turkey

One of the JET teachers here recently remarked that he had to thank the Japanese for making his daily life ever more surreal. The international cooking party was a great example of this hilarious absurdity. It began with the introduction, just 18 hours before we were supposed to feed 100 people with the collaborative works of 2 artists and 30 other random people all cooked in 6 tiny stoves in three hours- of five frozen turkeys shipped from Brazil!!! One of the board members thought turkey would be a good addition and thought Keiko, who lived in the US for 5 years, must know how to cook one. And if one, then why not five!? How hard can it be?? My parents were extremely amused to get my call as they were about to leave for work, desperately seeking turkey advice.

I saw it as my duty as an American to assist with the turkey cooking. In the end, we baked three turkeys, two apple pies, one apple custard pie, cider bourbon sauce with ice cream, and one sweet potato pie (satsumaimo- a little different from American sweet potato). We also managed to introduce other American delicacies such as mimosas and mint juleps, and mashed potatoes! Other people cooked spring rolls, sushi, boiled pork, rice balls, soba, fruit salads, and many things I did not even taste….It was a scene of chaos and bedlam, but amazingly enough, everything really was delicious.