Sweet Potato Dip
Yumi's Sweet Potato and Cashew Dip has a special place in my heart.
The summer between Year 11 and Year 12 I was really, really sick. In, like, September or October I'd developed really severe abdominal pain and, more or less, stopped eating very much. Almost everything made me feel incapacitated with pain. When summer rolled round in December, and school was out, I didn't feel better all the time, but I didn't feel too sick too often. I wasn't eating very much, but I was still trying to have a regular summer. At the time I'd just gotten a casual job at Coles in the fruit section (maybe the worst job I ever had) and was just thrilled to be on like $15 an hour, more if it was a weekend or public holiday.
Each summer, my parents go and rent a place in Airey's Inlet - it's something of a family tradition. But that summer I didn't really want to go, I wanted to work and have the house to myself, so I left everyone to it and just enjoyed some shifts, some space and some quiet. It was exceedingly rare, in my life at that point, to have the house to myself and it was fucking great. I remember, specifically, enjoying the air-con. Only my parents' room and my Dads' office had AC and I made myself a makeshift bed in the office and just never felt hot at all. I lived off, I think largely, sweet potato and cashew dip and Baker's Delight white bread. I remember sleeping well, my skin was clear, I didn't feel any stomach pain and it just felt like 'fuck yeah, this is living, this is being an adult'.
I'd do some shitty shift with the most self-absorbed guys I've ever met, dodge the small-town-bickering that is just ever present in Williamstown (where the Coles was), walk home and just munch on some dip and bread, play video games and feel good. It had been months since I really felt good. I'd missed school a ton, had to cancel so much stuff with friends and was, without realising it, in need of a small win. This week or so gave that small win. Even though my Dad was mad when he got home (I left some cheese uncovered in the fridge and it had dried out!), even though I missed the beach (which is a bit lame because the beach is great) I sort of have this really warm memory of that time, and eating just a criminal amount of dip.
So the other day when I was packing up a BBQ and there was an unopened can of Yumi's Sweet Potato and Cashew dip just there, looking so serene, I knew exactly what I was stashing to take home later.