Thanksgiving in Buenos Aires
Last Thursday I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Buenos Aires with my Argentine friends and with 1 reader of this blog. It was an interesting experience to share a piece of Americana with Argentines and explain to them the significance of Thanksgiving. I also found that it was a good opportunity to give thanks to all my friends here who've made me feel so welcome and helped me integrate into the society.
Get Your Turkey Early
After celebrating my first Thanksgiving here, I can offer some advice to others... a few lessons learned. First off, its not so easy to find a turkey unless you go EARLY. I remember seeing two huge tubs filled with frozen turkeys at the Jumbo supermarket in Palermo. There were probably 100 turkeys total. What I didn't know is that after they sold those 100 turkeys, there were no more! I returned to Jumbo two days before Thanksgiving and low and behold, nada.
I had just invited 10 people to celebrate Thanksgiving with me and there I was... the Tuesday before with no turkey. I felt pretty rotten at this point. One of my friends in particular told me he was very excited about coming because it would be the first time in his life that he ate turkey. So, it wouldn't go over too well if I switched out the turkey for a chicken or something.
I didn't give up, though. I proceeded to start calling all the Jumbos in Buenos Aires. The Abasto Jumbo had 9 turkeys left and after I bought the biggest 10 pounder, they were down to 8. I doubt anyone who waited until the day before was able to find one. So, make sure you get your turkeys ahead of time.
Labels: Buenos Aires, Food and Wine, Living In Argentina
posted by SoyYo at 11/30/2006 07:42:00 PM
2 Comments:
No turkey here either. Very hard to come by here in Argentina for some reason. Been pretty much skipping on that holiday altogether anyway.
One holiday to definitely skip on here is the 4th of July. Fireworks are fine but the American flag is a BIG NO, No.
Unless of course you would enjoy rocks thrown at you. JeJe.
I've attempted to carry on with the Thanksgiving tradition here but not to much satisfaction. Understandably so, I've not had much luck rallying up support to carry out the ritual with my Argentine family and friends, and to pull it off alone...well, that can be a major challenge.
On the other hand and personally speaking, the ingredients for putting together a good Thanksgiving meal leave much to be desired. Sorry folks, but the pavita just doesn't cut the chase. It tastes like rubber produced in a food lab from Mars.
So, Thanksgiving remains in my heart...and as a wonderful childhood memory.
Post a Comment
<< Home