If you're not American by birth, what do you serve for Thanksgiving dinner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:40lbs of Korean ribs. Seafood pancakes. Fried shrimp with seasoned panko powder. Baked Korean sweet potatoes (yellow and not as sweet). Roasted chestnuts. Ghim-bap (maki rolls w bulgogi).

Nobody likes turkey and traditional sides are too sweet for us. Our English and Jewish relatives clean it up and take most of the leftovers home. My Irish, Tennessee, Texas, Brazilian, and Bolivian co-workers try to steal my leftover lunches.

NJ co-worker will just tsk tsk and say "that ain't Thanksgiving". LOL.

I'm seriously jealous!

[Anonymous]

I make sauerkraut and potato dumplings as a side dish - sauerkraut goes well with bland turkey. Can you guess where I am from

I also update American classics i.e. fresh cranberry sauce instead of canned, absolutely no marshmellows anywhere, no fake onions on green beans etc.

[Anonymous]

DH's family starts with matzo ball soup and chopped liver before moving on to the turkey. My family always does the traditional turkey, but not the sweet sides. It's pretty low-key, actually. Turkey; home-made cranberry sauce (tart); stuffing; salad; sweet potatoes (just the sweet potato in its jacket, people add butter if they please); new potatoes roasted with olive oil, rosemary, and salt; maybe corn muffins or pumpkin bread if someone felt like making it; zucchini kugel if my cousins happen to bring it. I never heard of any of the sweet sides (marshmellows) or the nasty-sounding ones (limp boiled green beans) until I went to college. And I was born here.

That said, if you don't like turkey, etc, don't bother! Make whatever you want. The Korean dishes one PP mentioned sound fantastic to me. Way better than the in-laws' chopped liver.

[Anonymous]

We definitely go the conventional route though reading some of these menus makes me wonder what we're doing. Korean Thanksgiving menu sounds AMAZING.

What we typically have other than turkey:

green bean casserole
yam and marshmellows
corn pudding
creamed onions
chopped salad
mashed potatoes
home made stuffing
cranberry sauce

Dessert: apple pie and pumpkin pie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We definitely go the conventional route though reading some of these menus makes me wonder what we're doing. Korean Thanksgiving menu sounds AMAZING.

What we typically have other than turkey:

green bean casserole
yam and marshmellows
corn pudding
creamed onions
chopped salad
mashed potatoes
home made stuffing
cranberry sauce

Dessert: apple pie and pumpkin pie

these are foods that many people who aren't American by birth find a little hard to like myself included. I posted earlier-I am northern european and the first time I went to my husband's house for TG I almost threw up when I saw the onions, and I cannot even look at marshmellows....on the other hand. When my husband came to my grandmothers house he almost died. Since turkey wasn't popular we usually had a goose or duck and a beef tenderloin. Sides included chopped liver, Shuba salad-a Russian salad with herring, eggs and lots of other crap, caviar, russian potatoe salad, knishes-cabbage and meat, matzah ball soup and/or borsht, THE worst for him was a jellied fat dish-not sure what it is in english but there is meat and egg suspended in the chicken fat-maybe someone can help me out with the name of it..and TONS of other food that just kept on coming...the look on his face was priceless...although he did enjoy dessert quite a bit-we never had pie-chocolate cake of some sort, a cheesecake or two, chocolate candy, fruit, eclairs...its all relative

[Anonymous]

We used to do a half-Indian, half-traditional dinner. It was great but way too much food, since we had two meals, essentially. Now we do an Indian lunch, mix of Indian/American appetizers and cocktails mid-afternoon and then a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at 6. There's still way too much food, but at least it's spread out through the day!

All the Indian items are ones that can be made beforehand, so it doesn't add more work that day. It makes for a fun day of eating! (And it's literally the only time all year we get together for 1 meal where there is no Indian food, so people enjoy the novelty. We have a half-veggie family, so we make a lot of sides.)

[Anonymous]

If they like the " traditional thanksgiving" and you prefer not, make smaller portions. You can now buy the turkey breast or turkey quarters. Make it a potluck so they can bring their favorite food cooked just the way they like it and you can cook your comfort food also. You wont have to slave away at the stove preparing food you dont like and leftovers you'll regret.

[Anonymous]

If its just he 2 of you ask him what he loves about the traditional thanksgiving. Make a small turkey, 2 of his favorite sides and 2 of your non sweet sides. Everyone will be happy.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to say that traditional thanksgiving absolutely does NOT have to include some of the gross sides like green bean casserole, sweet potato and mushroom, or creamed anything. MY DH's family does traditional thanksgiving without any sickeningly sweet sides - theirs are mostly savory, with the exception of some disgusting 1960s jello "salad" that everyone below the age of 65 avoids like the plague. In what world do the words jello and salad belong together?? Ewwww!

[Anonymous]

We do lasagna! Nobody really likes turkey.

[Anonymous]

Tandoori turkey or tandoori chicken.