An Asian Thanksgiving Feast

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at Bryan’s aunt’s home last night.  It was one of my first times ever eating a Chinese style Thanksgiving hybrid meal.

Even though Bryan’s family is Chinese, they typically eat American style turkey for Thanksgiving.  This is partly because Bryan’s mom learned how to make turkey from an American family in Utah when she first moved to the States.  Her turkey is fabulous, and her fixins are beyond amazing (below is a pic from last year).

Thanksgiving 2008

My family never ate turkey partly because my mom hated turkey, and partly because we were Taiwanese.  Instead, we would always enjoy a hot pot during Thanksgiving.

Thus, it was quite interesting to see what another Chinese family does during Thanksgiving.  In this case, duck replaces turkey, Chinese sticky rice replaces the stuffing (inside the duck!), and other traditional sides, such as corn and sweet potatoes, are given an Asian twist.  Check it out!

This spread of cold appetizers is popular at Chinese banquets as the first course. This particular spread includes marinated jelly fish in the center, soy sauce braised eggs (similar to tea eggs), 5-spice dried tofu, and soy sauce marinated beef shin.

Twice Cooked Pork with peppers and dried tofu

Pork Belly with Pickled Mustard Greens

Yams with Chinese beef sauce. Bryan thought this was a funny twist on the traditional sweet potatoes.  It was delicious, and one of the most popular dishes of the night.

Sauteed baby bok choy. This is a classic Chinese dish and always a favorite. For the recipe, click here.

Another twist on an American Thanksgiving classic. In this case, corn is stir fried with ground pork and Chinese seasonings. This was really good.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts. Hee hee, they actually made this after seeing that the meal was quite meat heavy and knowing that I LOVE vegetables. These were delicious. Roasted with olive oil and a bit of salt at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Yum.

The duck! Unlike a traditional turkey, this duck was filled with sticky rice!

They really stuffed it with TONS of sticky rice!  This dish was also delicious, and the other most popular dish of the night.  I think we ate the whole duck with no leftovers to spare! The skin was nice and crispy, and the meat moist and flavorful.

Dessert was purely American. Bryan’s cousin made an awesome apple pie from locally picked apples.

And of course, the vanilla bundt loaf that I brought.

All in all, a truly excellent meal. I’m thankful for relatives away from home who can adopt us during the holidays.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving as well!