i'm at home home, not london home for this weekend. good to be home....but last night, i imagined that i would be home by 6 pm. but instead, i got home at midnight. here's what happened....so i took a tab around 3 to get my tickets and stuff for the 3:50 train, but there was HUGE line up, the tickets were sold out, even first class, and the train was 45 minutes late. no tickets. nothing. i couldn't even go as pet cargo. i even considered stuffing myself in my suitcase and going as luggage. but i guess i have too much pride to go as human cargo. so instead, i left my stuff at the station, and decided to get my hair cut until the 7 pm train arrived, almost fell asleep in the stylists chair, came back to the station, spotted leora, and we decided to go have a feast at this indian restaurant across from the station because the 7 pm train was going to be an hour and a half late.

THIS FEAST OF INDIAN PROPORTIONS!!!!! i cannot tell you how FLAVORFUL this food is. we thought it would be a good idea to get plastered for the ride, and ordered a half litre of red wine, and upon ordering, leora admitted she had already had two glasses at home. my cheeks flaring and my fingers becoming tingly at the first two sips, we dug into onion bhaji and samosas...coupled with this sweet, thick, orange sauce. it's been a long time since i'd had anything deep fried, and onion bhaji is a good thing to return to...deep fried onions, crispy brown on the outside, hearty and full of spices on the inside, drenched with that sweet chutney-type orange sauce...aaaaaaaahhhhh YUMMY!!!!!!

i LOVE mixing food together. i love intermingling, mixed up, 10-different-flavors-and-textures-on-one-bite food, like korean bi-bim bap, which is hot sauce, rice, all sorts of vegetables, meat, eggs, all stirred together in a storm, or all these things bubbbling inside a spicy spicy broth (but not intestines, i stop there, i can't eat that). we ordered butter chicken - which doesn't taste like chicken with a vat of butter on top - it has an orange-yellow look to it, but it tastes like a creamy, sweeter gourmet-type version of the dressing they put on big macs (sorry, that's the only thing i can think of right now), minus the relish bits....and you stir that up with basmati rice, and we also ordered this special dish, a chef's recommendation, i believe....meat in a VERY SPICY deep red/brown curry sauce...and the meat pulled apart so tenderly...i almost cried, both from joy and from spiciness....oh man, it was heaven. after weeks of oatmeal in the morning, a turkey sandwich on multigrain and bits and scraps of this and that for dinner, this explosion of flavors was just so heart-wrenching in a good way...

the ride home, finally, starting at about 9, arriving in toronto 11pm...was such a good time...sprawled out on those seats that are supposed to fit a family...we had our yucky boots up on the other chairs, all that good indian food churning and burning on our guts, TMJ and operative texts out on the desks but ignored...home late, but it was a good time...