The United States has a number of timeworn culinary traditions:
baseball games and peanuts, the Fourth of July with its barbecued
hamburgers and hot dogs, and Thanksgiving, laden with turkey,
mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie in a holiday centered
entirely around paying homage to one meal.
This year, while many people will continue this typical type of
observance, some UCLA students will go against the Thanksgiving
grain, opting for a less orthodox holiday celebration.
From exotic foods to Thanksgiving in foreign lands, students are
discovering unusual alternatives to the traditional turkey
feast.
One trend is dismissing the turkey altogether, as a growing
interest in different dishes has recently surfaced. For some, such
as vegetarians and vegans, this practice reflects their
lifestyle.
Melissa Felix, a fourth-year neuroscience student and
vegetarian, finds the yearly meal with her relatives to be
difficult.
“There’s an enormous amount of food there, but I
usually don’t get to really eat anything because it’s
all turkey and turkey-based,” Felix said. “It’s
really hard, especially over the holidays, to find something vegan
or vegan-based that you can have.”
Felix, however, has discovered her own alternative with
Tofurkey.
“It’s amazing what tofu can taste like,” she
said. “It’s just like having turkey slices.”
Outlets such as Whole Foods Market have catered particularly to
the needs of vegetarians and vegans, offering a multitude of
non-meat products. These include Tofurkeys and also a new addition,
a tofu-free vegan Gardein field roast that has quickly gained
popularity, even with meat eaters.
According to Ashley Gibbons, Whole Foods marketing supervisor,
the field roast was made to taste a lot like poultry and chicken
and have a similar consistency, without being made with tofu.
Devoted carnivores, however, needn’t feel left out. Whole
Foods also looks to satiate their palettes with organic turkeys and
more unfamiliar Thanksgiving entrees such as pistachio mashed
potatoes and orange cranberry chutney.
Gibbons attributes these newer selections to an increased
interest in more exotic options.
“The Thanksgiving meal is getting broader, especially in
Southern California, which has a more alternative taste that is
ahead in food trends,” she said.
Gibbons also noticed that many families were mixing the usual
Thanksgiving options with their own cultural dishes.
“There are a lot of fusions going on now between cultures
for Thanksgiving,” she said.
While mixing tamales and sushi may seem off the deep end for
some, the traditional holiday dinner itself isn’t truly
authentic.
The pilgrims back in 1621 never actually ate many of the dishes
Americans have come to cherish. Instead, they partook in varied
types of meat such as venison, wild fowl and fish, and were left
without access to our now beloved mashed potatoes, pies and
cranberry sauce.
While food remains the most prominent aspect of the Thanksgiving
dinner, many students also celebrate the holiday with more
interesting activities besides simply scarfing through their fifth
helping of pumpkin pie.
While some may be turned away by such zealous adherence to wacky
holiday traditions, other students find themselves more
disappointed by a lack of holiday spirit, especially those who are
abroad during Thanksgiving.
Rachel Nelson, a second-year biology student, currently resides
in England, a country not exactly hospitable to the pilgrims’
cause.
“The British aren’t too big on stocking turkeys,
pumpkins or cranberry sauce in their grocery stores, so
that’s the main disadvantage to being in a country that
doesn’t celebrate the holiday,” she said.
Nelson still plans to observe Thanksgiving, despite the limited
resources.
“None of my flatmates are very adept chefs, and we only
have one pan, one pot and one baking dish, so it will definitely be
an adventure,” she said.
Still, not every new tradition is a break from the old, as some
students discovered in taking a more charitable route to the
holiday.
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars recently celebrated
Thanksgiving on Nov. 15 at Angel’s Flight, a local shelter
for runaway teens.
Janet Lee, NSCS community service chair and fourth-year
molecular, cell and developmental biology student, found the
program through the volunteer Web site L.A. Works and started a new
tradition for the society with its first dinner. Society volunteers
each brought a Thanksgiving dish, settling down for a more personal
meal with the teens.
“They’re probably not going to be home for
Thanksgiving, so for these teens, that was the only Thanksgiving
they’re going to have,” Lee said.