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Kelly Pendergrast - gaining weight rapidly, San Diego

Sunday, November 27, 2005

On Thursday it was Thanksgiving. Or "Starchgiving" as I now like to call it. And, of course, being a non-American, this Thanksgiving was my first one.

I knew it was coming up because my neighbours erected a giant inflatable sculpture of a turkey wearing a pilgrims hat and holding a knife and fork (in the same way, I knew when Halloween was impending because of the giant inflatable jack-o-lantern). I was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner and told to bring a side dish and maybe a desert. So I made onion tarts, bread, and an experimental apple-blueberry pie. Mmm mmm.

Since the dinner was hosted by grad students and attended mostly by grad students, there was possibly less familial argument and football watching than most Thanksgivings' have. However, there was the obligatory alcohol-imbibing and food-stuffing. Someone even made a beautiful turkey. I didn't eat it, being of the vegetarian persuasion, but I could have had an "unturkey", a wheat protein mound shaped like a turkey, with fake little wings and even an authentic soy-protein "skin". Uuuugh. Aside from the poultry, there was: sweet potato mash (I don't even know what sweet potato is, somewhere between a kumara and a pumpkin and something else, I guess), potato gratin, pasta salad, rosemary bread, roasted chickpeas, brussel sprouts, green beans, and green salad. Now, I don't know about you, but that seems like a lotta lotta starch. Strange that the US is so obsessed with the evil of carbohydrates, when Thanksgiving is practically a celebration of the joy of carbs.

Also there was apple pie, apple pie, apple and blackberry pie, pumpkin pie, some other weird thing, meringues, profiteroles, and little pinwheel spice things.
Gwaaaar! (That is the sound of me eating).

I don't know how newsworthy this all is, but sometimes we just need to take a little time and remember how wonderful it is to eat until you can eat no more.

Oh yeah, and something about remembering that time some Native Americans bailed out the dumbass pilgrims as well. I forget the details.

Wooh! Food!