The Chilean bird that rescued our holiday
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For many expats, the traditional holiday season has arrived and with it, a time for feasting and family. It’s like Spring Festival, but stretched out over an even longer time.
For many of us, it starts around Thanksgiving, which falls in late November in the United States and in October for Canadians. By the time we’re finished eating the leftovers, it’s time to plan dinners for Christmas and New Year.
Thanksgiving can be a wonderful time for family get-togethers, for taking pictures that will long be treasured and for watching kids play in the yard.
It includes a traditional dinner of turkey, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and a bready dish called either dressing or stuffing (depend- ing on the region in North America). The smells of this dinner cooking immediately transports many of us to holidays past.
It can be a time of melancholy, comparable I imagine to what Chinese people living abroad might feel at Spring Festival.
I must admit it’s the holiday that most makes me feel a little homesick. Fortunately for us, however, North American holiday dinners are not so hard to find in China’s big cities.
Our first Thanksgiving in China was in Shanghai. I had to work, but my wife was welcomed at our favorite restaurant, Southern Belle on Changle Road, even without a reservation, and had turkey dinner at the bar. Sadly, Southern Belle closed just over a year ago.
In Beijing, we’ve had several fantastic holiday dinners at a restaurant in the village of Mutianyu. This year, my wife found a small turkey imported from Chile in a small store. It was just the right size for our medium-sized oven, and she cooked an amazingly good dinner for a small group from the US.
While we have no desire to live in an expat “bubble”, some touches from home are comforting, especially after years abroad.
We have seen the world become smaller as more people travel internationally. More are living abroad as digital nomads as technology has freed more workers from office jobs.
While having too many visitors in any given location can be overwhelming, I think these phenomena have, overall, been positive. We understand each other better, making prejudice less likely to sprout.
People from all over the world can find a touch of home in China’s cities.
Here in Beijing, if you need spices for your favorite Indian dish, you can find them. If you want fresh Peruvian-style ceviche and a pisco sour, you can have them. The city has become cosmopolitan without losing its Chinese character.
I never anticipated living in China, even though as a child I read about early 19th century revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen and wondered about his far-off nation. When the chance came over five years ago to work here, we jumped at it and have never regretted it. It has changed us for the better, and we feel like we have contributed our skills to China.
At the same time, with just a few adjustments, we can still have an old-fashioned, homestyle holiday dinner, complete with turkey and dressing.