感恩節(jié)是關(guān)于食物的節(jié)日

感恩節(jié)是關(guān)于食物的節(jié)日

Forget friends and family! Without the traditional meal, it feels like any old dinner party.

忘記朋友和家人!沒(méi)有傳統(tǒng)的食物，它感覺(jué)像往常任何一個(gè)晚餐聚會(huì)。

You know how every November the cooking magazines are full of articles on how you should shake up the traditional Thanksgiving meal and make it new and exciting? Out with the boring mashed potatoes, in with the roasted smashed potatoes with chermoula! Forget a green salad – what about glazed leeks with pine nut salsa verde? And who wants to roast a whole turkey? Why not braise the turkey legs or serve a ham instead? (Yes, Bon Appétit, I'm looking at you.)

你知道每年11月的烹飪雜志上都滿是關(guān)于如何改變傳統(tǒng)感恩節(jié)大餐的文章嗎?拿著無(wú)聊的土豆泥出來(lái)，拿著烤土豆泥進(jìn)去。忘了蔬菜沙拉吧——綠松仁韭菜沙拉怎么樣?誰(shuí)想烤一整只火雞?為什么不把火雞腿燉一下，或者用火腿代替呢?(是的，祝你胃口好，我正看著你呢。)

Public Domain. Unsplash / element5 digital

I used to think these ideas were great and wished my family would add some inventiveness to our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner – until this year, when we did. In fact, we reinvented it so much that it wasn't even Thanksgiving dinner anymore. We ate chicken with a Parmesan panko crust, basmati rice pilaf, roasted carrots, and a lettuce salad with roasted beets. For dessert we had bourbon pound cake with ice cream. In other words, it was like any other nice meal I'd have at my parents' house.

我曾經(jīng)認(rèn)為這些想法很好，并希望我的家人能給我們的加拿大感恩節(jié)晚餐添加一些創(chuàng)新——直到今年，我們做到了。事實(shí)上，我們對(duì)它進(jìn)行了大量的改造，以至于它甚至不再是感恩節(jié)晚餐了。我們吃了雞肉配帕爾馬面包皮、印度香米飯飯、烤胡蘿卜和烤甜菜生菜沙拉。甜點(diǎn)我們點(diǎn)了波本一磅蛋糕加冰淇淋。換句話說(shuō)，它就像我在父母家吃的任何一頓美餐一樣。

We had to do this out of necessity. My mom and siblings run a wood-fired pizza company that usually shuts down at the beginning of September, but this fall, they stayed open until Thanksgiving (the second weekend of October in Canada). Its last day of operation was Saturday, and we have our traditional Thanksgiving meal on Sunday. My whole family was so exhausted from pizza-making – and coping with the death of a grandparent the previous week – that they had no energy left for a feast. Hence our 'lazy' Thanksgiving, made with ingredients we already had.

我們是迫不得已才這樣做的。我媽媽和兄弟姐妹經(jīng)營(yíng)著一家用木材燒制的披薩公司，通常在9月初就關(guān)門了，但今年秋天，他們一直營(yíng)業(yè)到感恩節(jié)(在加拿大，感恩節(jié)是10月的第二個(gè)周末)。周六是它營(yíng)業(yè)的最后一天，我們?cè)谥苋障碛脗鹘y(tǒng)的感恩節(jié)大餐。我們?nèi)叶家蜃雠_而疲憊不堪——前一周還得應(yīng)對(duì)一位祖母的去世——以至于他們都沒(méi)力氣吃一頓大餐了。所以才有了我們的“懶惰”感恩節(jié)，用我們現(xiàn)有的食材做的。

© K Martinko – Getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner 2019

As usual the meal was delicious and the company delightful, but it wasn't until after the weekend that I was left with a sense of loss, as if something were missing. That's when I realized that, for me, Thanksgiving is very much about the food, and not just the lovely people who share the dinner with me. It's my one chance to taste dishes that I don't eat at any other time of year, and that is precisely why it's so special. Mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, the fresh free-range turkey from a friend's farm – I need these things in order for it to truly feel like Thanksgiving.

像往常一樣，這頓飯很美味，和大家在一起也很愉快，但直到周末結(jié)束后，我才有了一種悵然若失的感覺(jué)，好像少了什么似的。那時(shí)我才意識(shí)到，對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，感恩節(jié)更多的是關(guān)于食物，而不僅僅是那些和我一起分享晚餐的可愛(ài)的人們。這是我在一年中任何時(shí)候都不會(huì)吃的菜，這是我唯一的機(jī)會(huì)，這也正是它如此特別的原因。肉汁土豆泥、餡料、蔓越莓醬、南瓜派、朋友農(nóng)場(chǎng)的新鮮放養(yǎng)火雞——我需要這些東西，才能讓感恩節(jié)有真正的感覺(jué)。

In other words, don't let food magazines push you to change something that's already fabulous. They're just doing their job, but there is nothing wrong with cooking the same thing year after year; maybe, like me, you need it to feel like the holiday is complete! It's just one meal out of 365, after all, so who cares about repetition?

換句話說(shuō)，不要讓美食雜志強(qiáng)迫你去改變一些已經(jīng)很不錯(cuò)的東西。他們只是在做他們的工作，但是年復(fù)一年地做同樣的東西并沒(méi)有什么錯(cuò);也許，像我一樣，你需要它來(lái)感覺(jué)假期是完整的!畢竟，這只是365頓飯中的一頓而已，誰(shuí)在乎重復(fù)呢?

So, this is my plea to you not to give up on traditional Thanksgiving this year just because you're tired or stressed or feeling like you should. And you can be sure that I'll make a big deal out of Christmas dinner, just to compensate for having missed out on the Thanksgiving that I never realized I loved so much. Never again!

所以，我懇請(qǐng)大家不要僅僅因?yàn)槠v、壓力大或者感覺(jué)應(yīng)該就放棄感恩節(jié)。你可以肯定的是，我會(huì)在圣誕晚餐上大做文章，只是為了彌補(bǔ)我錯(cuò)過(guò)了這個(gè)我從未意識(shí)到自己如此熱愛(ài)的感恩節(jié)。再也不會(huì)!