I don’t understand why Americans are so brainwashed into eating turkey on Thanksgiving. Turkey and Thanksgiving are synonymous. Yet, we neither desire nor respect the beast enough to consider preparing turkey on any other day of the year. I suppose there isn’t any other creature of comparable size and worthlessness that can economically sustain the gluttonous feeding habits of an extended family gathering. I’ve always hated turkey. Beginning with their appearance (a sickly, mutant white color which looks nothing similar to the natural brown of wild turkey) to their stupidity (apparently the birds will drown in the rain), turkeys are disgusting creatures in my mind. I would just as soon chew on a cockroach as chew on a turkey.
Most of my friends and family are aware of my aversion and have oddly accommodated my idiosyncrasy. During my childhood, my mother always baked a little chicken for me when she used to actually bother preparing a turkey-based feast. Nowadays, my family routinely sticks to galbi or sashimi. My junior year of college, my friend Jong and his then roommate had me over for Thanksgiving and I brought a rotisserie chicken with me. His roommate, an odd duck himself, was quite affronted. In Philadelphia, my friend Jason invited me to his home for Thanksgiving and I was surprised to find that his mother had made galbi-jim for me while everyone else enjoyed turkey. I have even prepared Thanksgiving turkeys in the past for my friends. Know thy enemy, some say.
This year, my parents are in the midsts of renovating the house and weren’t interested in preparing a meal. Furthermore, my girlfriend said that she never ever celebrated Thanksgiving having grown up in Asia. So, I took it upon myself to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. However, staying true to my aversion for turkey, I prepared a rib roast. What a marvelous idea. I picked up a 7 lb prime rib roast from Pavilions for about 40 bucks, slathered a garlic/horseradish/olive oil mixture all over it and let it marinate for a long while before roasting it to a beautiful medium rare. Recipes for side dishes were derived from Lawry’s online and included cream of spinach, cream of corn, a rosemary/garlic yam and potato mash, and salad.
Suffice it to say, a new tradition is born. I’m not a starving idiot of a Puritan who needed help from the natives to survive through a year of hardship, so I’ll pass on the turkey and gourd-based desserts. I’d rather feast on a juicy slice of prime rib than pack an avian monstrosity full of stuffing and slather it with gravy in the hopes that it’ll magically transform from a fourth rate bit of poultry into something actually worth eating. Here is to the rib roast, a worthy and proper centerpiece for discriminating family gatherings.
More pictures from Thanksgiving dinner can be found here.
I should have realized that Nakzi was an anglo-cized form of 낙지, which is a sort of small cephalopod. Tired of the usual restaurants, we decided to try out something new. Simply put, the main dinner course is very similar to what you would find at a ë‹ ê°ˆë¹„ (chicken galbi) restaurant. Cabbage, onions, soybean sprouts, red pepper paste, red pepper flakes mixed with nakji rather than chicken and cooked in a large metal skillet. After consuming the first part of the meal, the remaining sauce and vegetable discards are combined with rice for a second course.