Today: Canadian Thanksgiving!
As a Canadian abroad, it’s my job to import my customs and share them with my new friends in my new country.
Like the pilgrims did with the natives. And that’s where thanksgiving comes from.
As a former vegetarian (i like the term flexitarian) i had taken a slow gradual route from no-turkey-and-only-stuffing-that-has-not-been-in-the-bird to “I guess I can try a little taste” to “Yum! Thanksgiving Tuuuurkey!”
However, all of these small steps back in the direction of omnivorism didn’t prepare me for this years turkey encounter. It went like this:
“Yuck! This turkey is raw and still has some feathers in it! Who’s gonna touch this gro-. Oh wait. I am. I’m preparing this bird.”
A fundamental shift in my relationship to the bird, including sewing its stuffing-filled ass and neck holes up. But it got done and we had a proper Canadian Thanksgiving feast. It was a first for all the Italians and the Brit, and the American had never had a real (Canadian) Thanksgiving either. Plus it was friends and families together eating and drinking, which is a very Italian thing to do, but the cuisine (and spirit) were strictly North American. The mashed yams and normal potatoes with roasted garlic were fantastic, and the fact that we got Italians to eat garlic without making funny faces was special. The pumpkin pie was made from scratch and had a maple leaf in the middle: this was Thanksgiving done up Canadian style. It was flavourfully delicious.
