On Saturday, infowidget and I went down to Columbus to do a couple of things. The most important (besides that whole "seeing family" thing) was to go to Tropical Bistro - something I've been attempting to do for about a year now.

Why? Well, to answer that requires some Columbus history - From March 22, 1961 until August 25,2000(dates courtesy of here), Columbus was home to The Kahiki, perhaps my favorite restaurant. Sadly, the family that ran it sold the land so that yet another Walgreens could be built, and they could continue their foray into the frozen food business. The owner promised he'd rebuild it downtown, but that's now seven years ago.

Fast forward to last year. At some point I stumbled across this link, which was doubly interesting, as a) it involved something along the lines of a reincarnation of the Kahiki, and b) the author of the post was in a band that was very influential to me. I then bided my time, waiting for the appropriate time and reason to go. My parents being down there on a weekend we could go was reason enough!

So first we drove down to the RV campground my parents are staying at slightly outside of the metro area. After our drive down from Cleveland, it was dinnertime, so we made our way to I-270, and then onward to Hilliard. The restaurant wasn't too hard to find, as it's in a big strip mall next to a Lowes. It's quite a bit smaller than the Kahiki, but it definitely lives up to the hype. It's got a fair bit of the original furniture from the Kahiki, slightly mixed with some of the furniture left over from when the space was previously a Chinese restaurant.

Drinkwise, I opted for a Zombie, as I'm a big fan - I have two of the skull mugs at home. For dinner, I opted for the Islander Flaming Chicken, since they bring it out to you and set it on fire, and that's always fun for everyone in the place to watch. infowidget opted for the General Tso's Chicken, and found it to be tastier than the Kahiki frozen version, funnily enough. We then made our way back to the RV park and visited some more, and then went to bed.

On Sunday, my aunt and uncle came by and we all talked for a while, and then my parents, infowidget, and I made our way to The Andersons General Store. It's a strange, wonderful place. Where else can your cart include all of this?

• A pair of hiking boots


• A pair of GMRS/FRS walkie-talkies


• A bottle of Harviestoun Old Engine Oil


• A jar of coconut oil


• some Hodgson Mill hot cereal


• some flavored coffee

Answer: The Andersons. That's where. That place is probably more responsible for my being a beer snob than anywhere else, as they were the first place I grew up around to sell individual bottles of "exotic" beers. I'm actually surprised I only got the one beer there. They also had no problems accepting a 4 1/2 year old gift certificate I'd had laying around, so that was bonus.

We then went for dinner at The Mad Greek in Whitehall, which is not related to the Cleveland Heights restaurant of the same name. This is located in a former Zantigo restaurant, but is not fast food. I went for the lamb kebabs, which were quite tasty. infowidget opted for kibbie, which caused great confusion, as it is both on the appetizer menu and the main course menu. The lemon chicken soup was ok, but seemed a little short on the lemon. My mother, who usually raves about it, seemed to think it was a bit off as well. The hummus was quite good as well. Overall, the experience was indeed on the plus side, and it reminded me a bit of Vasos, which used to be just down the street back in the day.

After dinner, we went back to the RV and visited some more, and then said our goodbyes and headed back to Cleveland.