An amazing thing happened to me on Saturday. It was a sad day since I was leaving Austin after an amazing 8 weeks there, and I had a layover in Atlanta which I was less than pleased about. While walking to my gate, I saw a restaurant called French Meadow out of the corner of my eye. My heart felt sad since French Meadow is one of my absolute favorite restaurants in Minneapolis and I was annoyed at the blatant reminder that I missed Minnesota and couldn't go to my favorite restaurant for dinner. But looking closer I couldn't believe my eyes. It was MY French Meadow! By an amazing twist of fate, there is a French Meadow in the Atlanta airport and not only that, they had my favorite sandwich! I quickly bought my curried chicken croissant sandwich, texted all my Minnesota besties my news and sat down ready to eat perfection. I was so happy, I felt giddy. With all the excitement and expectation, this story could have ended badly. One of my dear friends even tried to lower my expectations, saying that it might taste like the worst sandwich ever, but thankfully that was not the case. French Meadow tastes just as good, if not better, in the Atlanta airport!
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| My happy place in the Atlanta airport |
Needless to say, I love food. I also love Minnesota. During my time in Austin, an awesome lady sent me a map she made for her friends of all her favorite restaurants in Austin in an effort to help them narrow down their ideas of places to try. For a geography major and a foodie, it was a genius idea and one I knew I had to replicate. With another friend of mine heading to the Twin Cities soon, I finally took the time to make my Twin Cities Food Map. While it inevitably made me slightly homesick, it was also so fun to map all my food memories and think about all the wonderful people I have eaten with at these restaurants.
After making my Twin Cities Food Map, I realized that making Food Maps is the perfect way to remember all the delicious food I've eaten. It creates a fun digital diary of memories, while also a useful reminder of the places I want to go to again. It's also a really useful tool! I can now send it to friends who are visiting, or even use it myself when I find myself without dinner plans in a different part of town. As someone who tends to get hangry and consequently indecisive, I am hoping this will also be a breakthrough in preventing hangryness. I'm now planning on making a Food Map for each new city I go to. Thanks to Google Maps, making a Food Map is also super easy, especially if you have a google account. Go to "your places," and "create a new map." You can then placemark everything manually or just search for it and add it by clicking "save to map". Voilá! Food map created.
So Lady Bit friends I wanted to share the love and pass on my Twin Cities food map. I hope you enjoy it! Where are your favorite places?
View Food! In the Twin Cities! in a larger map
I recently discovered I Nonni in Lilydale at the intersection of 35E and Hwy 13 just south of downtown St. Paul. It is the best Italian food I've had in my life-- including the food I had in Italy (granted, I was poor when I went and only ate at crap tourist places). You can get a three-course, prix-fixe menu at $45 per person, and paired wines for another $20. Definitely too expensive for every day, but perfect for a special occasion. There's a pasta bar and Italian grocery next-door owned by the same folks. I can't wait to go back! http://www.inonnirestaurant.com/
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