Sayonara Shintaro

The other day I decided to make a hangi (earth oven cooking) dinner for my departing flatmate. A few months back, I placed an ad on an online website and I asked the universe to send me a flatmate that was independant, non-chattering and culturally diverse. Shin showed up, actually he was the only one that showed up :) But he was perfect.
He was quiet, polite, respectful and independant, as well as the all-important, non-chattering.
Yesterday I went and picked up my son-in-law and he helped me dig a hole about 2ft deep, 3 ft wide and together we placed paper first, then kindling, then layered the wood and finally the rocks on top. The point of this first part is to heat the stones which will eventually cook the food.

S and I lit the fire and waited.
When a large fire starts there is always alot of smoke before the burn truly catches...... there was a shitload of billowing, blinding, tear inducing smoke. I had already rung the fire stations to pre-warn them that I was cooking a hangi (which is legal, its a courtesy call to the fire station to let them know what was going on in the neighbourhood) and there were a few neighbours peeping over to see what was going on.....(I told the ones on either side of me, forgot the neighbours at the back ...oops).

So inside I am saying a prayer to the 'gods of smoke' to quit it, cos it's getting to 'white out' stage in my backyard and I can barely breathe, let alone see the fenceline:)
And just when I think I can stand it no more, I see flames leaping through the smoke....aaaahhh thank god. Within 2 minutes the smoke is gone and a fire now burns, popping and crackling in my backyard. S left to go back to his other life that doesn't involve digging a hole for his mother-in-law, and I pull up a chair, get the hose and sit and watch the fire.

Its all burning really well, just the right layers of wood, the fire is small but intense, the stones are turning first black and then white to indicate the stages of heat they are experiencing.
Shin shows up and is immediately transfixed by what is going on. He rushes out and says "oh, fire, you make fire and stone". "oh very hotting, what doing with stone"
I explain the process of making the stones hot to cook the food and he is in a trance. I ask him to watch the fire while I prepare the wire basket of food.

He is thrilled to be given such an important job and promptly takes up 'guard' station at the fireside. I watch from the kitchen window while I wrap everything in muslin and tinfoil before placing in the basket. He attentively moves wood, checks the edges, wanders around its perimeter, sits down for 3 seconds and gets back up to repeat this all over again, very serious job he has :)

My sister arrives to help me put the basket in and cover the food up with soil.
We start to dig out the embers so that there is more room for the basket to sit deep. Shin asks to help so I give him my shovel and instruct him about removing embers only and to move the rocks around. The rocks are volcanic and can withstand great heat, they are not your typical garden variety so they don't shatter or break. Shin jumps into his role again, full of energy and gung-ho.

I take photos on his camera of him shovelling embers. My sister and I lay the covered basket into the hole and then Shin and my sister cover the whole thing with dirt. At this time my dog is trying to get into the mix. She wonders why the humans are digging a hole and placing a huge amount of food in the hole......isn't that her gig???? WTF (in dogspeak).
So in all of the shots I took of them covering up the basket my dog is in there too, wondering WTF is going on.

So after the food is buried it takes 3.5 hours to cook. What do we do till then? Clean up and prep for dinner of course. I washed all the kitchen, bought fresh flowers, set the table, vacuumed, tidied up and looked at the clock, it was now 5.45pm. The hangi would be ready at 6.30pm. I sat down with a cup of tea and put my feet up, I was tired.

At 5.58pm Shin comes thundering the stairs at the running rate and starts yelling "Bairee digging, Bairee digging, Bairee digging"......I look out the window in horror....the fucking dog IS digging.

I run out to the hangi and my run slows to a walk......the sacking covering the food has been dragged 0ut of the ground and across the yard, the hole is exposed, there is a bite out of the stuffing wrapped in tinfoil and a chop is protruding from the earth. I start to hyperventilate.....

Shin is still running around and around the hole yelling "what do, what do, what do". I instruct him to help me remove the dirt and get to towels to help us lift it out without burning ourselves. Inside I am in shock. The problem with food that is cooked underground is, if its not cooked when you bring it up, it doesn't cook very well beyond that state. Its ruined.

We lift it out of the ground and take it to the outside table. with the cover off, alot of the food has been exposed to dirt. I ring my sister and tell her to come over immediately. Because in this situation I can't cope. I will throw the whole lot in the rubbish, string up the dog and shoot myself if I'm part of this chaos for more than 2 minutes. She arrives and tells me to go do something else while she moves into resuscitation mode.

I look at the dog, I want to kill the dog. She hangs her head down and tries to peep at me, I can read her thoughts, something like this "is she looking at me like that? is she looking at me? yep shes looking at me, she looks psychotic, oops, don't catch her eye, run for the hills"
Shin is still panicking and asks if he can do anything for me. I tell him to kill the dog.
He laughs and laughs and says 'Bairee no die". I'm not too sure about that.

My sister, bless her, rescues 80% of the food. She is able to miraculously removed the top layer without disturbing the lower layers. It is mayhem for only half an hour.
By the time Shins two friends show up, they were never aware of what had transpired in the last hour.

It was a fabulous dinner in the end and the dog got the scraps too. Shin had actually said that when he went out early to check the hangi site that Bailey had growled at him. Like it was her food and he should back off :) The backyard is her kingdom after all........

He told me "Bairee digging has given me very special memory of this dinner and our time sharing" and laughed :)

Shin left this morning at 6am, to catch the shuttle to the train. He is on his last journey through the North Island before heading home to Japan in one week. I will miss him. I cried as I waved goodbye. He really was a blessing to have. Thanks for sending him to me.
Sayonara Shin

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