Thanksgiving Dinner

Well, it was a pretty uneventful Thanksgiving, as Thanksgiving is wont to be in Taiwan.  It isn’t particularly celebrated, although the Taiwanese do have a name for it: [hanzi]感恩节[/hanzi] (gÇŽnÄ“njié).

If you have been reading the Taipei Times, you may know that the Kaohsiung Ambassador Hotel, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, was holding an American Food Festival. Here’s the clipping from the paper:

Taipei Times - American Food Festival ad
Taipei Times – American Food Festival ad

We managed to convince Miss Expatriate’s parents to try it out. It was quite expensive at about NT$650/person for the buffet (A little more than US$22), but there was a nice selection. It wasn’t particularly American. There was turkey and roast beef. There was also pumpkin pie. The rest, however, seemed oddly normal. Steamed shrimp, Sushi/sushi rolls, Italian noodles, french deserts, etc etc. All in all, it was way too expensive for quite mediocre food.

It was, however, festive. The hotel was quite patriotic, as you can see from the coasters:

American Food Festival coaster
American Food Festival coaster

The waitresses, as you can see in the ad, were also very patriotic. Yes, they really did wear American flag bandannas and red cowboy hats with sheriff stars on them.

American Food Festival waitress
American Food Festival waitress

Overall, I wasn’t impressed. The pumpkin pie did, however, more than make up for it. For a few minutes, it almost felt like being home.


Posted

in

by

Comments

One response to “Thanksgiving Dinner”

  1. Mom Expatriate Avatar
    Mom Expatriate

    I think it was absolutely lovely that the Taiwanese think enough of Americans to try to emulate an actual Thanksgiving feast. I wish we all could experience and enjoy each other's cultures first hand to really appreciate them. I am thankful this Thanksgiving that at least one of my kids can! Thank you Jane for bringing us into this wonderful fold! Love you! Mom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *