Minneapolis – yes, a city of hard-working Lutheran Scandinavian immigrants. That is the cliché, and maybe it’s true. Certainly in the crowds at the airport there is a high proportion of fair-skinned blond people and there are ads for the “Lutheran Investment Funds”…
The Minnesotans I meet are a friendly and easy-going lot, open-minded and conversational. Maybe the long hard winters (fishing through a hole in the ice is a popular sport) have made these mid-Westerners particularly social people.
So it is with pleasure that I accept their invitation for dinner – my first proper meal since arriving in North America! We go to Redstone in Eden Prairie, a suburb to the south west of Minneapolis.
This is a hip, trendy place, set beside a lake and full to the gills – on a Wednesday night! The cuisine here is American grill, so I know just what to order: 
a large New York strip steak, cooked rare, accompanied by asparagus and potatoes. I am not disappointed,this char-grilled steak is succulent and tender.
To follow, a yummy pumpkin cheesecake – a very seasonal dessert and one that would be very hard to find outside the US!