road food: Buraka

food posts! I can't get enough. I am just now leaving LA, so I have things to say about that, but I'm going to take a step (couple weeks) back for this post. One of the best parts of riding around in a van across the country is trying out different non-chain restaurants. Trust me, I get enough of the chains also... to the point that Subway is literally making me gag just thinking about it. And it's far too early to be tired of Subway. Here's to another month!

However, when we land somewhere with something awesome, I'm gonna tell you kids about it. Enter, MADISON, WISCONSIN! One of my favorite college towns. I actually care nothing about the school, but the town is amazing. You've got your standard college bars, but they actually have above decent food also (woooo, happy crazy person dance in the street). PLUS, everyone is SO excited to be there. You can just feel college in the air. If you don't know what I mean, you haven't been to the right places.

I avoid sound check at all costs, so I took a walk from the hotel to meet Rp for dinner. I slid past the lovely capital building and successfully avoided harassment from their resident crazies that park themselves on benches outside of it. We discovered an Ethiopian joint, Buraka, so we were pretty content to try that out (as always).

Have you tried Ethiopian food? Well ya should. This is, hands down, Ron's favorite food & is pretty high up on the list for me. So, let me walk you through this.

1. You eat with your hands. While they will give you a fork if you ask for it - don't. It's better this way. Have I EVER misled you???
2. It's served with the perfect scooping tool - spongey bread called Injera. Tastes similar to sour dough.
3. If you order meat, beware that there are little bones floating around! Nobody wants to do the heimlich at dinner.
4. The vegetables might look gross, but THEY ARE NOT. Trust me on this one. Nothing is weird about them and you won't be sick all night from them. GAH. Grow up and eat your veggies!

Another cool thing about eating Ethiopian in various places is that it isn't standardized. Every kitchen is a little different and takes different things from where they learned to cook the cuisine. For instance, this one put potatoes in all of their vegetable dishes, haha.

So if these pictures do not totally gross you out (and you aren't a total wuss), you should go! We've been in New York, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Columbus, and now Madison. Take my word for it.

love/hate/comments below.