Yes folks, I don't know about society out there, but I mark Thanksgiving as the official start of the holidays (as opposed to Halloween, or Columbus Day, or whatever it is to which they keep pushing back...) I love Thanksgiving because it's like the precursor to the 'real' holiday break, a temptation, if you will, to lure you into the festivities and charitable acts that abound when the snow falls and the bells jingle, and the glorious one week off (for us BYU-bies) of school. Plus, it's all about the food. Really.
So growing up (again, bi-cultural), my Thanksgiving memories are probably somewhat different from the so-called 'traditional' activities. Our family would gather with a bunch of other Taiwanese families in the community, always at the Changs' house. A turkey would be dutifully roasted and the electric knife brought out, dusty and boxed, for the once-a-year activity. There would be some sort of stuffing and/or vegetable... but alongside those was the stir-fried rice noodles my mom always brought, as well as various other sundry Asian dishes. Those stay in my memory far longer than any dry white non-flighty bird ever will. And the strange fact that Home Alone was on television every single year... couldn't they think of a better holiday movie??
After I moved to DC I got to go home again for Thanksgiving for the first time since approximately 1997. These days we celebrate with "huo guo", a traditional Taiwanese feast usually reserved for Chinese New Year, in which various raw items (including live, wriggling shrimp when I lived in Taiwan) are throw into a communal pot of boiling water and consumed with vast amounts of Chinese barbecue sauce. Last time I requested it, my dad noted "oh good. I hate turkey." All these years... suffering in silence...
So as non-kosher as my family traditions are, I pose to you: what is your favorite part about Thanksgiving?
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7 comments:
do you remember the one year we went to vicky's family's house, and we asians had turkey, chinese food, and spaghetti for thanksgiving? i specifically remember thinking, hmm....spaghetti for thanksgiving....what's wrong with this picture?
We DID? No, I don't remember...! Spaghetti? Like, with spaghetti sauce and everything?? That doesn't surprise me at all.
The best part of Thanksgiving? Food and Football-- two of my favorite F-words.*
*My other favorite, by the way, is FREE. What were you thinking?
The fact that my extended family never shows up at the same time. It's basically a Thanksgiving open house, come and leave when you want. Oh and pumpking pie. Lots and lots of pumpkin pie.
AK, I really must agree...it's all about the food...and the absence of any pressure to pace or limit yourself to a socially acceptable portion size. Who cares if you eat a full pumpkin pie all by your lonesome? It's Thanksgiving! It's the best way Americans say, "Eating as much as you can, as fast as you can isn't a bad thing." My favorite part is starting to eat at roughly 4 p.m. and maintaining a steady chewing motion until roughly 9 p.m. Taking breaks between the first and second plates, and then again before dessert. I can't wait!
I'd definitely have to say my favorite part is the nap that comes after the food. It is by far the best sleep I get all year. Isn't there some kind of chemical in the turkey that just knocks you out?
I just reread my blog title and was like "T minus one month?? I meant to say T minus two weeks..." Lame.
Yes, there is a chemical called tryptophan that indeed does make you sleepy post turkey consumption. I myself will probably not be eating any but I'm still looking forward to the holiday nap.
I'm going to nurse my burned hand now...
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