We Can’t Imagine McDonalds Will Be Knocking Down Your Door For That Recipe

It is Christmas Day. I share a flat with three flatmates, hailing from Nigeria, Korea, and Spain. I am American, and we are all relatively new(ish) to London, and we were caught off-guard a few days earlier when we found out that London (well, the entire UK actually) completely shuts down on Christmas Day. No public transport, no shops, cinemas, restaurants, nothing. Unless you’re a hospital or a hotel you’re pretty much guaranteed to be closed.

Since none of us are going home for Christmas, we make our own plans. We all agree to make food from our respective cultures and have a nice Christmas Day meal together.

They are all talking among themselves.

Nigerian Flatmate: “I am making jollof rice, and some moimoi. It’s really flavourful and spicy!”

Korean Flatmate: “That’ll go well with my fried chicken, and we have some kimchi for sides.”

Spanish Flatmate: “I’m glad you’ve for the rice sorted [Nigerian Flatmate]! I’ve got some Iberico Ham from [Spanish convenience store] and [other items] that we can turn into a tapas.”

They all look at me expectantly:

Me: “I’ve prepped some roast beef with vegetable trimmings.”

All Flatmates: *Forlornly.* “Oh.”

Me: “What’s wrong? Is… is beef not good?”

Nigerian Flatmate: “I was hoping for something a bit more… American.”

Me: “A lot of Americans have roast beef at Christmas!”

Korean Flatmate: “Yeah, but…”

Me: “…but, what?”

Spanish Flatmate: *Stifling laughter.* “They wanted burgers [My Name!] They wanted fries, milkshakes, twinkies!”

Me: *Also stifling laughter.* “American food is more than just burgers and fast food!”

Nigerian Flatmate: “Yes, but… it’s Christmas!”

Me: “What does that mean?”

Korean Flatmate: “I was hoping to send pictures back to my family and make them laugh that I was having burgers with my Nigerian and Korean food.”

Me: “Well… we do have burger buns in the cupboard.”

Suddenly, there was a brainwave. Christmas dinner was served, and my flatmates were all laughing and enjoying the holiday spirit as they video-called families and make them laugh at their moimoi-kimchi-fried-chicken-iberico-ham-roast-beef burgers.

To clarify; they knew American food is way more than just burgers, I just hadn’t done a good job of convincing them otherwise since I had moved in (lots of Subway and Five Guys!). After New Year’s I made a better effort to cook at home more and introduce them to a much more varied selection of cuisine from the USA!

We all still live together and Christmas Day is approaching again, and circumstances mean we’re all here again. I can’t wait to see their faces when I present to them homemade Big Macs as my Christmas Day contribution!