happy thanksgiving

thanksgiving day falls on the fourth thursday in november. happy thanksgiving to you!

for us, we already celebrated twice this year. there is a korean custom of hosting open houses (집들이) for various groups in the newlywed couples’ lives. for example, her side of the family, his side of the family, colleagues, friends. this allows special wedding guests an invitation into the newlywed home in order to get a glimpse at how they live and to be properly thanked.

ideally, the recent bride should prepare everything from scratch to display her culinary prowess…korean style: appetizers (안주), beef course (소고기), pork course (돼지고기), fish course (물고기), soup (국), rice (밥), kimchee (김치), side dishes (반찬), drinks (술), rice cakes (떡). nowadays she has the option of catering the event, inviting a group to a restaurant for a meal or meeting people individually for coffee.

gyopo wife offered thanksgiving dinner to our guests because it (1) looks impressive, (2) can’t be found in any restaurant in korea, (3) reflects american culture, and (4) i’ve baked pumpkin pie in my previous life.

guests were delighted to eat a turkey dinner instead of what would have been my unrefined korean cooking. they especially loved the pumpkin pie, which was made without canned pumpkin. instead i used the ubiquitous squash (단호박), found year round at every market. another hit was the stuffing/dressing, for which i had to make my own croutons. that meant toasting loaves of bread, cubing them, letting them go stale in brown paper bags. the turkey had to be special-ordered from a market near the US army base for a 2-3xs mark up. oh, how i miss overstocked american grocery stores.