I have been meaning to write about my lovely birthday dinner all week, but I’ve been distracted by the torrents of rain and trying to catch up on work. I keep hearing the song “I Need A Dollar” by Aloe Blacc. Probably because I listen to it about 20 times a day.  Who’s watching the HBO show How To Make It In America? I just adore that show.  But I digress.

Last Friday we went to Iguana, the closest thing Budapest has to a Tex Mex restaurant, a tradition I really miss from my American birthdays (and also the other 51 weekends of the year).

Iguana is a pretty good cantina-style joint. The food is good and the drinks are good and I won’t write a review about it here because considering the amount of American and British accents I heard last Friday, I’m sure that if you live here and are reading this blog, you’ve already been there. Really, I didn’t hear one Hungarian word all night.

We had a nice mix of foods, and the drinks from a few pictures above were called Bloody Brains, which Zsolt insisted that we order. They were delicious and fun and about 1/2 the price of the mid-grade tequila. Plus they felt creepy and brainy in the mouth, which was a selling point for me! Flavor? Sweet with a woody after-bite.  Mouth feel?  Brainy.

The japapeno poppers were especially delicious. I love this picture because of Györgyi’s creeping shadow going in for another kill. We didn’t take pictures of all of the food because the lighting was bad. And our hands were full…

At least we kept our promise to not mix drinks.

The night was such a blast though. Zsolt and Szilvi gave me two tickets to attend a beer academy! And I am seriously going to add this course to my CV once we’ve attended. And Marci and his girlfriend Ági were also able to make it, even though Marci was stuck in Szeged most of the day.

It was honestly one of the best birthday dinners I’ve ever had. And just so I wouldn’t forget my previous brush with important lessons of cake candle fire safety—

A birthday candle that really announced its presence.