We met this family and were "adopted" by them. We have had the fortune of being invited over their house for a meal in our honor. The beauty of the Cook Islanders is their love of song and dance. When we were invited over, they sang a prayer in their native language prior to dinner. It was the prettiest thing I'd ever heard. It brought tears to my eyes.
Cook Island Dancers
Our first time being invited over, we sat in the "honored guest" position. We ate and talked and had a great time. The greatest part of the evening came when a couple of the younger nieces and nephews started asking us questions about our home. It was cute they way the kids were enamoured with our lives in America. They asked us tons of questions, most of them were hilariously off. It was a rapid fire Q&A session. Their eyes were wide and they couldn't get enough of our "old lives". The funniest part was when they found out where I was from. The first niece sent the alarm up.
OMG, you are from Atlanta?!
Yes, born and raised...
OMG!!! Do you know ____________, _________, or _________?! (fill in with favorite Atlanta rapper)
Did you know Atlanta is my favorite USA city?! I so want to go there!!!
Can you make Soul Food? What is corn bread? How do collard greens taste?
Now, I had NEVER heard anyone describe Atlanta as their favorite city. Of course, I am biased and partial but its not New York or San Francisco or Chicago. Atlanta is a nice place, but I have never heard anyone so crazy in love with it like these Cook Island girls!!! They did make me realize that I had something to be proud of. I was from a city, rich in culture and a big part of my culture was food and family. It was nice to hear other people understand and appreciate it too, even though they had never been.
The other thing that I love about our new family is their devotion to food. Anytime every woman in the family gets together and cooks please count me IN! Everytime we got together with them, we were fed...and WELL!
Most recently, we were invited to Grandpa's 70th birthday. Grandpa Gillet is the sweetest man and he and his wife have truly taken us under their wing. The feast in his honor was like nothing I'd seen before. There were tables and tables of food set up. They had even slaughtered two pigs in his honor. The pigs were cooked in the traditional underground oven, called a "umakai" for a day prior to the birthday party. It was so tender it fell off the bone and was the best pig I've tasted since leaving the South!
As usual, the highlight of the evening was the singing.
Roasted PIG! My favorite!!!!
Grandpa's 70th Birthday!
This is a video of them singing a prayer in Maori...sorry about the quality but the sound is gorgeous!
I had no idea what to give these people who had been so nice to us. Who had taken us fishing and who had invited us to feast with them on multiple occations. So I did the only thing I knew that I could do well.
I cooked up a big ol Southern feast. I made homemade buttermilk cornbread, corn bread dressing, sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie and a pumpkin pie. I made enough food for what I thought would be an army. When we dropped it off, his family were so happy to get the oppotunity to taste real "Southern Soul Food".
Now, I love to cook but I do NOT consider myself anywhere near in the league of the great Southern masters of cooking. When I dropped my offerings off, I apologized. Telling them that my mom was a better cook and they were just getting my sorry excuse for cooking. They took it, happily and promised to get my tupperware back to me. (That is very important). Now, I was expecting to see my tupperware and cookware back in 1-2 weeks. I didn't think that there was anyway that they could finish all of that food in less than 3 days. I had every last dish, every lid and every piece of cookery back in less than 24 hours, cleaned and in pristine condition. I envisioned the family sniffing and tasting my food and then quickly emptying the dish into the trash. In reality, they had quickly divided up and eaten every last morsel of food I brought. It was a nice feeling, to have my food so well received. In fact, they liked it so much that they didn't bother to save any for the rest of the family, including the patriarch of the family!
Its been nice, hanging out with our new family. I 'm really looking forward to seeing their home back in the islands!!!
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