The Atlantic is touting brisket as a new alternative for Thanksgiving dinner -- which raises the question of what exactly you can remove from your Thanksgiving feast before it becomes something else entirely?
For me, stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey and mashed potatoes must be on the table. These are the non-negotiable. After that, you're free to include whatever desserts, sides or secondary meat or vegetarian options you want.
Even when I spent Thanksgiving in Paris, France, there was roast turkey at the center of the meal. It came from the only store in the city that sold whole turkeys -- an American grocery store serendipitously named Thanksgiving. The expatriates who run the store don't just sell the turkeys, but opened up a turkey farm outside Paris to raise the birds specifically for the holiday.
So my idea of joy is my brother-in-law in the back of a French
taxi with an 18-pound turkey. I also came from a family that would
prepare two turkeys whether we were having eight or 18 people.
Thanksgiving leftovers are sacred to me.
But it could be all in how you're raised. There are likely regional differences. I imagine the menu at my house in Connecticut was a lot different from what's on the table in southern Louisiana, for The Atlantic's
Renee Charboneau.
"This may explain why I did not have a fondness for the food at
Thanksgiving. It was not at all what I had the rest of the year,"
writes Charboneau, explaining why she prefers brisket to turkey.
Now, living in Kansas City, my family's likely to have both a roasted turkey and smoked turkey from Fritz's Superior Sausage Co., Inc. The rest of what's on the table? I'm open to suggestions.
[Image via Flickr: shutter chick]
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