I just realized it might be interesting for you to understand how much work goes into preparing Thanksgiving here in Spain....
Context that is necessary for you to know:
1. I don´t have a car
2. I tend to celebrate on Saturdays (tomorrow) because nobody has Thursday off
3. Tomorrow we will celebrate at my friend´s house because he has more chairs / space. So i need to cook the damn turkey there...
A week ago, I talked to the butcher down the street and ordered a 5 kilo (11 lb. turkey) that he specially ordered for me....of course, this implied quite a bit of chit chat, platonic yet necessary flirting, etc.
Today I called him up and he did in fact have the turkey, so I went to go pick it up. He got me a 6 kilo turkey (13 lbs instead of the 11 lbs I asked). Bastard. That´s like an hour extra of cooking!!! Now I will need to get up really early in the morning!!!
I went home right away, lugging my 13 lb turkey in a plastic bag up to my home, a half a block away. Go up the stairs, wait for the elevator, open the door, leave the turkey in the kitchen. Leave home again and off to the market to buy all the veggies. I go to a nice market with a whole bunch of grocers inside it, where I´m sure I´ll have luck.
Hi, do you have yams? No?
Ok what about sweet potatoes? Ahhh yes? Oh noooo those are too small.
Next.
Hi, do you have yams? No? What about big sweet potatoes? No? Ok thanks
Next, etc.
I get all my veggies and now I´m off to find brandy because I want to inject my turkey with brandy, and the stuffing inside with plums . But somehow I have to inject the brandy.
I go to a hardware store.
Uhhh. Hi...do you have a really big needle for injecting a turkey?
Yeah, a turkey. No? Yeah, seriously. A turkey.
OK do you know where?..
Next hardware store, no luck.
I go to a pharmacy and finally buy a normal human being needle after the pharmacist gives me a few ideas of how to make sure it´ll work (keep the turkey at room temperature and warm up the brandy before filling up the needle). It´s gonna take me a while to inject this sucker.
Now the brandy. I go to a nearby bar where they also sell liquor. Of course, all the locals are there getting drunk at 8pm. Soon I´m friends with all the old men who are all recommending which brandy to buy and start arguing about the difference between cognac and brandy.
After purchasing in all these different places, I pretty much have all the ingredients, and I´m walking with about 5 plastic grocery bags back home.
So yeah, I´d say the work going into preparing thanksgiving is a BIT more involved than in the US. It´s not like just going to Safeway and it´s all taken care of. And for sure tomorrow I´ll find out I don´t have all the ingredients and I´ll make up something last minute. But that´s ok. I´ll be drinking wine so whatever idea I have will be EXCELLENT.
