Who knew mashed potatoes could cause such a ruckus? In Ukraine they’re all the rage. Behold the mighty potato! I did not think to write about this since it seemed like such a small funny moment, but I am still hearing about. So it now warrants a place in the blog.

Last Sunday I was on dinner duty with another girl named Inna. She wanted to do some kind of fried wafer thing. I will tried to explain this as best I could but it took up way too much space. Just know that it involves cooked rice, mixed with diced hard boiled eggs, sauteed mushrooms and onions sandwiched between two crispy round wafers and fried. Sounds crazy, but it was really good.

I volunteered to make American mashed potatoes. What are American mashed potatoes? I figure they’re mashed potatoes with the skin on. No big deal to me, but I discovered it’s a big deal here.

Lena was going to help me by pealing the potatoes, but I stopped her and said “no, no, no, we’ll leave the skins on. It’s easier.”

I should have gotten the clue when she said “with the skins? Mashed potatoes with the skin on?”

I kinda laughed at her simple question. Until I realized her shock was sincere. She asked “how do you do that? Oh, you mean you cook them first and then peal them.” Nope, I meant to mash the potatoes with the skins on and then eat them with the potatoes. She went on to explain she had never heard of that and that she was very curious how that would turn out. She left the kitchen with that look like she needed to be prepared with plan B incase these crazy American mashed potatoes did not turn out.

Well the shock and horror continued as various people filtered through the kitchen hearing of the rumored American mashed potatoes. There were not too many comments at dinner, but most people seemed to enjoy them. I only saw one young man picking out the skins from his mashed potatoes, but I know he picks out a lot of vegetables from his meals so I don’t count him. I actually got a few compliments.

This was all over a week ago. Middle of last week, I hear from my DTS directors that it can be offensive to some people to eat the skins of potatoes. It is more a sign of being poor. The first time he was in the states and was served mashed potatoes with the skins he was mortally offended.

Today was the clincher. I was informed that several people thought the grayish brown things in the potatoes were mushrooms. (That’s actually a good idea when you think about it.) They recounted their stories of eating mashed potatoes with skins for me just tonight. They told me they thought ‘hmmm that’s not mushrooms. What could that be?’ When they discovered that they were potato skins, they thought ‘that’s funny, why would she mash potatoes and then put the skins back in?’  Hahaha, I chuckled out loud at this.

We have one staff member who is the mother of our base director, she is grandma to everyone. This rumor of mashed potatoes with skin reached her because I guess she asked someone else “is it true, did Megan really make mashed potatoes with skin?”

Another student told me at first he was shocked. He probably would not have eaten the potatoes had he known what was really in them. He informed me that in Ukraine potato skins are what you give the pigs. GREAT! I just called my entire class a bunch of pigs!! He relieved my sudden feeling of horror and desire to sink into the floor with saying that he liked them. Whew, I may have called him a pig but at least he liked the slop I gave him.

I may have just  started a revolution with my mashed potatoes! What other kind of revolution can I start? Hee hee hee…