Whether you're commemorating the holiday alone, with friends, with families or otherwise, you're participating in a uniquely American ritual. There are very few things that remain largely unchanged from decades ago, but this is one: A big meal on a day devoted to expressing thankfulness, eaten following football games.
As we prepare for America's meal, it seems appropriate to rank Thanksgiving foods, since I rank everything else (household furniture, fruits, office supplies, Christmas songs, minor U.S. holidays, etc.).
Here are the top eight Thanksgiving foods, in reverse order (and yes, I realize this is a list of traditional foods. I'm not trying to insult the specialty food that your family consumes):
8. Mashed potatoes. Not this high on my personal list (partly because I'm a Type 1 diabetic and mashed potatoes are pure carbohydrates), but a favorite of Mrs. Brad's, which influences my list. Adding gravy helps, although gravy has such a wide range of possible outcomes, it's dicey.
7. Sweet potatoes/yams. They may be the same thing or different things, but I don't want to waste Google keystrokes to find out. Does anyone eat these other anytime but on Thanksgiving? Not at my house. Grocery stores probably carry them year-round, but they drop those 29-ounce cans on Nov. 1, because they're a Thanksgiving treat. Another favorite of Mrs. Brad.
6. Rolls. Fifty years ago, rolls were a part of most regular dinner rotations, but now they seem to be food for special days only. Rolls – even generic white bread rolls – seem like the perfect counterpoint to other Thanksgiving food. An island of normality in a sea of uniqueness.
5. Cranberries/cranberry sauce. The perfect topping for turkey, but have you ever eaten cranberries by themselves? Not so great. Which makes the combination of cranberries and turkey even more remarkable.
4. Pre-meal snacks. An upset! You probably don't have this on your list, but most of us have rituals for Thanksgiving (for a majority of Americans, that means watching football. The Lions in the morning, the Cowboys in the afternoon.) Since Thanksgiving dinner usually happens in the mid-afternoon (if you're normal, like me), lunch is compromised. Which means snacks. Tostitos or lumpia or deviled eggs or whatever you eat. Whatever it is that builds a bridge from breakfast to the big Thanksgiving dinner, it's usually good.
3. Stuffing/dressing. These may be different things, but like yams/sweet potatoes, I didn't want to waste Google keystrokes to learn the difference. This might be the best-tasting Thanksgiving food. If I go for seconds (OK, when I go for seconds), I will always get stuffing. Or dressing. Whatever.
2. Pumpkin pie. The Scottie Pippen of Thanksgiving food (Michael Jordan is coming next). We all seem to like pumpkin pie, yet we rarely eat it other than on Thanksgiving, so is it possible that pumpkin pie is a victim of its own success? Is it so tied to Thanksgiving that it is otherwise overlooked? This selection includes whipped cream. They go together.
1. Turkey. The Michael Jordan of Thanksgiving food. Even vegans acknowledge this, because they'll digest some sort of mock turkey this week. They'll use the word turkey. Turkey isn't the greatest meat. It's not even the greatest fowl. But it's spectacular at Thanksgiving, which is the only time all year many of us eat a regular turkey. It's No. 1 on the list with reason.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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