A Shanghai Thanksgiving Feast

Hey everybody!

After not celebrating either Thanksgiving or Christmas last year, I've decided to go all out for each holiday this year.

Well it isn't completely true that I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving last year. My fellow American teachers and I did buy a few pizzas from Pizza Hut and watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - which is kinda the same as the Native Americans and pilgrims celebrating the harvest together... but more like the sequel in which the pilgrims wipe out the natives to conquer the new world.

Anyways, this one was better. Hats of to Jack Dorney, our wonderful host who coordinated most of the festivities by inviting everyone (I think there were about 15 people), setting up his house to contain all of us comfortably, and cooking up three dishes to top it off. He also carved the turkey for good measure. But more on that later.

I really got in the mood for Thanksgiving the weekend before when I was trying to figure out what to cook up for this special occasion. I was reminiscing about my Thanksgivings of old, with the family, as well as the Shaws, Chambers, and Langseths (all family friends). Everyone would bring a delicious dish or three which everyone would gladly consume over the next three days. And the dish that always had me salivating at its mere mention was Doreen's Arcus Family Sweet Potatoes.

While not an official Arcus family member, Doreen gladly gave me the recipe and told me to take pictures of their migration to China. On the Saturday she gave me the recipe, I tried them out with two different Chinese sweet potatoes (China has at least four different kinds of sweet potatoes, none of them like the American version), purple and orange. The sauce is overpoweringly amazing, so the potatoes didn't matter too much, but the orange ones were clearly better, so I used them for the official meal, which I cooked up on Thanksgiving Wednesday. Here are the photos:

Before - Yes that's a wok

After (we ate a few to make sure it was still good)

Freaking amazingly delicious! Without giving too much of the recipe away, there was enough butter and brown sugar in there to make Susu say "aha, that's why Americans look so fat." It isn't the sole reason for sure, but it might be the best one!

Fast forward to the next night. Let's do this in pictures:

Susu and her first turkey (Chinese direct translation is Fire Chicken)

Jack carving said turkey

Sean, joyous as always

With good red and white wines as well as drinkable soft cider (only 2% alcohol) available, I'm pretty ashamed I drank even one Suntory (Japanese swill popularly sold in China).

Wes's Deviled Eggs, so good

One of Jack's three meals

Serving and Starting

Delightful Conversation

The Kids Table

Lots of fun all around. Nearly everyone brought a dish, and those who didn't brought booze. Susu and I ate until our guts were busting, the way it should be done. Oh and some of Jack's Shanghainese neighbors stopped by, donated red wine, played games to make us drink, and then suddenly left... a welcome addition to the night.

Christmas, you have your work cut out for you...

Charitable Donation by the SFLS Dorms 

Well played Christmas. And so it begins...

Stephen "Scuba" Lauer