A Day in Cincinnati

We drove past Cincinnati many times before but never stopped. This time we thought we should visit Cincinnati for a day and we had a wonderful time there.

My main goal was to visit Jungle Jim's International Market, a huge grocery store that has just about everything from all over the world. I have seen it on TV many times, and always want to visit it. But driving 2 hours one way just to go to a grocery store seems a little excessive, so I found two other things to do: First, visiting the Krohn Conservatory at Eden Park in the morning, then trying a Peruvian restaurant for lunch before going shopping at Jungle Jim's.

1. A butterfly bench at Krohn Conservatory.


2. A beautiful "Christmas tree".


3. "Trains, Trestles and Traditions Holiday Show" at Krohn Conservatory.


4. "Trains, Trestles and Traditions Holiday Show" at Krohn Conservatory.


5. "Trains, Trestles and Traditions Holiday Show" at Krohn Conservatory.


6. "Trains, Trestles and Traditions Holiday Show" at Krohn Conservatory.


7. Cactus at Krohn Conservatory.


8. Cactus at Krohn Conservatory.


9. An apartment building near Eden Park.


10. A building near Eden Park.


11. The Peruvian restaurant we tried for lunch. They have really good reviews on Yelp. We ordered mixed Ceviche (raw seafood marinated in citrus juices) and Paella Peruvian style. They were both awesome. We are coming back to this place for sure.


12. Mixed Ceviche.


13. Paella Peruvian style.


After lunch, we were ready to go shopping. Jungle Jim's International Market is the biggest grocery store I have ever seen. And they have a lot of fun displays throughout the store to see. We could easily spend half a day here, but since it was the day before Christmas Eve, the store was packed with people, we just couldn't take it anymore after 2 hours. We'll come back next year to check it out again.

14. Entering the store.


15. Just inside the store. Make sure you get a map here so you know where things are.


16. Campbell's soup on a swing hanging in the air.


The Deli department has awesome mortadella from Italy (Leoncini Mortadella) for $7.69/lb and many kinds of Prosciutto (dry-cured ham). But it is the meat department that is my favorite. They have duck head for $1.19/lb, duck feet for $2.19/lb, pork snouts for $1.39/lb, pork tongues for $2.39/lb ...... I have never seen this kind of stuff in American store before.

17. Duck head in the meat department.


18. A flying pig in the meat department.


19. We found squid ink ($26.99/bottle) in the Seafood department. Ever since we had the amazing "spaghetti with squid in black sauce" at Venice (2009) and awesome "black rice" at Barcelona (2011), we have been looking for squid ink. This is the first time we see it in store.


20. Holiday decoration.


21. A fire truck display in the Hot Sauces department.


22. We found Maranatha organic peanut butter ($10.69 for a 26 oz jar) in the Natural Foods department. Maranatha is Dave's favorite brand of peanut butter, and Jungle Jim's price is really good.


There are many departments we skipped completely because we were so tired in the end. Who knows what we will find there. I know for sure we are coming back to this store. It is totally worth the drive.