Turkey day! Turkey in Chinese is hua ji, which literally translated means fire chicken. I think it makes Thanksgiving sound like a tougher holiday to call it Fire Chicken day so...there you go. The holidays are a rough time to be away from family. I have felt really conflicted when we have skyped with our families this past week. It is so wonderful to see their faces but at the same time it reminds me that my whole family is together and we are here. That being said, the Father has really provided a great time for us here. You cannot purchase fire chicken in the store here (the only place to see a turkey is in the zoo in HY) so we went off to Changsha to celebrate with some friends there. Changsha is a bigger city (its the same place we went to the hospital a few weeks ago) and they have more western comforts to enjoy. We traveled up on Friday to get some Black Friday shopping done:
Here are some of the gems we found at this store:
Christmas decorations:
De Cecco Pasta
Later that evening we went to a place called Angelo's Trattoria. This place had the best pizza I've tasted in China and the chef is a friend.
We spent the rest of the weekend catching up with old friends, making new ones, and playing some soccer. Oh and stuffing our faces with turkey. There would have been pictures but, well we ate too fast.
Happy Fire Chicken day!
Our first Thanksgiving in Taiwan I was determined to have a turkey. Couldn't find one in the local market, so went up to the chicken stand and asked for one. He asked me to wait a minute, got on his motorcycle and drove off. 10 minutes later he was back with a live turkey in a small cage. He asked if I wanted it and after a little bartering, I agreed. He quickly killed it by breaking its neck, through into a huge barrel that spun around fast enough to get all the feathers off and handed it to me in plastic bag. It was still warm. Jeannie was taken back a little when I brought it home, but she did a remarkable job. Still remember that Thanksgiving!
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