Season's Eatings!

Not only 'tis the season to be jolly, but 'tis the season for good eatin'! And who better to know about eating than us yellow folk.

Being Chinese-American, my relatives have always added a lot of Asian influence to the holiday meal, including things like my Aunt Eleanor's Taiwanese seafood-chicken soup, Aunt Susan's famous egg rolls (sold in Indiana supermarkets, which put cousin Bill through college), my brother Ted's potstickers (including handmade dough wrappers), and takeout sushi platters. But this year the family decided to try some new food options.

Cousin Sylvia surprised us by ordering up the smallest Turducken she could find, which was still something like 9 lbs. A turducken can only be so small, because you need the turkey to big enough to hold layers of stuffing between duck and chicken breasts. It came all pre-stuffed. I think generally we liked it, but taste-wise it wasn't that special. We had cut up slices of it and threw it all on a platter, so then it was hard to tell which meats were what bird, except for the duck, which is darker. I think the duck was more tender than the other bird layers. It didn't come with gravy though; you have to supply that yourself.

Ted decided to make Pakistani chicken curry and naan instead of potstickers. And since Cousin Bill brought his vegetarian fiancée, Jenn, Aunt Susan altered her usual meat-filled eggrolls to vegetarian and also brought fried shrimp meatballs and a restaurant-cooked fish (with fish that Uncle Ed caught). All were very tasty.

In addition to this tasty holiday feast, Jenn's mom brought some rocky road and peppermint-fudgy cakey squares, Aunt Rosemary brought her usual almond-sliver-chocolate cookies from Tag's bakery, and Ted brought his yummy homemade apple pie (with homemade crust). Aunt Rosemary also made a yummy salad with blueberries, mangoes, and spinach.

I didn't cook anything, but I bought some unusual edibles I picked up at London's Fortnum and Mason department store to give away as little stocking stuffer gifts. Instead of the boring old tea, I got Thai-curry-seasoned crickets and giant hornet honey (complete with a whole hornet inside the honey jar) to Ted. I gave Sam bbq-flavored and cheddar-flavored dried worms. I gave Bill chocolate-covered giant ants. I don't think they were as appreciated as I had hoped, but I hope they at least found them amusing. Maybe they can just keep it on their coffee tables as conversation pieces and see if a fearless guest might want to try them.