In his own words...

I'm not a talented enough writer to adequately explain how my stomach is feeling right now, but I'm going to give it a try anyway.

As I sit in seat 36B on my flight from London to Chicago, my stomach is turning, twisting, rumbling, and growling. If it could, I bet my stomach would ask me why I had to stuff so much food in it over the last four days.

So no, that probably didn't paint a clear enough picture for you of how I feel, but I think if you read the rest of this post you'll have a better understanding of what's going on.

I'm on my way back from visiting Carly in London and she's asked me to write a guest blog post (ok, ok, I begged her to let me). Naturally, I think it would go against the spirit of this blog to write about anything else other than what we ate over the last four days. And, if I can sprinkle in some details about the things we did not related to eating, well, that's just frosting on the cupcake (cue Carly getting hungry).
My culinary tour of London started after our trip to the British Museum on Thursday morning with falafel at Cafe Diana (a restaurant oddly obsessed with Princess Di, there was zero wall space not occupied by a picture of her) and picked up that evening when the tapas restaurant and its sangria ended up being well worth the long wait in the cold. Even though most of the menu was written in a language unfamiliar to me, Carly did a nice job translating what all the different sauces and veggies actually were. I think Carly's favorite was the apple's in the sangria or the chutney-topped bruschetta while I was more partial to the sweat potato polenta.

Friday meant filling up on sushi, then taking the next couple of hours to explore Harrods where the highlights were finding out that they had a puppy department and taking advantage of the free jellybean samples. Walking around Harrods was all just a buildup however to eating a Berry flavored ice-cream sundae in the food hall that put a smile on both of our faces and left me in desperate need of a nap (although we managed to squeeze in a visit to Buckingham Palace first).

Dinner that night was nachos and some terrific fish 'n chips at a nearby pub where I enjoyed a pint and also got to experience a taste of Carly's new favorite drink "Pims" (my verdict: good, but definitely not a drink for guys). Sadly the pub we went to didn't serve mushy peas, but we still had a good time eating London's most famous food while sipping on cider.

Now, like most of you who have been following along with the blog, I've heard a lot about Portobello Road. I'm pleased to say that our experience there on Saturday morning did not disappoint. My favorite part of the market was Hummingbird Bakery where we picked up a couple of cupcakes (Carrot Cake and Red Velvet) that were both terrific. After that, we enjoyed the smells of all the different vendors' booths that extended for several blocks. Had my stomach not been bothering me I might have sampled the Ghanaian stews or maybe the Chorizo, but picking up the cupcakes was satisfying enough.
Saturday afternoon's trip to the Churchill and Imperial War Museum was much more interesting than even I had anticipated and after seeing the dark and cramped headquarters from which Churchill planned WWII, visiting the famous toy store Henley's was a nice change of pace. The day wouldn't have been complete though without a stop at McDonald's so Carly could finally try the Cadbury Egg McFlurry. Though my family has long argued that it is impossible not to smile while eating ice cream, I think the smile on Carly's face as she ate her McFlurry was extra big.

Perhaps our best meal came Friday night at the Fountain Restaurant in Fortnum & Mason where appetizers of mussels and chicken liver pate preceded my terrific steak, Carly's fish cakes, and something called "carrot and swede mash" which was also very good. Dessert brought orange pekoe tea for Carly and us sharing a Baked Alaska, which was the perfect way to finish off a really great evening.

Later on, Carly showed me her favorite late-night food place where we picked up lamb kabob, french fries, salad, and hummus at 2 a.m. Though the food wasn't as good as I'd imagined, the experience of going there late at night was a lot of fun.

We started my last day, Sunday, with lunch at Carly's favorite pub "The Champion" where my cheeseburger and her veggie burger provided us with the energy to spend our afternoon exploring Hyde Park. There we saw the famous statue of Peter Pan (which prompted Carly to make us watch "Finding Neverland" later on) and took pictures of the swans and ducks around the lake. Thankfully, it was sunny most of the day and believe it or not I went the entire four-day trip without ever experiencing anything more than light rain. Very lucky for me.

Sunday night's dinner was brought on by a critical mistake I had made in the days leading up to my trip when I told Carly that I had never tried Indian food. This meant Carly insisting we go to Brick Lane to find a nice Indian restaurant. Let's just say it wasn't my favorite and leave it at that. Fortunately, we found a bakery where Indian desserts made a much better impression on me.

And that brings us back to my stomach. Sitting on the plane I find myself reliving all the great meals we had this weekend, much to the chagrin of my stomach, which experienced something of an overload. I'm disappointed to head back to Madison where my meal options include Subway and trying not to overcook pasta.

It's quite clear to me that I'm going to miss the food I've tried in London, but it is even more clear that the thing I'm going to miss most is the company I got to keep while eating it.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this guest blog post as much as I enjoyed my visit to see Carly in London. Four days was just too short. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take another Tums.