Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Culture and Holidays

Katherine and I are hosting a Tiawanese student learning English. Huey-Juin is 23 years old. Her long-time friend is staying nearby. They came together. Huey-Juin liked the Thanksgiving meal that Katherine made, but her friend did not. As I started thinking about it, traditional American Thanksgiving menu is pretty ritualized. That is, there's not much deviation. But secondly, we don't eat those foods much any other time.

Other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, when do you eat cranberry sauce? Pumpkin pie, dressing, baked turkey? It's a great meal. Why do we reserve it for this time only? Maybe because it is hard to make? Maybe because we want it to be special? And why would lasagna be bad for Thankgiving? Of course it would, but why?

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3 Comments:

Blogger Claire said...

I vote for more turkey and mashed potatoes throughout the year. Although my family does a day after thanksgiving meal with friends and family and this year we had lasagna which was pretty great.

7:06 PM, November 28, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My parents get two free turkeys a year so they have a second "thanksgiving" meal in the spring or summer. As for me, being a vegetarian I don't touch turkey and usually make my own main dish. Last year I made a really yummy squash lasagna. This year a made vegan stuffing for everyone and didn't feel like making a main dish so just ate side dishes. I really wanted to make pumpkin apple soup so will probably try that next year.

3:56 PM, November 29, 2006  
Blogger William Sofield said...

thanks, ladies. wow! lasagna is really popular at thanksgiving. I had no idea.

Actually, katherine made me a squash spaghetti dish (squash instead of noodles). It was really good. With a natural sauce (no corn syrup), it was great nutritionally, too. So, suzanne's squash lasagna sounds pretty good. I hope to try it sometime.

6:53 AM, November 30, 2006  

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