Happy Thanksgiving NYC!

My initial plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, but last minute, I decided to try putting together a Thanksgiving dinner myself. Besides, I’m always a bit uncomfortable about dining out on holidays, as I can’t help feeling sorry for the staff, who probably wish they were home with their families instead.

I didn’t want to cook the dinner myself, so when I found out on Instagram that Whole Foods was selling Thanksgiving dinner to go, I went there right when they opened at 8am. I was the first customer at the deli that day, and the staff was really nice and helped me pick out what I needed for a complete Thanksgiving dinner. Here’s what I got: Sweet potato mash, turkey, honey-roasted Brussels sprouts, green beans, cranberry sauce, turkey gravy and roasted vegetables.

After Mission Thanksgiving Dinner was completed, I went uptown to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was freezing, so I only stayed for the first half of the parade, before I went down to Koreatown to get some hot kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) and thaw out. Afterwards, I wanted to walk down to Macy’s on Herald Square, which was the final stop for the parade. Though it was so crowded, there was no way I could get anywhere near to the parade, so I went home instead.

Around dinner time, I started heating the food. I had also bought marshmallows to put on top of the sweet potato mash. I’ve had that before at an American friend’s place in Dubai, and it’s really tasty, but when I asked my friends in NYC whether to marshmallow or not, they had no idea what I was talking about, so maybe it’s a local thing.

Sometimes turkey meat can be really dry, but the Whole Foods turkey was juicy and delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever had turkey like this before. The 7(!) slices that the shop assistant said would be suitable for 2 persons, were more than enough for Ana and me, with plenty of leftovers to snack on for the following days. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating, I hope you had a wonderful day.