Thanksgiving is an American holiday rooted, in myth and in practice, around the table. The emotion that underpins the day – gratitude for life’s bounty – is not unique to the United States, even if some of the trappings are, starting with the giant oven-roasted turkey in the middle of the dinner table. Many first-generation immigrants to America can’t help but eyeball the bird with skepticism, no matter how much they want to adopt the customs of their new home. Turkeys – often hulking specimens, hard to cook, rather bland – are not native to many countries around the world. Compared with the complex, multilayered dishes of Italy or Lebanon or West Africa, a Butterball turkey blasted to 180 degrees can be (how to say this delicately?) underwhelming to the holiday’s newcomers. Take Vito Rago, father of Rossella Rago, the host of “Cooking With Nonna,” a sweet, Old World-paced online series dedicated to homestyle Italian cooking. From the day he set foot in America from his native Puglia in southern Italy, Vito adapted a hard line against Thanksgiving turkey. His daughter remembers that, on the holiday in her childhood home, the turkey wouldn’t go into oven until 1 p.m., so… Read full this story
- Turkey with a side of impeachment on menu for Thanksgiving
- Celery: Behold the heart of Thanksgiving
- David's guide to surviving Thanksgiving (2019 edition)
- The disappearing people: Uighur Kiwis lose contact with family members in China
- Former MS-13 Member Who Secretly Helped Police Is Deported
- U.S. And Greece to 'Strengthen Cooperation' on Border Security and Share Intel
- ‘First Reformed’: Paul Schrader on Faith, Hope and Returning to Form
- Why Protesters Gathered Outside Peter Thiel’s Mansion This Weekend
- Willie Nelson: Holy Man of the Honky Tonks
- The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Pass USMCA Coalition - Restrictive state abortion laws ignite fiery 2020 debate
How 7 immigrant families transform the Thanksgiving turkey with the flavors of their homelands have 299 words, post on www.sfchronicle.com at November 22, 2019. This is cached page on VietMaz. If you want remove this page, please contact us.