London. The love of my life. 

Whenever anyone tells me that they are going, I get so excited for them and want to tag along, too. I start rambling about all the places to go, things to do, restaurants to try; my mind and mouth running away on tangents about my favorite things and how when I lived there it kept a piece of my heart until whoever I’m talking to looks at me with wide eyes, nods their head, “Oh. Ok” and walks away thinking, “crazy girl.”

My Anglo-philia is strong.

It’s no doubt because I spent a semester there, and for me that semester came at a time when I most wanted to escape. Escape law school.   Escape a city that fit me like a shoe two sizes small.  Escape a life that was starting to feel claustrophobic.

The thing with London is that when I go, I don’t need to do anything. It’s the one place in the world where I go and just be. I love the mere fact that I’m there. Sure, there is tons to see, but I just love everything about it so much, than when I’m there, I know I’d rather be no where else.

I love the people. While they can be grumpy at times (who isn’t), I see it a little bit of a challenge to break through the uptight. I love the cadence of their speech. The accent. The pace. The phrases.

I love walking around a city steeped in so much history; buildings hundreds of years old that have seen wars, famine, leaders good and bad.  And it makes me smile the biggest smile when someone asks me for directions.

And after the horrible weather that we had in Iceland, London couldn’t have offered a more welcome change of pace.  Seventy and sunny the whole time.  

Clearly London loves me as much as I love it.  

Ask anyone that has lived or even been to London, and each will give you their own must-see list 100 things long.  If you’re ever going to Londontown, here are my suggestions for things to do after you’ve checked off Buckingham Palace and Tower Hill.

My London. (more…)

Hello, Sunday.

Fall is in the air! Perhaps a bit of a delayed reaction, but I missed the first time fall was in the air here in Chicago because I was on vacation, and then this week summer had made a harsh and sticky return.  However, yesterday was the picture of perfection, and it seems this week will follow suit, and that makes me all kinds of happy. Bust out the sweats!  

I’m easing back into real life, my cold is getting better and I’m finally back into caring about being home.  I was in a serious post-vacation funk.  I just did not want to be home.  Does that happen to you?  And then I watched the news and before my eyes flashed all the horrible things vacation enabled me to forget.  London, take me back!

But then I remembered that I love my friends and I love my city, and that fun things are happening back here about which to get excited:  football, pot lucks, changing leaves and cooking allthefallfoods.  And you should get excited…lots of goodies to come.

Here are a few things I found this week.  Not too much, I was distracted by Sleepy Hollow and wading through pictures and my Bloglovin’ feed. (more…)

Meet Tomato. If you’ve been following along for any sort of time, you may not actually know her, but you know her. We met in college oh-so-many years ago, and neither one of us seems to be able or wiling to shake the other.  She, along with Lettuce, makes up my up the third in our trio of caballeros.    The mistress of mischief, she is the instigator, and it’s because of her that I found myself shivering on a mountain in Nepal 4 years ago, and also because of her that I’ve amassed such an impressive collection of passport stamps.  Never one to say no to a vacation or a meal, she’s a pretty good egg to have around.  

This is a long one, but I promise a good one.  I could have edited it, but rather I chose to keep it as is, because it tells the story of the trip that inspired me to start this blog almost three years ago.  Ireland, the people, the country and the food that won me over and started my little food adventure, which is another epic journey of sorts. So, I leave it to Tomato to tell the tale.

I’ve procrastinated for a few weeks now – unsure of what to write, or where to start, but in the 11^th hour, I’m finally ready.  As I near the end of this, I apologize for its length…but Ireland ended up being an epic journey, through food and mistakes.  And though I tried to abridge myself, epics require lots of words…so here goes.  First, let me introduce myself.

Hi, I’m Dawn…often times referred to as Tomato here on Hungary Buddha.  I went to University with Chrissy and have literally been traveling and eating around the world with her since we graduated.  I wouldn’t consider myself a foodie, since most of the time I’m not sure what I’m ordering, how it “should” taste, how it’s made, or as I’ve found – what country it’s from.  I do however love to travel, love to eat, and the adventurous streak in me runs deep into the river of ridiculousness…which Chrissy is only happy to accompany me on.

I spent the last couple of weeks wondering what I could guest blog about, but opportunity after opportunity passed me by.  I ate at two new places, ordered from my favorite Thai place, experimented with a few new recipes – and each time I forgot to take a photo, or deemed the light to be too low to take nice photos. 

I got updates from all my friends traveling around the world while I worked in Green Bay – eating cheese and drinking Spotted Cow.  Exciting, I know…but I had one friend touring Ireland asking for suggestions as to where to eat, and it brought me back to one of the best accidental food trips I’d ever been on.  And wouldn’t you know, Chrissy was there with me – and coincidentally, it was that trip that started this blog. (more…)