Halal Birthday

Yesterday was Lucy’s 32nd birthday. Her boyfriend, Louis, came to visit from Shanghai and we all went out (including Tina and Reena) for Indian cuisine, my favorite. There are three Indian restaurants in Hangzhou and the five of us trekked to all three to get service. The last, of course, was finally a success. The first two seemed to be practically empty and devoid of hosts or waiters. The third was a place I had been to before and was familiar with their food, so the wait was well worth it, in my opinion (free West Lake beer with the buffet!). The only thing missing this time was the belly dancer.

I stuffed my face with all the vegetarian dishes and even went up for seconds. The makings of my rare feast included heaps of plain nan, lemon rice, vegetable curry, mushroom chili, spicy red potatoes, veggie pakora, and an appetizer dish of cold chickpeas and cucumber with cardamom.

It had been a while since my last beer (my September trip to Laramie, in fact), so the amount of food helped keep me sober. I usually have absolutely zero tolerance for alcohol, considering my stomach/intestinal problems, but the West Lake brew is quite light and goes well with the Indian fare.

Tradition in Korea states that whomever drinks the last drop of beer will acquire great wealth. So, naturally, we were a long time wrestling the bottles from each other for the last dewy drop.

And of course, afterward, there was cake. There has to be cake. But Chinese cakes are not like what we are used to. They have practically no flavor and consist of mostly an airy whipped cream on top of the flavorless sponge. All the same, cake is cake and I ate some, then washed it down with another pint of beer.

By the end of the night, I was feeling pretty sated. A meal of your favorite foods and a few pints can help cure even the most wretched PMS.