Christmas comes one potato at a time

Being from a tiny insignificant country has its benefits. Everybody assumes you are from another, more popular place, so you are free to make a fool of yourself without ruining the reputation of your fellow kinsmen.

The cons are that no one knows exactly what your culture entails nor its intricacies -- those tiny, but significant details that make life worth living. Try telling Americans to “just have chicken instead of turkey for Thanksgiving. They are both birds anyway.” And see how far they can toss you.

I have talked before about the dangers of homesickness and how to avoid falling into the “honeymoon period” trap, and I believe a significant part of that is getting a small dose of home every now and then. Not too much though, or you will be back home wondering where it all went wrong.

And since we are living in a country of such variety, sometimes it’s hard to find the exact variety that’ll scratch the itch. So you scour through every foreign food store in your prefecture to find cream with the perfect fat percentage, or potatoes grown in soil with exactly the same ph. level as Great Grammy did back in East Bumbletown.

This feeling, nay, yearning increases tenfold around the holidays, since the market seems to capitalize on your suffering. Couple that with being thousands of miles away from home and family, and it means getting out of our comfort zone and going on an adventure to find and recreate the true meaning of Christmas right here in Japan.

Magic is happening

Starting with the easy ones. Have you ever heard of browned potatoes? No? Well you should, because they are delicious and should be a staple in every household from here to somewhere equally far.

I’m pretty sure they come from Denmark or something, and we all know how resourceful and wonderful the Nordic countries are when it comes to being warm and cozy in winter.

Browned potatoes are basically potatoes fried on a pan with some sugar and butter until caramel-browned to deliciousness. But there is a catch. I have lived in Japan for a number of years, and never have I managed to recreate the perfect brown potato. There is always something wrong. One year I forgot the butter. Another, the potatoes were all mealy and fell apart in the pan, becoming a gooey mess.

This year however, I believe I have the answer. The epiphany came when I was wondering how my dear ol’ mum managed year after year to cook the perfect browned potato goodness.

These are no good

It’s not about quality. (Believe me, I tried getting ridiculously expensive Daimaru potatoes to no effect). It’s all about consistency. That’s what happens when you need to raise a family of five with mostly boys at the dinner table. (Thanks mom).

And so I decided, after lots of soul searching, not to use potatoes at all. Instead, I got frozen satoimo from the supermarket, Life.

The reason is simple. They are cut into a uniform shape and they are very similar to potatoes (honestly I thought they were potatoes until I googled them, and I’ve been eating them for a number of years now). They are also very delicious and fit into any dish you want to make. Seriously they are a lifesaver.

So, another thing I inherited from dear mum, was my ability to wing the recipe when making whatever. But for the sake of fairness, here’s an estimation of how I cooked it.

One bag of satoimo,

Three-ish tablespoons of sugar

Two-ish tablespoons of butter

And a dash of water while cooking so the sugar doesn’t stick to the pan.

Just boil the satoimo. While they are boiling, melt the sugar and butter on the pan. Then put the satoimo on the pan and roll around until they are caramel brown and delicious looking.

This dish forms a part of what I consider a homesickness-cure during the holidays. Now I just have to import the weather, lack of people and sarcasm and we’re good.

Happy holidays.