer's market (lovely, but still tiny compared to this place), and now San Francisco with its Alameny farmer's market that backs up traffic onto the highway. None other compares to West Side Market.
On a student's budget, I was able to live like a gourmet. I left the market each visit with bundles of fresh cheeses, trimmed to order meats, ripe produce (not easy to find in middle America in the dead of winter), fragrant flowers (ditto), seafood (ditto), kielbasa, turkish delight, handmade pasta, pizza bagels, cheese cake of any flavor and size, olives, rose water, basil, vindaloo sauce, wasabi powder, pierogies, & fresh-squeezed juice (and many other things that I just can't think of now...).
If you're ever in Cleveland, take a trip to the West Side Market and have a feast for me. What an incredible place!
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