Thanksgiving in Singapore

Thanksgiving in Singapore....

First the decision ... to take advantage of the 4 day school holiday and travel?  Or to stay in town and figure out how to pull off a Thanksgiving in Singapore away from family.  Since it was not a holiday for Mike, and with travel plans both before and after Thanksgiving, we opted to stay put and figure it out.

Thursday night was amazingly easy.  We have been trying to get together with the families who hosted a BBQ for us on our look-see trip back in April, but for 3 months have not been able to get everyone in town on the same weekend.  Must to everyone's surprise, all 4 families were scheduled to be in town for Thanksgiving weekend.  We took the easy way and reserved dinner at the American Club with the James & Alison, Chris and Stephanie and Kevin & Lisa.  It was wonderful to catch up with everyone again and the girls were able to meet a bunch of new friends.

Our Texan friends (and traveling partners) were also all in town and we decided to have a "real" home Thanksgiving meal on Friday.  Why Friday?  It is a very simple reason - live football appears here the following morning.  So to really make it feel "real" there HAD to be football and so Friday was designated as Thanksgiving. It is a real effort to make Thanksgiving work here since the country does not recognize nor celebrate the holiday.  

Now for cooking a Thanksgiving dinner...that is a whole different story.  There is one word for preparing a big meal...”flexibility.”  The menu becomes less of what you want to have and more of what is possible to make.  First off, you have just one tiny oven.  That precludes doing a turkey in the oven for 2 reasons.  First being, you can’t fit any more than a 10 pound turkey in the oven.  Secondly, if you tie up the oven with the turkey you cannot bake anything else for dinner.  Fortunately, the Ristroph’s have their BBQ and Kevin decided to smoke 2 turkeys.

Now, as for the rest of the meal...we have 3 very ambitious women who want to cook and want to have their traditional items for dinner.  So the first challenge becomes...”are the ingredients available?”  The answer?  “Not necessarily.”

We had already heard through other expats that if we wanted anything with pumpkin in it, we had better grab canned pumpkin no later than the week before Thanksgiving.  That was sage advice because by Monday there was not a can to be found on any shelf.  Another item to tackle...ginger snaps.  So far we have only found 2 stores that carry this and by Monday only one still had them.  

On Wednesday, Keri and I set out for Mustafas (Little India's version of Walmart...times 100) to try and stock up as much as possible since it is nearly a 1/3 cheaper there.  Then the plan was to hit Tekka market (Little India's wet market where they sell meat and produce in a farmer's market style.)  The difficult items we were on a search for were flaked sweetened coconut, fresh jalapenos,  and maple sugar.  Tiffany was additionally on a search for premade pie crust and velveeta (at $20 a block!!!).  Keri and I actually made a huge a dent at Mustafas.  I lugged out of there 2 heavy bags in addition to my overflowing rolling cart.  I lugged all of that 3/4km to Tekka market where I bumped my way through the crowd.  I was absolutely drenched with sweat by the time I emerged.  It is truly unbelievable how hot, stinky and crowded this wet market is.  However, I successfully left with almost all of my produce...jalapeno excluded.  

Can't find coconut -
but can find lots of this??

Arms screaming with pain from the weight of all of the groceries, sweat dripping down my face, back and chest and trying to flag down a taxi....not helping to get me into an already difficult frame of mind of feeling like this is Thanksgiving.

After dropping off the groceries with Rose (our helper) I set out to hit as many grocery stores as possible along Singapore's version of 5th Avenue - called Orchard Rd.  Starting at Cold Storage Takashimaya I hit 4 more grocery stores in search of coconut, jalapeno, pie crust and maple sugar.  Meanwhile, Tiffany hit 4 stores and Keri hit 1.  No Luck!  

The next morning Rose offered to go out to more stores and check for the coconut.  Meanwhile I come up with a backup appetizer because coconut chicken just is not going to work without coconut.  As expected, Rose calls to say no luck.  I give her the new list of items and she texts me back with “what are these tortillas flour?”  I just had to laugh at how much effort has already gone into this meal and I have not even started cooking yet!

Now to begin cooking.  It involves having my computer very handy because I have to recalculate every single measurement into grams and then convert F to C.  The cheese cake gets made but I just do not think I have the oven right because the top is getting extremely overdone while the middle is not set yet.  What to do?  Just wing it and...stay FLEXIBLE.  When the cheesecake cools - I just cut the top off:)

So Friday morning rolls around and we skype back home for an hour or so.  Then we get things ready to start cooking and then I run Elle to her playdate (30 minutes late).  On the way to the playdate the GPS messes up again, AND my iPhone can’t find the apartment.  After driving around for 30 minutes I finally call and she directs me in.  By the time I get home it is 10:45 and we are supposed to be there at noon...ha!  We get the sweet potatoes in the oven and start to work on the stuffing.  Time is really flying fast at this point.  1:00 rolls around and I don’t have the stuffing mixed yet.  It is only then that I discover that I did NOT bring sage over with me.  Ugh....Rose runs to Tanglin.  No sage.  She has to take a taxi to go get Elle and then I run to Cold Storage.  No sage.  I call Keri, she doesn’t have sage either.  I run all the way up to Jasons and third try is a charm...sage!  We finally pack everything up and make it to Tiffany’s at 2:45.  

On just the appetizer front...we have enough to feed everyone until morning.  We don’t even get through 1/4 of it all.

And then it almost becomes hysterical as we start to realize just how much food we have each prepared.  We have a group of 12 - but could easily have fed 30.  2 smoked turkeys, stuffing, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, creamed spinach, carrot suffle, pumpkin muffins, gravy, and macaroni and cheese.  It was quite a challenge getting everything cooked and/or rewarmed with the one oven...but then again, it is all about “flexibility.”  

The chefs...Tiffany, me & Keri

It was all a dream dinner and so much more satisfying because we each knew how much effort went into each and every item.  The turkey was without a doubt the best turkey we have all every had.  Kevin injected the turkey with butter with an injector and then set it in a roasting pan on the BBQ grill with hickory chips in a smoker next to it.  He cooked it on low for 12 hours...absolutely wonderful flavor and juicy!

Katie, Nathan & Garrett rockin' out

After dinner the boys went up to the roof to solve the world’s problems and knock off another 2 bottles of wine.  Rose came over to help clean and the children all played American Idol on Wii (for hours!).  We girls chatted about the upcoming Christmas open house we are throwing and our trip to Vietnam.. 

Dessert.....Noone felt much like anymore food...but then we overdid it for that as well.  My pumpkin cheesecake and Tiffany’s carrot cake and pecan pie (with a homemade crust much to her disappointment.)

It was not Thanksgiving as at home...but it was a surprisingly good substitute and new tradition.  Noone felt overwhelmingly sad about not being home with family...and I suppose that means it was a smashing success.