‘Peking turkey’? At Thanksgiving in the United States, it’s on at least one Chinese menu
- Chinese restaurants in New York and Washington decide whether to cater to American holiday traditions, or not
- While some restaurateurs maintain a culinary purist streak, others are happy to incorporate Western foods on the American holiday
When US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was being grilled by Senator Lindsey Graham during her confirmation hearing in 2010, the lawmaker asked her what she had been doing on Christmas Day.
The question was raised to examine the Supreme Court nominee’s thoughts about how to adjudicate the case of the “underwear bomber”, who had attempted to bring down a commercial jet en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009, but Kagan turned the exchange into a light moment.
“Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant,” she responded, sparking a bout of knowing laughter from the hearing’s audience.
While many are aware of the “Jewish Christmas” tradition in America – Chinese food and a movie – the Thanksgiving Day draw to Chinese food isn’t such a cultural phenomenon. For one thing, Thanksgiving in the United States is a secular family holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, so many restaurants are not open.
This is especially the case when the restaurant isn’t located in a very ethnic enclave such as New York City’s heavily Chinese neighbourhood of Flushing, in the borough of Queens.
But RedFarm, a Chinese restaurant with locations in the affluent Upper West Side and West Village areas of Manhattan, decided five years ago to go all-out for Thanksgiving by offering “Peking turkey”, and its gamble has paid off.
