Thanksgiving Dinner in Tokyo

Last Sunday I hosted a small Thanksgiving style dinner party for a few of my friends here. My old college friend Christina came up from Thailand to spend a few days visiting me in Tokyo. Back in college making dinner and brunch with our friends was a regular occurrence and we always enjoyed cooking together, so it was great to have her around to help make the food. Although to be honest once she got here she immediately took over the rains planning out this thing, so it was more like I was helping her.

Unfortunately because my kitchen only has a small broiler, I had to order the Turkey from a local expat deli. But because we didn't have to worry about cooking the turkey that left us more time to focus on the other dishes.

The course list was
-Mashed potatoes
-Mushroom gravy
-Stuffing, cooked in small individual portions one at a time in the broiler
-Garlic almond string beans
-Honey maple glazed carrots
-Cubed squash
-Sweet potato, apple, chili soup
-Asian pear tart
-Sweet potato pie, with coffee marshmallows

I know I'm undermining my real american credentials here, but I had never actually carved a turkey before. I had to give myself a quick ten minute youtube lesson. Fortunately it's surprisingly easy. It also helped that the Turkey we ordered was perfectly cooked.

My friend Saori brought the most American thing she could think of, yagerbombs, which we had to drink out of bowls because we didn't have enough glasses.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays back home. It was really nice to recreate it a little bit here. Just eating Turkey/Stuffing/Mashed Potatos/Gravy was enough to remind me of home. One of the things I miss most about America is the general culture of entertaining people in your home. There is something about preparing food with and for others that seems to bring people together. 

Happy belated Thanksgiving!