Elvis has left the building

In celebration of Friday, I headed to Papa Murphy's to pick up a take and bake and a salad. Yep, that's what it's come to. If I have not already endorsed this particular product, let me do so now. Papa Murphy's pizza is delectable. No, it does not compete with the deep dish Chicago pies, or Z's pizza (RIP) on 6th Street south of the University of Arizona. But for chain pizza, Papa Murphy's is definitely superior. Yes, you have to pick it up yourself. Yes, for god's sake, you have to bake it yourself. Nevertheless. Also? It is three blocks from our house.

While the enthusiastic teens assembled my pizza, I trotted over to Pal Do World Korean Market to pick up some beer. Although in some ways it would be nice to have a boring old supermarket around the corner from our house, I am mostly glad that instead we have Pal Do. Because I have done the Murphy's and beer run before, I know that the good people at Pal Do politely request that I spend more than ten dollars if I am going to use my credit card. So I had to play a quick game of Supermarket Sweep in an attempt to boost my Tsing Tao purchase over the ten spot limit.

At Pal Do World, there is, naturally, a vast assortment of Korean and Japanese food. But there is also quite an extensive assortment of "European" food. There are some very tasty baked goods in the front, from some place called the Euro Bakery. There is in fact an entire aisle labeled "European" food. (Really, the only kind of food that Pal Do expressly doesn't carry is...American. So we do not shop there for bread, cheerios, canned peaches, milk...you get the idea). I headed down the European aisle for something else to buy (ridiculous why I did not just find an ATM...), and found a great number of jars of food that were labeled not just in another language, but in many cases, in another script. And the food wasn't identifiable, even when seen through the glass. It's one thing to try something new when you at least know the name of it. It's another when you don't even know what it's for. One jar tried to be helpful- along with the Russian words, there was an English name: "A chunky relish." Mmm. Even knowing the English name? Does not help me understand what I would be taking on buying this jar. So I settled for some wafer cookies with cocoa hazelnut filling. For some reason they were called Neopolitans.

I forgot to mention that Pal Do World has two restaurants, one Korean, one Japanese. When a certain contingent of Malaysian in-laws were here for two months, we spent many a dinner eating Korean food at the Pal Do restaurant. The woman who runs the place was wild for my in-laws, for my husband, and for my baby. Sadly, she has some eye condition which makes it difficult for her to see me. But the food is good. It is these once frequent dinners at the Pal Do on which I base the following bold assertion: the background music at Pal Do is always, always Elvis Presley. And not, as you might expect, an entire range of early Elvis, Vegas Elvis, gospel Elvis. No, it was the same dozen or so songs, over and over. You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. Don't be cruel to a heart that's true. Everybody in the old cell block, dancing to the jailhouse rock.

Once, during the beer run where I learned of the ten dollar credit card rule (and the cashier let me off with a polite mention), I made a comment about how he must be a little tired of Elvis. He just looked at me. Today, I went up to the counter with my Tsing Tao and my Neopolitans and my bunch of bananas, and noticed that the cashier was singing along with the storetrack, and that it was very definitely Not Elvis. It was peppy Korean pop music, and the singer jovially shouted the chorus, like a Korean Chumba Wumba (as did the cashier). My total was $13.92. I have eaten about that many Neopolitans, two slices of Papa Murphy's, and one bottle of Tsing Tao. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my Friday night.