Thanksgiving Day (and the other major North American mealfests) have always been a bit strange for my family. I suppose it’s because the concept of a “Chinese” thanksgiving meal always seems to hold a few unorthodox surprises.

Don’t get me wrong: there is turkey, and a lot of it. But I don’t think we’ve ever had a thanksgiving dinner with normal kinds of trimmings. A good example would be cranberry sauce: we’ve never had it. Because of that I’ve never understood how the presence of fruit enlivens turkey. It kind of goes in the same category for me as ham and pine pizza. What’s next - grapes and baloney? Kiwi and headcheese? Yikes.

I also seem to remember years when my mom just said to hell with the turkey and we had such innovative thanksgiving meals as wonton soup, rice, and chop suey. Wontons just don’t seem to suffuse the eater with the same warming glow that turkey provides.. and chop suey? Let’s not even go there. At least I could get up from the table afterwards, free from the swooning effects of a turkey tryptophan overdose.

(Just had a thought: do they celebrate thanksgiving in Japan? Or Korea? Or East Timor? And if so, what do they eat?)

My kvetching about thanksgiving aside, here’s raising a, er, fortune cookie to all of the fine folks that hang out at the BeatnikPad. Thanks for visiting, for writing me e-mails and comments, and for giving me a damn good reason to keep this site going. Have a safe and happy thanksgiving.