Thanksgiving in China?

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays- right up there with Christmas. So the last couple of weeks I have been trying to figure out how I could still make Thanksgiving feel like a holiday in a country that doesn't celebrate it and doesn't make for a very conducive environment in which to even try (i.e. I have never seen turkey here...). So I took it as a challenge, and armed with my handy rice cooker and the local market I got to work. After experimenting a bit (Eric will tell you that we had three 'thanksgiving dinners' this week- he's not complaining :) ) I felt that maybe this would work. And the result? Yes, you CAN have a traditional (mostly) Thanksgiving dinner in China without spending a fortune!

Here is our completely vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. I contemplated attempted to make a tofurkey so at least we could pretend we had a turkey but we both decided that it didn't sound even remotely appetizing so that idea got scratched pretty quickly.

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Pumpkin Pie! I was most worried about this. But with an oatmeal crumb crust and a last minute discovery of evaporated milk on an amazing sale at the local import store we did it!


In the evening, the Flagship Program treated us all to a Thanksgiving dinner. This one not too traditional. Though I think they did try- the place did serve some American-ish dishes. Eric and I were excited to taste cheese for the first time since being here so we opted for the pizzas- and some sort of tomato cheesy dish that was over rice but which definitely should have been over pasta. Oh well, couldn't really expect to much in a Chinese restaurant, right?

This is the rice one- looks like an Italian dish, doesn't it?

Look at that cheese! Yum...

The restaurant decorated the room especially for us. But I think they got the occasion for which we were celebrating just a tad mixed up. The place was completely decked out in elaborate Christmas decorations. Kind of funny- I didn't get a picture though.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving all!