Traditional Thanksgiving celebrated in Beijing

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-27 10:14

Both foreigners and Chinese celebrated Thanksgiving with turkey and pumpkin pie at Beijing restaurants Thursday.

Paul Astephan, owner of Steak and Eggs restaurant said Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated in the United States and Canada, was always one of his busiest days of the year.

The restaurant usually serves more than 200 people on Thanksgiving, which is significantly higher than the number of customers at Christmas, Astephen said.

Steak and Eggs restaurant has been serving turkeys for more than seven years, making it one of the oldest Thanksgiving feasts in Beijing.

At 119 yuan a person, it will continue serving it's traditional Thanksgiving feast all weekend. The meals include every staple of a classic Thanksgiving dinner, including sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and, of course, turkey.

The restaurant's specialty, Astephan says, is their turkey rice soup.

"We spend anywhere from 24-36 hours boiling the turkey bones to make a special stock for the soup," he said.

Another American-style restaurant, Grandma's Kitchen offered patrons plates of turkey or salmon with potatoes, soup, salad, and sweet potato pie.

Store manager Ann Lin said they had served more than 50 people.

American Mitch Wagner said that his Thanksgiving in China usually just consists of the most important course - desert.

"I've managed to boil my Thanksgiving meal down to the essentials. I skip out on all the turkey and stuffing and just get the pie," the 34-year-old English teacher said.

Chinese-American Jason Hsu said Thanksgiving was an opportunity to share American tradition and cuisine with his Chinese colleagues.

"I want to introduce them to one of our traditions, to encourage diversity," he said.

His coworker David Dai, from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said it was nice to be amongst friends, but he said he held reservations about the food.

"To be honest, I don't really like turkey," he said, "but the people I am with make the meal good."

Astephan said turkeys were easier to purchase for restaurants in recent years, and that the 60 or so turkeys he bought for Steak and Eggs were bought from local farmers.

Meanwhile, Chinese-American Derek Seng said he had plans to dine at home with friends rather than at a restaurant.

"We ordered pre-cooked turkeys from both Steak and Eggs and Grandma's Kitchen," the 24-year-old advertiser said. "We are having a turkey taste off."

Astephan said he would play Christmas music in the evening, a traditional common in American households on Thanksgiving.

However, one tradition Steak and Eggs he could not uphold was the tradition of watching American football.

"The games don't come on until the day after Thanksgiving is celebrated here so we won't be watching any football," he said.