Merry Christmas to all! I hope yours was as good as mine. On Saturday, I invited my friends Willow, Marc and Matt over for dinner and drinks. I made some type of thai curry dish with fruit and pistachios (thank you Crystal for this receipe). However, I went the cheeper and much easier route and bought canned fruit. Here inlied the major problem. I don't seem to own a can opener. How can I not own a can opener??? I have no idea. Apart from the fact that I rarely buy canned food, I must have never purchased any while I have lived in Japan. As I am making dinner I open my utensil drawer and search for this handy item that can be found in any kitchen... any kitchen except mine. This fact totaly blows my mind. I don't own a can opener, but I own 3 corkscrews (you can guess what my priorities are)!
I call the boys (who have just run out to get some ice) to see if they can also find a can opener at the 7-11 (they have everything there). However... after several attempts, the boys don't have any luck. So I sucked up my pride and walked down my very cold street to borrow a can opener from my neighbor. But my street is silent and empty and the only house with a light on is all the way at the end of the road. This family has one of my students in it (however, she creeps me out . (One hot summer day this little girl comes out of nowhere and stares into my house. I try to be polite and send her on her way, but she won't budge and finally I had to close the curtians in my house. CREEPY!))
OK... so I knock and the mother comes to the door. At this moment I panic, because I have forgotten to look up the translation of can opener. But I luckily have brought a can with me and proceed with tons of body language in addition to my very crappy japanese to ask if I can borrow her can opener. After a minute of looking really puzzled she realized what I was asking and loaned me the item in question. No doubt all of the nozy neighbors know of the incident by now and I would not be suprised if I found a can opener by my front door one day in the near future.
So the 4 of us had a grand night of eating, drinking, watching episodes of the Chapelle Show (thanks Tress) and generaly being very friggin' merry! After eating out traditional Japanese Christmas cake and imbibing an entire bottle of rum, we ended up passing out around 4ish (I think). I woke up to a beautiful christmas morning. Clear, crisp, sunny and a bit cold. I made everyone French toast for breakfast. My guests were gone by 11 and I was back in bed by 12. Merry Christmas to me!
Marc and Willow were kind enought to repay the favor later that night. They invited me over for homemade tom-yum soup (thai soup) and stirfry. So I didn't have a conventional christmas dinner, but I didn't have to cook it and it was delicious. Even though it wasn't a standard American Christmas... I had a lovely time with good friends and good food! I only hope that all of yours were as pleasant! Till next time... hugs and kisses from Japan!
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