To celebrate Steph’s first day at work, we drove down to Sioux Falls for record shopping and curry. I love driving through the midwest:
As it happens, the record shop was pretty poor. I was very excited, but kept getting assured by Emma and Steph that “it really isn’t that great.” They were right. It turned out to basically be a head shop with a few racks of second hand CDs and DVDs, and a small section of vinyl (an even smaller sub-section devoted to new vinyl!) I didn’t buy anything, although I did flirt with the idea of getting a really obnoxious tie-die t-shirt, or a cup-and-ball magic set, or some other form of mindless rubbish that I didn’t really need.
We then found the Hallowe’en Boo-tique that we had seen advertised on the interstate. Americans take Hallowe’en way more seriously than us, and set up temporary shops selling nothing but spooky merchandise. We bought a beer bong in the shape of a skull, and tried on a lot of hats and masks:
This outfit in particular made me laugh hard. I love that someone is going to go to a Hallowe’en party dressed as a satirical BP worker:
After working up an appetite by having that much fun, we went to Shahi Palace for Indian food:
It was interesting to see how different Indian food is over here (or at least in the restaurant we went to). For one, they don’t have onion bhajis, and they don’t serve poppadums with a pickle tray. I usually order a rogan josh, but they only seemed to offer a lamb rogan josh, and the waiter was reluctant to allow me to have it with chicken. Completely unlike Britain, where you pick the curry and the meat. Also, rather than a certain curry being a certain heat, you get offered how hot you want it. I said I wanted it hot, and the waiter repeatedly warned me that it was hot. I said it was fine. He came back later to check my order, and once again warned me and told me it was very hot, until I broke down and let him have his way. I wanted a hot curry, but I wanted to keep my waiter happy also. Steph had a vindaloo “as hot as you can make it” because that’s how she rolls. The trouble with this approach is that the curry doesn’t seem to be a balance of spice and flavour; rather, it tastes like a curry with a certain amount of raw chili added to it. The chili flavour doesn’t seem to be cooked in, which spoilt it a little for me (well, when I tried Steph’s vindaloo… mine was like a korma). It was an experience, but I can categorically state that Indian food in the UK is superior.
We went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, which is literally the best thing ever. Mine consisted of cake batter ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and chunks of cookie dough. We all gorged on creamy goodness…
…then drove home, and Steph went to work.
The Adventures of a Welshman in America 