The Imu Turkey Thanksgiving Experiment...

This month has been a whirlwind for me. Pregnant wife, new house (and associated repairs), and new doubled work load. So I have been looking forward to this long 4-day weekend.

Anna and I teamed up with another couple from my office who are also away from their family, Joe and Lilian. Rather than do things the traditional way, we tried to imu the turkey. An imu is a low tech, underground pressure cooker. Imu is Hawaiian, but many islands cook this way calling it slightly different words, like umu. Typically, one associates imus with a big full pig and apple in the mouth. Really, you can cook anything in an imu.

We identified a location for the pit.



Someone had cooked some pigs in this hole six months ago, so it was easier to dig the pit. Anna and I grabbed some logs. There has been some bad rain lately, so this wood was only partly dry. We had some charcoal in the pit and Anna and I were carrying over our wood to the pit. Just then, the very second Joe lit the match to start the pit a burnin', it began to downpour like you wouldn't believe. By the time it was back to a drizzle, the pit was wet, the wood was soaked and we felt a bit timid with progressing.

We hid out by the car off and on during the drizzling moments.



When we finally got the fire going and the rocks as hot as we thought we could we put the turkey in and covered it with banana leaves and dirt.



Four hours later we came back to assess the level of our success.



Drum roll....NOPE. Wasn't done. We did get the turkey to as hot as 140 degrees F, but not quite enough to really cook it. So, with that we did the most American thing we could. We kept with the true Norman Rockwellian spirit of Thanksgiving and went to KFC. I hate to admit it, but it was actually quite tasty.

This could very well be the last year I try an imu turkey. We did finish our turkey in the oven. The imu did have a positive effect, too. That meat fell off the bone. Despite the half-and-half cooking, it was moist and tender.

Ok, so I may not be the big kahuna of island cooking. Still, I try. And we had a great thanksgiving anyway. In the end, the imu was just for fun, as is the any of the food. It's really about who you spend the day with. Being thousands of miles away from our respective families, it was nice to be with each other. I once told Anna the nice thing about our relationship is that wherever we move, as long as we have each other, we are with family. And that is what I'm truly thankful for.