beXnlog

Thankstaking

be's family was having Thankstaking dinner at their neighbors' house, so we had a Thankstaking lunch with them this afternoon. One cannot go to a meal empty-handed, so we stopped by Parisi Bakery to pick up some bread. We knew it would be crowded full of people buying bread, cookies and pies for dinner, but had no idea the line would stretch down the block! I mean, this line was for bread -- not a concert or movie opening night -- for $1.00 loaves of bread! They were sold out of almost everything except butter cookies so we got a pound, but couldn't wait the "5 minutes" for new loaves to come out of the oven. As we left the bakery, the line was just growing longer and longer. be makes his excellent croutons from leftover Parisi bread and they're the best croutons i've ever had. This past summer we gave Ishle and Dave a little ziplock bag of them and Dave ate them all for breakfast the next day! Sans salad! So if you're ever on the N train to Astoria, get off at the Broadway stop and get some loaves.

The Thankstaking lunch was fun; the dishes i liked the most were the yellow rice and vinegared vegetables (curtido). be's mom even made a vegetarian batch of her stuffing for us. It consisted of fake meat, potato chunks, chickpeas, onions and bell peppers (but i didn't eat the bell peppers), capers and a tomato sauce. Now we have enough leftovers in the fridge for 8 more meals!

At home, be had fruit with vanilla ice cream in an attempt to consume some of the near-rotting produce we have laying around. Every week we get a box of organic produce delivered to us. Our thinking is that if we paid for it, we have to eat it. We sometimes eat like crap so this is our way of making sure we eat more fruits and veggies. This thinking works only if we don't eat out more than 2x a week however, and in New York that's a difficult thing to do. This past week we've had a ton of friends in town so alas, our poor produce is not lookin so hot sitting on the counter or getting humidified in the fridge. When be cut open the wrinkly kiwi though, it tasted like candy! You know those kiwi gummies with the real seeds in them? This kiwi was so good it tasted unreal. We then went into a long lament about how produce in this country sucks so much that when we have a real apple, we think it tastes artificial. After this candy kiwi, we ate the last of the pineapple we got at Honolulu Airport. This pineapple was so good i could really eat the entire one by myself, juice squirting out when you take a bite, so sweet and yummy. That made me think of the strawberries we had all over Paris (gariguettes) which upon first bite, made us say, "this tastes like Starburst!" How sad this all is.

Les Fraises (scroll down)
This tastes like Starburst!
Fraise v Gariguette

What i don't understand about Thanksgiving is the turkey obsession. 90% of households make and eat turkey today, but first of all, no one seems to know how to cook it (hence, a helpline) and secondly, no one really seems to like it. What everyone likes is the "tradition" but i'm all for burning down dumb, pointless traditions. If people really wanted to make a meal representative of what the "Pilgrims and Indians" ate, it sure wouldn't look like what's served at today's table (who serves succotash these days?) nor would football be a main focal point for the lazy men.

No turkey!

I'm really glad we did the family meal thing early this time. It seems so late now but we have the whole evening to be homebodies. Maybe i'll knit something warm; this weather is terrible.

posted by beXn @ 8:18 PM