Thanksgiving in China

This is the second year now that I have eaten Thanksgiving dinner at a Korean BBQ restuarant. This year I was simply treating two of my students while teaching them English. Last year was a bit more memorable in the sense that I was with a larger group including most of my closest friends in Beijing. There were 3 Koreans, 3 Iclelanders, and 3 Amercians. We were from all different parts of the world and had met eachother in Beijing. Korean bbq, a popular style of Korean cuisine in our corner of Beijing, involves roasting slices of pork or beef on a burner built into the table and then rolling up the cooked meat along with rice and spices in leaves of lettuce. But more importantly, bbq is more often than not accompanied by Soju, Korean rice wine. On that particular Thanksgiving night, every member of the table stood up to make a toast about what they were thankful for, and then everybody sitting at the table would ganbei, empty their shot glasses. After 9 toasts everyone was feeling quite good.

Most of these buddies of mine have already returned to their home countries for further study or a better job. So this year, my girlfriend and I decided to have a relaxing and quiet home cooked Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night - I love her cooking. There was no turkey (a very expensive meat imported from the US) but she had cooked mashed potatoes ... made by hand. Everything was delicious and I was stuffed like one should be on Thanksgiving - but like most American traditonal holidays I've spent abroad, it lacked the essence, which I have come to realize is family.