Important notes from this week:
– Term complete, exams part of the past, and the piece of my soul that had been sacrificed to the uni gods returned unharmed.
– Christmas package from awesome friends arrived.
– Said package prompted me to finally go get that Christmas tree. Waiting to be set up after I clean my flat.
– I finally bought a frying pan. Eggs will soon follow. I look forward to fried and hard-boiled. Mmm, a whole new dietary element. What more could I ask for at Christmas?
– Discovery of the falafel burrito.
Let me say a word about that last point. I am relatively unfamiliar with falafel. I’m not even sure that I’ve spelled it right. The stuff is fine, but it tends to taste a bit dry to me, and either unspectacular or slightly awkward. I don’t really know what’s in it, but the other day when I sat down to eat a little falafel while watching a zombie movie, I decided that I was far too disturbed by the similarities between falafel and zombie flesh to continue both activities at once.
That said, I recently realized that what is probably Edinburgh’s one place with any food remotely Mexican is sitting less than 50 metres down the street from me. Mexican was what I expected to miss the most coming to Scotland (no offence friends, family, and deep-dish pizza. Feel free to take offence, copious amounts of snow…) . So when I walked in and saw that, indeed, I could actually order an honest-to-goodness burrito, I tried not to get too visibly gleeful. Though I was tempted to order in Spanish.
They sell three burritoes: chicken, spicy beef, and felafel. Chicken sounded by far the least dangerous. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that it would be a real burrito at all, but figured if they had the gall to call it one that it must be passably burrito-esque enough to suit my desperation.
[I'll have you know that I've just resisted a pun on gall-->gaul-->gaelic/celtic-->scotland. The picts are rolling over in their graves.]
In short, it was a real burrito. I was stunned. I was thrilled. I’ve gone back several times, and I’ve subsequently tried the spicy beef (yummy) and the falafel. I’ll tell you what, it works. It still isn’t quite good enough to eat while watching zombie flesh, but it’s good. And not just because it’s in a burrito. I’ve got the curry place, the burrito place, and the cheap stovie place all on my doorstep. Is it a wonder that it took me so long to buy a frying pan?
5 Comments
ah, but have you gone to the pasty place? If you haven’t, you really haven’t lived. It’s near the royal mile, and if I had my map here I’d pinpoint it for you. Because you need to go there. I ate a chicken pasty there almost every day I was in scotland.
mmm, I miss pasties.
Sean – I have so enjoyed reading your blog this fall. It makes me want to visit Scotland. One of my student workers is from there and she is homesick for all you are seeing/doing. — We will miss seeing you at Omelet Fest next week. But, now that you have your own frying pan, and talk about buying eggs, you can fry up your own! — I laughed at your shopping experiences and the toilet paper. – You’ll get home and wish you could find such high quality TP! It all so reminds me of our years in Germany. — Hey – Teschos used to have a wonderful, decident Death By Chocolate frozen cake – like 7 different layers of chocolates. You should try it. — We love you and continue to pray for you. Have a Blessed, Merry Christmas. Lynn (and Tim)
Love the zombie flesh burrito idea. Taco Bell should nab that for Halloween.
P.S. UPDATE, HO.
Yes. Update, por favor.
i’ve been looking at this falafel burrito for so long, i’m gaining back all the weight i’ve lost…
now you’ll have to blog me some exercise; “my favorite walk around Edinburgh, especially during the Christmas/New Year’s break, is … “