City warms to Thanksgiving

Exotic ingredients that make up traditional holiday meal more readily available than before, say American expatriates.

LAHORE: Thanksgiving has become much easier to celebrate in Lahore as the exotic ingredients that make up the traditional American holiday meal are much more readily available than before, according to American expatriates here.

The traditional Thanksgiving meal consists of a mammoth turkey, roast beef, cornbread stuffing, yams (mashed sweet potatoes) and gravy, and pumpkin and pecan pies. The holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. American expatriates and diplomats said shopping for this menu in the city was difficult until a few years ago. “I would make chicken with corn bread stuffing in place of the traditional turkey and a chocolate cake instead of a pecan pie,” said Catherine Alam, an American who has lived in Lahore for 39 years.

USAID official Paul Sabatine, who has been working in Lahore for nearly three months, said Thanksgiving was a special occasion for most diplomats since they lived far from their families and the holiday gave them a chance to meet up with each other for a meal.

He said he was baking a pumpkin pie for the occasion.

There are some 8,000 Americans living and working in Lahore, said a source in the US Consulate General. US Consul General Carmela Conroy recently described Thanksgiving as the ‘American Eid’. This year, turkeys were being sold at Esa Jees in Gulberg and Defence and at Hyperstar in Fortress Stadium. Jalal Sons, Al Fatah and Pioneer were not selling Turkeys, though extras for the Thanksgiving meal such as cranberry sauce were available at most superstores.

Sohail Fazil, the owner of Pioneer in Main Market, said his store had stopped selling turkeys three years ago because the birds were unhealthy. A salesman at Esa Jees said the store would replenish its turkey stock ahead of Christmas.

Natives and pilgrims

Thanksgiving dates back to the cooking of a harvest feast in 1620. English pilgrims that landed on the coast of modern day Massachusetts were taught by the native Wampanoag tribe how to grow local crops such as corn, barley beans and pumpkins. The natives also helped them hone their hunting and fishing techniques. The following Autumn, the Wampanoag tribe cooked off the harvest as a welcome gesture for the pilgrims. The Thanksgiving holiday, on the fourth Thursday of November each year, is meant to commemorate this gesture and offer thanks to God.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2010.