Non-Japanese Food Journal: guacamole

Yeah, this year's Thanksgiving went mostly unmarked by me, other than exchanging greetings and well-wishes with a lot of people. The one special thing I did was make guacamole.

Okay, before everyone starts thinking that this is a little weird, I'll admit that it is. Most people don't think guacamole is a Thanksgiving food, and I doubt it'll ever be considered such, it's not like I'm trying to start a trend here. But it amused me to make it, and it was something I wanted to do. It just so happened that I decided to do it on Thanksgiving.

For the record, I don't like Thanksgiving. Oh, the sentiment's alright, but it's totally at the wrong time of the year. In the northern hemisphere, who is doing their harvesting at the end of November? Here in my little region of Japan, it seems that the only things that are really in season right now are persimmons and apples. Of course, turkey is pretty rare, and most people wouldn't eat mashed potatoes, but that's not my point. All I'm saying is that it's a ridiculous time of year to have a harvest festival. The Canadians are way more logical about it - their Thanksgiving is in the beginning of October and thus makes sense.

And I'm not going to get into the whole "Indians and pilgrims" thing, because, man, what a line all that is. I'll believe that happened when I believe that Benni-sensei will actually clean her room (seriously, she's going to get trapped in there one day if that stack of books and papers on her desk keeps multiplying). But, yeah, color me cynical on that one.

A couple of weeks ago, Benni-sensei and I went to the grocery store for something, and we were hanging around in the produce section when she grabbed me and yanked me toward a pile of avocadoes. Benni lived in California for a long time, and she loves Mexican food, and she stared at those avocadoes like they were ambrosia. Then she asked me if I liked guacamole, to which I of course replied that I love guacamole and also enjoyed making it. She laughed and said, "Hey, maybe you can make some for me some time!"

I said maybe I would, and we went on our merry way. Later that same day, we were talking to Naofumi, and he mentioned that he'd spent some of his childhood in California, and Benni immediately asked him if he liked guacamole, and he said he thought he remembered liking it. This led to a mostly-Japanese conversation about living in California, which Naofumi looked kind of embarrassed about because he insisted he was too young to remember most of it. I snuck away and went home because it was late.

When it comes to saying that I'll make food, I usually end up making it. Maybe it takes me a little while to get around to it, but I do get around to it. I love to cook; I think it's relaxing. And I miss it terribly. I'm almost convinced that I miss my oven more than I miss my family! (sorry, family!) And this week, I got it into my head that I should make guacamole.

Let me say that avocadoes in Japan are really small and really expensive. Indeed, this is probably the most expensive guacamole I've ever made, but that's probably because I had to buy some ingredients that I would normally have stocked - like cayenne pepper, jalapeno tabasco sauce, and cream cheese. Dairy products are kind of frightening when it comes to price, but I expected that. It took me FOREVER to find Tostito chips and they were insanely expensive, but totally worth it. I think most people were more impressed that I'd even found a bag of them than they were with the guacamole.

But, it was all worth it. I ended up using sour cream as a base (I found the tiniest container of it, a major victory as far as I'm concerned because Naofumi seemed pretty convinced that I would be unable to find it) because it was more like cream cheese than the cream cheese was. It had the right consistency and a better flavor. But it turned very nicely, and everyone who tried it exclaimed, "Oishii!" which seems roughly equivalent to "holy crap, this is really good!"

Benni-sensei was especially pleased because she was having a bit of a crappy day due to scheduling problems with her vacation. She was going to Thailand, but there are some major protesting issues going on right now and the airports are closed to traffic. So, she's currently on her way to Taipei, which she was not all that thrilled about but she felt obliged to go because her travelling companions wanted to go. Also, on the plus side, Naofumi had showed up to (finally) renew his contract, so it was nice to offer him some guacamole as a thank you, even though he'd been debating about this for three weeks now.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving, even though it was a pretty typical day for me. The only thing I really miss about Thanksgiving is the cooking and especially the baking. I don't think I'm going to survive the Christmas holiday without doing some kind of baking, so this weekend, I'll probably end up heading over to Cainz Home and buying a new toaster oven. I already have one in the apartment, but I hate it, and I couldn't bake with it anyway because I can't regulate the temperature. It'll probably be an expensive purchase, but I have the money to spare, and it will definitely be worth it. I'll just have to figure out where to put it . . .

Anyway, Turkey Day is come and gone, and I hope it was a pleasant day for all!