As I recently mentioned, every Christmas my sister's family and my family research and present food from other countries or regions of the US. Southern food was the focus this recent holiday. Now it is our turn to figure out next Christmas's featured country or region.
There were many suggestions: Polish, Greece again, or maybe Singapore.
At mom's eye doctor appointment last Thursday, we were assigned to Lenny to do the intake. We had met him before and discovered he was from "The Islands." He had spoken about trying to find the warmest sun in the Bay Area as he was always so cold and missed his home. He was rather a quiet man with a swath of hair tied tightly into large knot at his neck. He had a gentle smile and a soft voice.
When asking about his Christmas, he told us that he was at this amazing university, working part time while going to college. He must be one smart cookie. I commented that his mom must have missed him. It was then that he opened his heart to us: She missed him but wanted him to take advantage of his opportunities, do well and come home. He then told us that he had four brothers and four sisters. I asked where he was in that mix. Smack in the middle. He also shared that in his culture, a child was chosen to be the one to take care of the parents. He smiled when he shared that he was that chosen child.
He told us he was raised in Samoa and shared that the Hawaiian Air is the first airline to charge passengers by the pound. Yes, you must step on the scale. He laughed telling us that he diets so hard going home twice a year but eating his mama's cooking always causes a more expensive flight back to the Bay Area.
We were telling him about our Christmas tradition and he suggested food from French Polynesia. Hmmm. What is it? He described pig cooked in a pit, poi cooked like mashed potatoes and a dessert of coconut soaked buns. He had shared earlier that he made extra money by doing traditional dances at parties. Alone. No groups.
He told me he could help with the food. He could dance. He would bring a tape of traditional music. After we talked about it, he said he could cook the food in his pit at home and bring everything.
Holy Smokes! What a Christmas that would be. We would tell no one. It would all just happen after lunch. I would not have to do much work! What a lot of fun!
I told Michael all about it yesterday. His eyes lit up. "What a great idea." He had lots of questions. We will have to meet with Lenny well before the holidays. We'll see if we can pull this off.
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