Thanksgiving in Bolivian style

It will be the first thanksgiving ever that I will not be with my family. For some, missing the family Thanksgiving dinner might not be so heartbreaking.

But, I come from a family that is serious about its turkey. I learned to see the turkey as a beautiful animal and conceder a turkey bollo to be a handsome holiday accessory. Thanksgiving is my family’s day to resurrect the mistreated image of turkeys and behold their moist flavor, nutritious value and oh yes, the heavenly post-turkey tryptophan trance.

So, I feel that I have learned a thing or two about turkey along the way. But it turns out that Bolivia had another thing to teach me about turkeys.

I’m riding to work and my co-worker Dina asks me how American’s prepare turkey for Thanksgiving Day.

Well my answer wouldn’t make my mother proud and I’m a far cry away from hosting my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, if and when that moment arrives, my family has already decided that Adrienne will be the well-established one who hosts.

So I tell Dina that you dress the turkey, smear it with juices and throw it in the oven.

“No, no, no” She says. “Before you dress the turkey, how do you kill the turkey?”

I really can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me in Bolivia that its assumed that if you EAT the food, you’ve raised, grown, killed/harvested and prepared the food. This seems a reasonable assumption because it is the reality of food production for most Bolivians. It is a luxury to be so far removed from the food production itself. Especially for those of us who like to eat meat, but the idea of touching the uncooked slabs makes us queasy. It’s a luxury and I would say that it is also a detriment to not understand what we eat at its most raw and most natural stage.

So, the story goes on. I tell Dina that most families buy the turkey at a supermarket and she nods, but then says, “Well, if you ever do have the chance to kill a turkey, let me tell you a delicious Bolivian recipe.”

So, to add a little Bolivian flare to your American Thanksgiving dinner, might I include this following suggestion for this Thursday.

Here it is:

Locate gobbling turkey. Gather family and friends. Buy several bottles of wine. Gather your gathered family members into a circle to corral the turkey. Grab hold of the turkey and begin force-feeding wine to the turkey. Give the turkey enough wine to intoxicate the turkey so it stumbles around. Give thanks to the turkey. Kill the poor turkey and cook the turkey that now has a ridiculous blood/alcohol level, so that its skin with retain a moist wine flavor.

¡Buen Provecho!