Last night Bob and I did something we thought near impossible. We cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people. Here is the story:THE LEAD-UP:
For a long time now, I've been suggesting to Bob that we should have his coworkers over. We have the space for it, and it's the polite thing to do, anyway. So we decided to do it at Thanksgiving. We invited the principal and his wife, the vice-principal, and all the English teachers (I think there are 6 or 7, besides Bob.) However, only 4 told us they could come. Luckily none of them showed up in costume. The principal's wife, who speaks excellent English and has a very good understanding of American culture, said "We have to wear costumes, don't we?" And the vice-principal RSVPed by saying "Yes, I will come to your Halloween party." I was inclined to just let them dress up and see what happens, but Bob informed them that no costumes were required.
One guy told Bob he was really excited to eat turkey. We had been going back and forth over whether to have turkey, or maybe just chicken or ham, which are much easier to find and also smaller. We don't have an oven, so our friend offered to lend us her electric oven. No one bakes in Japan-- it's a big waste of energy to heat such a large space when you're only baking one dish. And the ovens they do sell are much smaller, not exactly turkey-size. So we thought maybe we just won't have one. The side dishes are the best part of Thanksgiving anyway. But when that teacher kept talking about the turkey, we couldn't disappoint him, right? We took a trip to Costco, where we found the smallest turkey was 16.8 lbs/ 7.6 kg. And it was $40, having been imported from America. We got it anyway.
Now, with this turkey on our hands (which barely fit in our fridge and ended up breaking the glass shelf it was laid on) we knew had to invite more people. We sent out an email to a few foreign friends in the area, all other English teachers. A few people replied, so we now had a guest list of about 8. I was still worried, though, so I told some people at my office about it. I thought maybe 1 or 2 people would come. But many of the Japanese staff got really excited. "My first Thanksgiving dinner!" they said. We ended up having 3 people from my work. Then some more of our foreign friends replied to our email. Uh-oh. We now had a guest list of 15 people. As it turned out, another of Bob's coworkers showed up anyway, making a grand total of 16 guests.
COOKING:
With all these people on our hands, we doubled and tripled recipes in order to feed everyone. Never mind that we had never cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner for even a few people. In addition to the prize turkey, we made stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, garlic green beans, and ginger carrots. We bought corncobs, rolls, 2 pies, ice cream and most importantly, black olives. We asked people to bring drinks or desserts, or a side dish. So in addition to the main meal, there were chips, guacamole, salad, raisins, and enough beer and cheap wine so that it flowed all night.
The hardest part was cooking the turkey. I don't really know anything about cooking meat. Since Bob used to work as a prep cook, he got the job of cooking the turkey. At first he saved the giblets, thinking that we could use them in gravy, but then decided that it might be a bad idea to eat the parts of a turkey that are used as a filtration system. At least it wasn't a Chinese lead-infested turkey. I put some spices together and he rubbed them on the bird, and it went in the oven at noon.
The rest of the cooking was pretty standard Thanksgiving stuff, but with a few complications: 1. Our stove only has 2 burners. 2. We have few cooking tools. 3. With the turkey in the oven (or in the fridge, or in the freezer, or anywhere else we kept it) nothing else would fit. Now, I'm used to putting everything in the oven and letting it all cook, and then going and watching the parade. Not here. From 12-6, the turkey took up every available centimeter of space. So anything else that needed to be cooked had to go in the microwave on "grill" setting, or on the stove-- if there was room on the stove. It was a process. And then the was the most frustrating thing of all: 4. Measurement conversions are a bitch.
You would think that it would be a simple matter of converting US measurements to metric ones. And you would be wrong. You see, there are also Japanese measurements in addition to metric ones. A Japanese cup is equal to 200 milliliters. A US cup is 237 milliliters. All of our measuring tools mark the Japanese cup, not the American one. It was only a month or so ago that I finally figured this out. "Hey, does this look like a cup of water to you?" "Um... I don't know-- wait! I think it's missing 37 milliliters!" Well, it wasn't exactly like that... but I did think that Japanese cups look smaller. Now I know why.
And then there was the not-so-simple matter that the oven had temperatures labeled only in Fahrenheit (not sure why) but our meat thermometer was only labeled in Celsius. This is usually okay, since I've gotten used to describing the outside temperature in Celsius, but I'm not so good with higher temps. And when cooking turkey so that it's still juicy but no one gets salmonella- you kind of have to be precise. We left a Fahrenheit-Celsius converter webpage open on the computer, so we could keep running back and forth to check if it was bacteria-free yet.
THE PARTY ITSELF:With all the turkey fuss, it wasn't done until 1 hour after the party technically started. People began to arrive at 5, and at first, the Japanese people all remained in the back room while the foreigners stayed in the kitchen. Bob and I were still cooking, and were trying to be good hosts while quickly finishing up dinner. Once the beers and boxed wine started flowing, however, the problem began to sort itself out as people loosened up. We did introductions right before carving the turkey. The best part was making everyone say what they were thankful for. Most foreigners expressed thanks for the Amagasaki Costco, or Bob's stepdad's awesome macaroni and cheese recipe. But some people mentioned that this was their first proper Thanksgiving in years. Some people have been here for 3 or 4 years, and missed having home cooking on Thanksgiving. One girl noted that this was the time of year that many foreigners start to get really lonely-- the excitement of being in Japan has worn off, the weather is starting to get pretty chilly, and many people miss being at home during the holiday season. To her, the party was the perfect antidote to that. I didn't realize how much our crazy Thanksgiving scheme meant to some people. For me, it was the most fun Thanksgiving I've ever had. At home, it can feel routine-- we eat the same things every year, my family always argues, and the Cowboys win the football game (boo.) But when we pulled the turkey out of the oven yesterday, everyone cheered. The foreigners were so happy to have a taste of home here in Japan. The Japanese people all gathered round to see exactly how we planned to serve this thing. Everyone was excited.
Our Japanese friends all said the opposite thing: they were thankful to be invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, since none of them had experienced one before. Some had never tried turkey before, and I don't think anyone had ever had mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, or Southern-style mac and cheese. Again, I didn't realize how much it meant to them to be invited into our home to celebrate with us. But here in Japan, where it's less common to have people over (since people have much smaller houses, so there's no room), and certainly less common to have people over for Thanksgiving, it was a pretty big
deal. They were even impressed with the cranberry sauce from a can. One of my friends explained to a roomful of bewildered Japanese people that "it's very hard to make." He then gestured towards me chopping the jelly into slices.THE END:
So all in all, it was a grand success. Maybe we'll do it again, but I think next year might be a potluck instead.
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