Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It is not, and has never been one of my favorite holidays mainly because my Thanksgivings have never been anything special. I am an unmarried only child with next to no extended family. So there isn’t a huge gathering with lots of people and there never has been. Yes, we have turkey and mashed potatoes, but that’s about it for ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving food. No pies. Nothing cranberry related. It’s a minimally themed Thanksgiving dinner for about 3 people.
Flashback to Thanksgiving 2010
This year, like most years since I went in to health care, I spent the actual holiday at the hospital, but four years ago during my year off, I had the best Thanksgiving ever in Peru, of all places. My roommate, Emily, and I, along with a couple other Americans including my friend Corinna hosted an international Thanksgiving for about 25-30 in our little 2 bedroom apartment in Huanchaco, Peru. We had Americans, Canadians, English, and Australians, Peruvians, Brazilians, and Argentinians, French, German, and Dutch, and a smattering of other nationalities. Basically we opened up the door and invited everyone, and for travelers, the tiniest bits of home can sustain a month or more of travel.
I started my day in the ocean… third attempt at surfing. For the first time, I caught a wave instead of the waves catching me. It was awesome. I made mashed potatoes for a group. They were awesome. We had a turkey. And lots of pie. And wine and pisco sours. Food. Friends. Futbol. No [american] football though. We had our Thanksgiving on Tuesday not Thursday, but that wasn’t important. And then the group broke up. Some left that night. I left two days later. Emily stayed a little longer, but for me, Thanksgiving with relative strangers, all of whom were away from home, was the best Thanksgiving ever.
The turkey… just as tasty as at home
The spread–turkey, potatoes, gravy, vegetable quiche
Another table with just desserts–cake, rum-marinated fruit, pear things [not sure what they were, but oh so tasty..]
Sweet potatoes with melted marshmallows on top
Brought to you by your lovely hostesses Emily, Michelle, and Corinna.
