Comments on: The tyranny of the Christmas turkey

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:35:24 +0000

The Americans only eat Turkey religiously on Thanksgiving, for Christmas its normally a mixture of lamb, chicken, hams etc…

By: clarus

clarus — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:58:20 +0000

I am a Safrican living in Shanghai. I went to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by an American friend where there weren’t all that many Americans – no-one seemed to know how to carve the turkey. He had ordered it (as well as stuffing and mash) from a hotel, but it wasn’t great. I am organising Christmas dinner and had planned to get one too : ) I’ve asked people to bring a dish from their home country – maybe I’ll just make some big boboties – I had bobotie for Christmas once in Taiwan – it was GREAT!

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:07:35 +0000

I’m clearly in the minority but I love turkey and wish it was available more often (Pick n Pay used to sell free range turkey drumsticks). It’s low fat and, used in stews and casseroles, very tasty.

By: ian shaw

ian shaw — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:33:58 +0000

Yes, goose and carp, the more traditional Xmas fare in many European countries is unfortunatley not available in SA. Yet in Cyrildene Chinatown, if you speak Chinese and like carp, you can sometimes get it. Take my advice and look for small murky tubs of water in a container sitting on the pavement and ask for “lee yue”. Take it live into a large plastic sack. I bought a whole fish (uncleaned) for R 65, a local fishmarket was willing to kill it (humanely),clean it for nothing and belive em, it is very versatile and delicious.

By: Kit

Kit — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:46:12 +0000

@MLH, you sure about this one? The English were eating Turkey at Christmas long before they moved to America; hardly an American bird.

Just asking, just asking….

Thanksgiving and all.

The English used to eat goose for Christmas way back in the days. Goose is rubbish to eat as well (or maybe my family just don’t know how to cook it). I’ve never been fond of geese as the ones I was in contact with most as a child were the ones my grandmother’s neighbour kept as watchdogs? watchgeese? They were evil bastards prone to attack anything and I was absolutely terrified of them. I absolutely relished my first opportunity to eat goose because of their evil ways (my young self felt it was their just comeuppance) and was completely and utterly disappointed.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:51:19 +0000

In Germany we used to have goose. A Christmas or two ago I very much wanted to have goose. So I tried the butcheries – the Pick ‘n Pays and Woolies didn’t have any – without any luck. Then I phoned places in our vicinity which I thought kept geese. No luck. Until I found the foreman on one of the farms who kept quite a number of geese. I asked him whether he had any geese for slaughter. He was quite horrified at the suggestion of having his geese slaughtered and said that he only sold his geese as pets. Needless to say we had the usual turkey for Christmas dinner.

By: Grinch

Grinch — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:46:44 +0000

Hark Amanda….tis true the brits indeed still have goose! What a devilish surprise!

By: Icarus

Icarus — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:20:28 +0000

If turkey is so good why is there ALWAYS more turkey left over than anything else? And then just to prove that turkey is so crap, by the time New Year comes along we’re still throwing away turkey leftovers to make room in the fridge for bubbly. Ostrich, rabbit or lamb for me anyday!

By: Po

Po — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:17:51 +0000

Amanda: will have to do some research on that one!

By: MLH

MLH — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:13:21 +0000

The English were eating Turkey at Christmas long before they moved to America; hardly an American bird.
The point of a Turkey is it suffices for an entire extended family.
I don’t know a single South African soul who has turkey on Christmas day.