It is November, and no matter where in the world they are,
Americans manage to celebrate Thanksgiving. The embassy commissary in the most
far-flung outposts will be stocked with frozen turkeys, standard issue. But the
side dishes can get a little bit creative, allowing for local tastes and
ingredients. One iconic dessert, however, has become a bit of an obsession of
mine: pumpkin pie. This is a dish with a fair amount of flexibility, since it
can be made with virtually any squash or gourd-like vegetable. In my ignorance,
I thought a pumpkin surrogate would exist somewhere in the vast array of fruits
and vegetables for sale here in Brazzaville. I may have been wrong about that.
Armed with the French word for pumpkin, “potiron,” and also
the backup “courge” or squash, and the good will of a number of folks I have
met at INCEF’s offices, I set out to find a pumpkin. My first destination was
an open-air vegetable market in the downtown area, which several different
people had recommended to me. Inquiries about a pumpkin led to several other
suggestions: no, I did not want an eggplant. Or a zucchini. Or a papaya.
Finally, a round, green candidate was presented: was this it? I inquired about
the color inside. Yes, is was orange-ish. They didn’t have a cut open example,
so I took the seller’s word, and triumphantly carried home my “pumpkin.”
By then, it had reached the point in the heat of the day
where the thought of turning on the oven to bake a pumpkin just made me want to
weep, so I put the gourd aside until the evening brought slightly cooler
temperatures. Once it was dark, I found a cleaver, and cut into the pumpkin.
The sound of the first cut was the first clue: that was not a pumpkin. I had
purchased a lovely, round, watermelon. I will be headed back to the market
tomorrow, keeping in mind the fact that sometimes the desire to please the
questioner can distort your findings, as can the desire to find what you are looking for.
Very funny.... watermelon! I hope you found your pumpkin.
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