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Happy Cinco de Mayo.

ON Google for a Columbus Mexican restaurant… “actually mexican, not chain feed? - A TripAdvisor Member? - Feb 24, 2008I had been looking for an actual mexican place where you can NOT find “burritos as big as your head,” or some chain with the word “grill” in the title. I found it in Cananas”

Not anymore Cananas is no more.

We went out for Mexican food on Saturday night.. Not because it was almost Cinco de Mayo (it was Tres de Mayo) but because in the Dining Club booklet had a Mexican restaurant that said it was in Worthington, Cananas. I said “call and make sure they are still open.” It was not late… and I wasn’t concerned with their hours. I meant are they still in business and where the heck are they? With a 5225 address on High Street, I knew they were not in Worthington. I could not place a Mexican Restaurant on High St. south of Worthington but not as far south as Clintonville… so he called… they were “open until 11:00″ and “we’re near Morse Rd.” Again what time they were open until was NOT the point.

We found Cananas after driving up and down High Street… they were having a grand opening under their new name (the point of the phone call was … was the offer we were looking at still valid!) 5225 N. High St. Columbus Ohio

We had dinner at Mariachi on Maple Canyon instead. They were in the Dining Club booklet. We used to eat there when that restaurant was called Cancun and we thought we’d had a similar experience there, showing up to Cancun and it was now under a new name and management. That is unless of course we were mixing Cancun up with Puerta Valarta off Schrock (Flags Center.) We definitely went to eat at Puerta Valarta once and it was not Puerta Valarta anymore and it was not another Mexican restaurant either

Mariachi. OK. We had the chile relleno and tamal combination. It was not as good a chile relleno as back when they were Cancun. Or was that Puerta Valarta?

Happy Cinco de Mayo… what’s your favorite Central Ohio Mexican restaurant?

I don’t read Men’s Health Magazine. The Men’s Health Magazine website has “tons of useful stuff” (it says so.) Men’s Health Magazine is just not my kind of magazine for obvious reasons but if I EVER need to remind myself what 6 pack abs look like, I’m glad to have the link to their website. I am not sure if the list of cities with Columbus being “one of the most sexually satisfied” cities in the nation is just in the magazine or if it is there somewhere on the Magazine’s website.

The sad news as reported by The Other Paper? The sad news is that Columbus is only number two… to Indianapolis. Columbus will just have to try harder.

I do read The Other Paper, “Sex in the City” by Lyndsey Teter is the April 24, 2008 cover story. Entertaining story if you like ‘The Other Paper.’ If you don’t like The Other Paper by all means move along… don’t read it… do not click on the link.

I love the local comments about the Men’s Health Magazine list and how unscientific it is (births, prophylactics, toy buying is the basic formula used by the magazine to determine satisfaction with sex as a city as I understand it, from The Other Paper.) The quote I love the most is from Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller:

“And if we don’t want to attract, you know, perverts from bordering states, I don’t think that this should be discussed publicly.”

Sorry. No wonder Mayor Coleman avoided commenting for “The Other Paper.”

Columbus has made lists in that magazine before for being the fattest city…

Columbus is one of the 10 Most Affordable Markets… in the United States.

It’s not just a matter of living “cheap” it is a matter of living well. Did I miss blogging on this last fall? Columbus made a list last fall on Forbes.com  It looks like I may have missed this one.

Forbes.com Slideshow of the 10 Most Affordable Markets

I did catch that we are a stable housing market…

Columbus Housing Market is Stable

I saw it on cable news one day… the local news the next.  The price of rice has gone up and there is rationing  I mean limiting at some stores. 

I bought a 10 pound bag of basmati rice for a family a couple of years ago as a Christmas present but kept it when I realized they had a 40 pound bag.  They’re  big basmati rice eaters…. they finished their 40 pounds loooooong before we finished the 10 pound (I bought it partly because I loved the fabric bag with a zipper top it was in… very pretty packaging.) 

This past Christmas this family gave me a 2 pound bag of basmati rice. 

The supply of some rice is a global problem according to a Busineess Week Article.   The news  just hit the US  media this week??? 

The Columbus Dispatch today has an article that local “big box” stores are limiting ” “Stores limit purchases of big bags of rice.”  I bought my big bag of rice (which lasted almost a year?  or was it two years?)  at Spice World on Worthington - Galena Road, an Indian Market.  I have bought basmati rice at Kroger before… I have never even been in Costco or a Sam’s Club so the limiting is probably not going to affect me.

According to the Columbus Dispatch article local restaurants are affected:

“Allyson Chang, owner of three Asian restaurants in Columbus, hopes the hike in rice prices doesn’t get steeper. She buys about 1,500 pounds of rice per week for her three restaurants: Hunan Lion on Bethel Road, Hunan House on E. Dublin-Granville Road and Kobe on Morse Road.

Last week, she paid 25 percent more for every 50-pound bag of rice. That’s the steepest increase Chang has seen in her 20 years running restaurants in Columbus. “

According to the Columbus Dispatch Chang said menu prices will not go up.

Lunch today “Bisible Bhath” over leftover basmati rice from last weekend.  Bisibele Bhath is a “spiced and cooked rice & lentil” dish, a prepared meal imported from India (bought at Spice World) according to the package.  In the Columbus Dispatch article in today’s paper it says :

“Retail experts said there is little evidence of “panic” hoarding by the public. As of now, it appears restaurants and smaller retailers have been buying up most of the stock on the expectation that prices will continue to rise.”

I got sucked into Utterz this AM…. I have resisted.  I have listened to a few “Utterz” before from people I know around the country.

I resisted despite the catchy ”be herd” tagline.  

My 2008 Social Media Plan did NOT include Utterz.  I believe I knew about Utterz at that point (early January 2008) and was actively resisting any urge to join.  What would I be joining if I was not committed to NOT joining.  I saw a Twitter about this Utterz.  I clicked on a link…

What is there about someone talking about Columbus weather that would break down my resistance to joining something else?  I’ll never know.  

Will I ever “Utterz” anything?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Who else in Columbus Utterz?