Xml spry database, really slow in IE

Question

Ok,
So I am trying to display an xml database listing and then with buttons go display different sections of the database.  It is a restaurant listing, and I am trying to show all the restaurants for different styles, mexican, american, etc.
I've got it working fine, but I probably did it with too much code, because it takes almost 10 seconds to load in Internet Explorer, but only 2 seconds to load in Safari, and about 7 seconds in Firefox.  Now this is just way too long and I need to cut it down.
So here's the question:  My code is working fine as it is, but when I load the xml on the loading of the page and parse it to create buttons based on the styles of food available, can I load that same variable and display different parts of it, rather than reloading the original xml and parsing that for each style of food? Right now the xml parses based on a URL parameter which is the city name coded as city_din.
Thanks for any help or advice, the code is for the loading of the initial xml and one of the styles loading, right now I have six styles I think.
var params = Spry.Utils.getLocationParamsAsObject();
var xpath = "/root/dining";
   if ((params.city_din))
   xpath = "/root/dining[city_din = '"+params.city_din+"']";
   var styles1 = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("dining.xml", xpath, {distinctOnLoad: true, distinctFieldsOnLoad:['type_din']});
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
   //mexican sort
var params = Spry.Utils.getLocationParamsAsObject();
var xpath = "/root/dining";
   if ((params.city_din))
   xpath = "/root/dining[city_din = '"+params.city_din+"' and type_din= '"+'Mexican'+"']";
   var mexican = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("dining.xml", xpath);

Answer 1

Hello, thank you for your response...
Here is a link to the page with the code in question.
I had to upload it to our test server since it is not actually
a website it is part of an interactive kiosk so the content
will sit on the local hard drive of the unit. 
I know there is a better way to do this code but this was the only way I could
figure out how to get it to work. 
http://www.sunfunstayplay.com/test/sharedfiles/NewDining1.html?city_din=Bakersfield