An Old American Tradition

Thanksgiving rolled around, almost too quickly. Unfortunately, not all of us were able to celebrate properly on Thanksgiving Day. Instead, a group of us planned a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the weekend after, December 2nd.

I have to say that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Aside from the eating business, it is really about being together with family or close friends. Since I started college, I never went home for Thanksgiving. Instead, I made dinner for/with my friends who were also staying in town. There are few things I enjoy more than cooking for a group of people, and it was really exciting this year. Us Americans had the opportunity to introduce our new European, Japanese and Tibetan friends to Thanksgiving. In fact, Rachel and I were so intent on having a traditional meal that several weeks before Thanksgiving we purchased an imported turkey at a ridiculous price.

The only catch with the turkey was where to cook it. The ovens here are tiny things, about the size of a large toaster oven at home. It was going to provide quite a challenge, but we were determined to find a way to make our turkey. The alternative to baking a turkey is, as everyone knows, the Southern tradition of deep-frying. The week before our party, I took the turkey down to the kitchen to make sure they would have a pot large enough in which to submerge the turkey. They assured me that it would be no problem and to bring it back on Saturday.

Saturday rolled around. We split up the cooking, so I was in charge of the turkey, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (made from cranberries mailed from the US, that lasted two weeks in a box!) and brownies. Rachel was in charge of the pumpkin pie, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and gravy, and Lauren was making the green bean casserole and a veggie tray.

Lauren and I hauled our 16lb turkey down to the kitchen, only to have them tell us that they didn't have a pot, but we could use a wok. Now, let me say that this was indeed an enormous wok, but there was no way that the whole turkey was going to fit, even in this economy-sized, Costco-worthy wok. So, we hauled it back upstairs where Lauren and I managed to cut the turkey into pieces, season it, and brought it back down to our heated oil.

I had never deep-fried a turkey before, so I was a little worried about cooking time and how it would taste. At home, I use a roasting bag and it comes out perfect every time. There we were though, outside behind the kitchen, deep-frying a turkey in a wok. I knew it would take a while, but it took almost an hour for the breasts to cook, and then, while the legs and thighs were cooking, the kitchen shut down and they turned off the electricity we were using to fry the turkey. Needless to say, we were a bit upset that we couldn't finish cooking our bird, but there wasn't much we could do about it at that point.

As for the delicious factor--it was just like home! We even had whipped cream for the pie and ranch dip for the veggies. Aside from the location, and the fact that it took three people and a wok to do the cooking that could normally be accomplished in one kitchen by one person, it was a piece of America. I think there are some photos floating around. I'll see if I can round them up and post them.

After dinner, a few of us went out about 10pm and just danced at the disco. On that note, I would like to add that there are now two discos--that's right, two--in Lhasa. I haven't yet been to the new one, but I'm sure that day is coming.