Chaat houses and booze

As things turned out, it took me just about...4 minutes into amreekan land to find alcoholic drinks: they were on the plane. Seriously, you begin to wonder at the credibility of an airline where the air-hostesses smell of booze. Nevertheless, we somewhat miraculously survived the plane ride (despite being seated next to an old Indian alcoholic who managed to find an r-rated movie on a kids-friendly airplane) and took our first steps into the land of opportunities. I then tripped on the horizontal escalator, something I wasn't even aware is possible. After being helped by some creepily cheerful employees, we found our way outside, where our relatives were waiting. My first thought was, I am ashamed to admit, something that went like "OMYHOLYGODCOOOOLD," but then my mom distracted me by pointing to a lady and her dog who looked startlingly alike. This amused me for about five minutes, after which we were already in our cars and headed home.


Home is my grandparent's new place. They just moved in, so it was highly confusing and disorganized for a couple of days, until we figured what to do with our ten suitcases worth of stuff. All this time, however, we happily introduced ourselves to America's favorite past-time: eating. Because I am Muslim, I can't eat meat here, a serious disadvantage that has ruined my tummy's image of America as heaven. There are, however, a lot of Indians here. And I mean, a LOT. So yay, Indian food!


There is a chaat house near our place. The "chaat" is in orange, the "house" in green, and the background is white: they take their nationality seriously. The interior was deliciously Indian (all the more delicious because of the hot desi dude at the cashier), with a t.v playing Tamil songs and a miniature Taj Mahal at the entrance. The chaat was surprisingly good though, considering the restaurant looked more like a place for ugly desi college dudes to hang out rather than some place selling home-prepared Indian food. There was daal there too. Disappointing, since I crossed the seven seas to ESCAPE from daal. Well, I guess we all can't have everything.


More later, keep up the desi-ness. Take care!