Since last year I skipped thanksgiving altogether, this year I wanted to try to make one. Of course being in Japan means that I have to make some compromises and substitutions. The first and biggest has to be the fact that I can’t find turkey in Japan. I just don’t think it exists. So my thanksgiving dinner would have to be made with chicken. I can’t make stuffing so I had to eat rice. I also made corn, the frozen kind, and smashed potatoes. Lastly for dessert I ate homemade cranberry muffins. Yet since it was thanksgiving I tried to cook a fusion between American and Japanese cuisine.

Chicken: My chicken was slowly fried in a covered pan to retain the moisture. I made two large chicken breasts. One with a nice basil flavor and one with a stronger roasted garlic flavor.

Smashed Potatoes: I know they are usually called ‘mashed’ potatoes but my version is always ‘smashed’. Also I converged two traditional foods into one, the sweet potatoes and the smashed potatoes to create ‘sweet potato smashed potatoes’. This was actually really good. I used butter and of course soy milk to create creamy and sweet smashed potatoes. Lastly, and in true Andy thanksgiving style, the potatoes were formed into a volcano.

Rice: This was no ordinary rice. It was made with special ingredients and pumpkin. This pumpkin rice was not stuffing but still incredibly delicious.

Corn: Frozen, but when properly cooked and with the correct spices it can be turned into something you’d be proud to adorn your thanksgiving table with.

Drinks: It’s not fresh squeezed but I had the required orange juice, and of course Japanese tea.

Dessert: The day before thanksgiving was a Japanese national holiday, I think ‘Japanese Labor Day’. Anyway, one of my friends has a small, like everything in Japan, oven. So I decided to make another of my traditional thanksgiving foods: Cranberry muffins. It took a lot of searching to even find fresh cranberries, and once I found them they were very expensive. Buttermilk is completely nonexistent in Japan. So with a few substitutions and a complete lack of the ability to measure things in ‘cups’ I made my muffins. When finished I was disappointed with the fact that they didn’t quite rise as I’d hoped, probably because of the strange Japanese ingredients, but the taste was still good and to me that is all that matters.

My thanksgiving dinner.

Turkeylike substance.

Sweet potato volcano.

Rice and corn.

Mmm, cranberry muffins.