Innie or Outie

Taki comes from a time on Okinawa, post WWII, when food supplies for the general population were limited and the coping mechanism was to throw whatever was available together.  This became known as chanpuru, a mixture of seemingly non-compatible ingredients.  The most commonly known is goya chanpuru.

I, on the other hand, was given a complete set of Good Housekeeping cookbooks as a wedding gift from my mother. (Since I possessed very limited cooking skills, she had hoped to spare Taki’s stomach.)  Although the gesture was well intended, the reality of the situation thirty years ago, when Taki and I were married, was that there was a very limited selection of Western- style food products available to the local market, in fact it was almost nonexistent. Instead, I learned to try and substitute various items.  And although the food line has improved greatly, there still is a lack of most of the main products in local supermarkets.

Over the years, this chanpuru-style of cooking has sparked some interesting recipes.  We decided it might be fun to share some of these “throw- together” home concoctions with other people who enjoy the art of creating new edibles. Every once in a while I will post one of our Chanpuru-No Rules-Cooking Recipes.  This is the first:

Guacamole

 1      over-ripe avocado
65   grams Old El Paso Taco Sauce
 3     teaspoons sour cream

Mix all the ingredients until smooth, then enjoy as a topping or dip.