it was just a weekend full of visitors as my friend stacey came through town on sunday. we spent the day hanging out in central london, including a wander through covent garden. i mostly try to avoid any potential tourist areas during the summer, but i’m so glad we threw caution to the wind and went anyway, because it lead to two amazing discoveries.

first, i finally found the cybercandy store. i’ve known of its existence for a while, but never remembered to look up the address when i was planning to be in the area, or managed to find it just by chance. stacey, however, showed me the way, and oh. my. god. if there is such a thing as a candy-induced orgasm, then that’s exactly what i had. they had favourites i hadn’t seen since childhood, candies i wasn’t even sure they made any more. clark bars, chuckles, good-n-plenty, jolly rancher sticks, nik-l-nips, sky bars, pop rocks, and even the incredibly elusive, thoroughly new england moxie. they also had some of my favourites from other countries – like the delicious cherry ripes, violet crumbles, and snifters from australia/new zealand, or the choco-bananas, alterna-kit-kats and pocky that j and i became addicted to during our travels through asia. it was pure, unadulterated, sugar-coated, sticky bliss. i barely made it out of the store with my credit card intact.

the second fabulous discovery of the day was a new mexican restaurant called wahaca. i’d read a review in one of the papers, and knew it was in the covent garden area, but it took ringing stacey’s husband and having him research it online to find the place. and it was soooo worth it.

good mexican food is a rarity on this little island, with the disappointments and “wtf?”s far outweighing the pleasant “mexican” dining experiences to be had. the best one can usually hope for is a reasonable facsimile of something tex-mex-ish and a margarita that at least has lime in it, (i was once served, in all seriousness, a double shot of tequila on ice as a margarita), so we weren’t expecting much. we ordered mexican tapas-like “street food”, tortillas with guac, and margaritas for our late lunch. and what a pleasant surprise! the food was flavourful and fresh and even pretty authentic. the sauces were balanced with just the right amount of heat, the guacamole had no cream in it, just chunky avo, tomato, onion and a hint of cilantro. and the margarita… all i can say is i had resigned myself to throwing £5 down the drain when i ordered it, but it was easily the best margarita i’ve had in the u.k. – and better than many i’ve had in the states. liquid gold it was, and we savoured every last drop. to top it off, it was all very reasonably priced (can you say free tortilla chip refills?) the only niggle was the service, which could’ve been much better (er, like bringing the appetizers and drinks *before* the food, not 10 minutes after). and even with that, it was a veritable gem of a find.

a few photos of the day w/ stacey.

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