Cheese

The funny thing about the middle east is how american it is. Regardless of the propaganda you might see on TV, american chains are everywhere here.

Today I thought I'd try a couple we don't have in New Zealand, T.G.I Friday's and Fuddruckers with a dollop of professional wrestling sandwiched in between.

T.G.I Friday's was like that restaurant Rachel works at in Office Space. Stripey shirts, silly hats, lots of badges, souls destroyed. The food was good, as was the service, but you couldn't help but feel the people working there had been hollowed out, made to pretend they were happy and quirky to the point they simply died inside.

The wrestling was a highlight and a childhood dream come true. Wall to wall muscle men showboating and bashing each other in their undies, interspersed with rock music, lights and.. err, they seemed to forget the pyrotechnics, a marginally forgiveable oversight.

For the secretly curious closet wrestling cases back home, we got John Cena, CM Punk, Kane, Ryback, the Shield, Daniel Bryant, Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston, Dirk Ziggler, plus a bunch of muscley others. It was an interesting mix of the fake and the unfortunate as a few blows actually found their mark. I was genuinely surprised that the guys got up at times.

Afterwards it was time to try Fuddruckers where you choose the size of your patty in half pound increments. I went for the 1/2 pound and fought my way through it. It was the best burger I've had since I"ve been here, but to be fair the competition hasn't been great. Still, for a change it was nice to eat meat I was certain was beef and to order a meal with avocado and actually get avocado.

We had to leave when pest control arrived and started pulling apart all the seating around us to wipe down with hellacious gusto.

All round I give my american arabian experience a positive review and look upon it as a weird analogy for the way america goes about its business. Fun, cheesey and fake.