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A very Indian Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving for most immigrants becomes a repeat of their first experience in the country.
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Thanksgiving dinner by Gerhard and Lisa Eschelbeck / Ritu Marwah
Mary D'souza remembers her first thanksgiving meal. It was November of 1967. She had arrived from India to her snowbound university in Canada with a bagful of sarees. Every day she would wrap herself in one of the colorful exotic blends, put her coat on and head to her Chemistry lab. “ My guide, Dr. Dalton invited me to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. I was surprised. All his children were there who welcomed me. At lunch, in the afternoon, out of the oven came a huge baked ????. I realized it was a turkey!!!! which the professor had baked in the oven since early morning. Dr. Dalton had woken up at 4 am to put the bird in the oven as they had planned to eat lunch at one pm. His wife made all the accompaniments – cranberry sauce, yams etc and pumpkin pie for dessert. What an introduction to Canadian Thanksgiving to which, then I was invited every year!”
D’Souza says “I got so enamored by the tradition that when I left Canada, got married and moved to the US, I learnt how to bake a turkey and kept up the tradition. Exposing my two sons to it. They keep up the tradition and hopefully my grandchildren will too. “
Thanksgiving for most immigrants becomes a repeat of their first experience in the country. Sachin and Nupur Jain arrived as students and saw the holiday as a five day break during which they could travel. A meal was not part of their tradition. As vegetarians the bird and its trappings did not call out to them.
Jay and Priya Gupta, whose family is vegetarian, arrived in Silicon Valley armed with a job offer. They too stirred clear of anything that had flown and squawked in its life. Last Thanksgiving, when their neighbors, another Indian American family, invited them for a vegan thanksgiving meal at 4pm the Guptas assumed it would be high tea. As they sat down to dinner and the family shared their tradition of saying what they were thankful for that year, the Guptas fell in love with Thanksgiving. Vegan gravy was poured over cornbread stuffing and mashed potatoes. The meal ended with a serving of pecan pie, pumpkin pie and rollicking stories by the children. Merriment, good food and laughter became the hallmark of thanksgiving.
Nipun Jain remembers fondly the thanksgiving they celebrated with his parents in Pittsburg. Growing up the family tradition was cook up a meal and give their mother a rest. The three brothers put together a Jain Lasagna meal for the parents.
Friendsgiving is the new thanksgiving
As the children grow up and move to different cities Thanksgiving celebrations become more like friendsgiving. “Thanksgiving comes very quickly after Diwali and is followed by Xmas so it is hard for the children to come home for it, " said Swati, whose daughters will come to their bay area home for Xmas. Each member of the family has a potluck thanksgiving dinner with friends in the city they live in.
Anu Bhatia hosts a potluck thanksgiving meal with friends that she wants to be just right. A potluck can leave the meal at the mercy of the various dish makers. Her solution is to gamefy the experience. Each year she picks a brand new set of side dishes that accompany the main turkey dish. She distributes recipes two weeks ahead of thanksgiving to her friends, assigning them the dish they must cook. This ensures the meal hangs together well and the recipe ensures it tastes good.
Ritu Marwah / Friendsgiving Sandra lost her husband in June and is now cooking for one. At a book event by cookbook authors she said. “I still have to learn how to cook for one but I love cooking,” she explained her purchases of cookbooks. For Thanksgiving this year she is looking forward to making her friends, her new family.
The thanksgiving table bears an Indian touch
As November rolls around, book shops and gourmet websites like epicurious.com, Bon Appetit and New York Times’s Cooking.com, are scoured avidly by gourmands for recipes. An increasing flattening of the recipe world is melding the flavors everywhere in the world . Restaurants Indian Accent and Indian Grill are serving Arancini sambar balls in Mumbai and cookbook authors like Vina Patel are adding kachori flavored Sesame potato bombs to the tables of Americans.
Urvashi Arora came to earn her Masters in America in the 1970s. She and her husband made America their home. Her family always shared their thanksgiving meal with friends. Their colleagues who worked in America’s oil industry formed a dinner group. Every year Arora carried a butter chicken curry gravy to the meal. The families took turns hosting but the curry gravy was a big hit with her American family. After retirement when she moved away, every year one of the friends’ picks up the gauntlet and recreates her curry recipe for their potluck.
A tandoori masala rub on the turkey is a go to for a number of Indian American families. Vina Patel changed it up with a chicken with a satay rub and suggested a corn chivda to go with it.
Another tradition got an Indian touch, says Om when one thanksgiving instead of asking what he was thankful for, his mother told him what he should be grateful for.
In this new tradition each family member points out what the other should be thankful for. It does spice things up.
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