An edge-of-the-ordinary kind of day

Yesterday was a fairly ordinary Saturday home day. I pottered around doing gardening, baking and a tiny bit of cleaning (not a lot of gardening, really). I also pondered digitally modifying maps, but that is not quite an ordinary job.

I did do more in the kitchen that I'd usually do, but it was a labour of love. Preparing for an Aussie BBQ with friends in the evening required a bit more work than most Aussies would put into such an ordinary event.

My husband made two batches of bread rolls using the bread maker and oven (bread rolls are pretty rare in the shops here). I pickled some canned beetroot I unexpectedly found six months ago (second time in all the time I've lived in Japan that I've seen it in a shop, but they weren't pickled). I coaxed some eggs and sugar into becoming Pavlovas (meringue with cream and fruit on top, for those who haven't had the fortune to try this Australian dessert). We made potato salad and transformed raw mince (translation - ground beef) into meat patties, also not available in the shops. Then, in the absence of an actual BBQ (translation - grill), my husband cooked them on the gas stove in a fry pan with some onions.

Sorry for all the brackets above. There are so many things which need translation when you are writing across cultures: Australians who don't understand what you can and cannot get in Japan, non-Australians who don't know the Aussie lingo. Do you get the feeling, though, that we had to think out-of-the-box to get this Aussie BBQ going? This form of Aussie BBQ is something we've done periodically since we first came to Japan in 2000. After all, how else can you celebrate Australia Day on Jan 26 when it falls in the middle of winter? Yesterday wasn't Australia Day, obviously, but it was a great way to enjoy our nationality and share with our friends.

They'd never had pickled beetroot on a burger before, though the "dad" had grown up eating "pickled beets", as Philadelphians call them. And the "mum" had an interesting "beet" story, but I won't embarrass her here, only to say it has been a very long time since she's eaten them.

Pavlova was new to them too, though they'd had meringue before as in Lemon Meringue Pie. I was worried they'd be too sticky, but they worked out very well, except that my husband struggled to detach them from the grasp of the baking paper, thankfully he won.

Before our visitors arrived my husband and sons brought down our new hand-me-down card table and chairs from the attic and extended our six-person table to accommodate our five visitors. It is the first time we've done this and it worked really well. I predict more hospitality events for the future, though maybe not Aussie BBQs every time!