how i gave thanks

By Todd Stadler · Monday, November 26, 2001 3:20pm

Thanksgiving this year was nice.

Of course, most Thanksgivings are nice. It's hard to complain about a holiday in which you're near your loved ones, you eat a lot, and you don't do much else. Especially when you're not doing much else with your wonderful girlfriend nearby.

As we did last year, we had a non-traditional Thanksgiving feast at Morgan and Aaron's house. I guess that makes it quasi-traditional.

We had Cajun food (turducken), Austrian food (knodel ... no, not that Knodel), and Chinese food ( jiaozi aka dumplings aka potstickers), which Julia and I made 72 (!) of.

So, um, I guess I'm thankful for America's hodgepodge of cultures.

There's something very theraputic about making lots of dumplings. You're sitting there with a stack of wonton wrappers, a bowl of water, and a larger bowl of uncooked pork. And you just fold and fold and fold. I'd say it's very Zen, but I don't really know what that means.

Another fun aspect of cooking Asian food was justifying a trip to Uwajimaya, "the largest Asian Grocery & Gift Market in the Pacific Northwest".

Imagine walking into a large supermarket and finding that the regular produce aisle has been replaced with one in which all the vegetables have horns. That is roughly what it is like to shop at Uwajimaya. It is at once exciting and confusing. Suffice to say that it is easier to find a fruit you have never heard of than, say, a tomato.

It's a heck of a lot better than this grocery store, I'll tell you that much.