Radies and radishes: Part 9
Posted on 8 December 2009
South African Vegans do Thanksgiving, Japanese-style
… the journal of a South African vegan in Japan, by Carey Finn
7 December 2009
Being South African, Thanksgiving has always been a very foreign event to me. When imagining it, I invariably thought of Americans with funny black clothes and hats, donning fake beards and stuffing turkeys (or preparing that mysterious product known as Tofurkey, if they were vegetarian).
In Japan, Thanksgiving is less of a foreign event. This is probably due to the large number of Americans living in Japan and the importing of their culture, as well as the fact that Japan has a Thanksgiving day of its own. It’s called Labour Thanksgiving Day and it falls about a week before Thanksgiving Day, just to confuse things. As the name suggests, it’s a day to send grateful vibes to all the workers in Japan.
So this year, we decided to do a Thanksgiving of our own, celebrating the American event on the Japanese day – no, we weren’t trying to be clever – it just happened to be a convenient public holiday. Tofurkey was nowhere to be found, but our American friends cooked up a hearty mushroom stew, complete with rich dumplings. Each guest brought something, so our spread included French bread and home-made hummus, a warm lentil dahl, rice-veg-wrap thingies (a friend’s invention, and a delicious one at that), carob cupcakes, biscuits, and of course, chocolate. We still may not know much about the Pilgrims, but their day is definitely one worth remembering!
As the temperatures drop below the 5 mark, I’m busy stocking up on winter comfort foods like regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, little brown rough-skinned potatoes (exactly like madumbis), any other kinds of potatoes I can find, and of course, chocolate. I’ve been eating one local brand of dark chocolate so far, and buying eco/fair-trade imports where possible. I’ve been avoiding all chocolate that advertises itself as milk. Obviously, it would never be vegan, right? Wrong. A Japanese friend recently informed me that in fact, one such ‘milk’ chocolate in fact contains no milk at all! Crazy, but tasty! ^_^
Only in Japan.
Next time: fruitcakes, Bossa Nova and breyani.
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Well, I’m actually still trying to figure out exactly which chocolate said friend meant. She couldn’t remember the name. I thought it was one of the Milk Meijis at first, but that can’t be right … I’ll let you know as soon as I do!
Ooh, which brand of “milk” chocolate is it? I’ve found that even all the dark chocolates I’ve checked contain milk except for some fancy imports.
Interesting, I thought it was only ever Americans who celebrated Thanks Giving. I guess South Africa has the equivalent of Reconciliation day. We should seriously consider having a good vegan feast as well!