For some, Thanksgiving is huge, complete with elaborate table settings, fancy food, and tons of people. For us, it's an intimate dinner lovingly made by Mama Monkey. Mr. Monkey. Brother Monkey, Stepdad Monkey, and I are so lucky!
Our little turkey was so cute.
I had a leg.
Taiwanese sticky rice.
Kong xin cai.
Your Thanksgiving green beans don't look like this, do they?
Yams.
Mapo tofu.
And my favorite -- spring rolls!
I bet you don't have sweet and spicy chili sauce at your Thanksgiving.
My lone task was to take care of the dinner rolls. I have failed for several years in a row, and everybody laughed and said it was now a tradition for us to have burnt rolls. Well, this year, I turned down the temperature, flipped them over halfway through, and took them out in time. Small triumph!
We washed everything down with Martinelli's.
During dinner, Mama Monkey told us about her latest delicious find -- baby bananas. She talked them up so much that Mr. Monkey went to the kitchen and found one to confirm Mama Monkey's raving.
Dinner was followed by fresh grapes, pineapple, and persimmon.
And that was followed by pumpkin pie.
Beyond baby bananas, Mama Monkey also couldn't stop talking about this Belgian chocolate she bought recently at
Fresh & Easy.
She sent us home with one huge hunk. Mr. Monkey was happy.
Then Mr. Monkey was sleepy.
And then we drove home full of food and full of love.
The turkey looks amazing! Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeletethat is one big ass hunk.
ReplyDeletewhat a lovely dinner! and no, our very traditional dinner didn't include any of those :)
wow that food looks WONDERFUL! you are a fantastic food photographer/stylist.
ReplyDeletei LOVE baby bananas. so cute and yummy and sweet and less...banana-y.
ReplyDeleteyour thanksgiving spread looks better than ours. mapo tofu. mmm.
Her mapo tofu looks runnier than mine?
ReplyDeleteThat sticky rice makes me smile...carbs...mmm.
I want to be friends with Mama Monkey.
Happy Thanksgiving dear! Those pictures are beautiful and the food looks delicious. I want some of Mama Monkey's spring rolls. Drool.
ReplyDeleteWay to pose for the camera in that last pic, Mr. Monkey! Room for one more at Thanksgiving next year? That all looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteI'd love the recipe for Taiwanese Sticky Rice!
ReplyDeleteEverything looks soooo delish! Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI want those spring rolls.
ReplyDeletemama monkey is too cute!
Growing up, when our huge extended family got together for Thanksgiving, we used to have both traditional American fare and Korean food. Turkey is good. But turkey paired with galbi-jjim is so much better.
ReplyDeleteparallel lives! my momma's obsessed with baby bananas too! haapy thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteMy mom walked in while I was reading this. My mom wants to eat dinner at your mom's house. We may need to engineer some sort of Indian food for Taiwanese food swap.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bird! Happy Thanksgiving!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a great Thanksgiving! I wish I had taken superstar shots of my sides, cos my pics didn't do it justice like yours did
ReplyDeleteHee. I love the picture of Mr. Monkey and Mama Monkey with the huge bars of chocolate.
ReplyDeleteYum! The egg rolls look particularly yummy!
ReplyDeleteI think Thanksgiving dinner is made up of whatever you have. It's about the people you share your meal with that matters the most. Looks great!
ReplyDeleteI like it when Mama Monkey makes blog appearances.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely dinner. I didn't have chili sauce at my Thanksgiving dinner, but you better believe I'll be whipping some out next year :)
ReplyDeletei love green bean casserole, but i equally love the green beans you had at your turkey day dinner. mmmmm!
ReplyDeleteWe did not use chili sauce but we did have mushroom and tofu pate, stuffing made with veggie sausage, and spinach au gratin. Oh, and a turkey breast. My hubby would be so jealous of that mapo tofu and I want some spring rolls!
ReplyDeleteLOVE!
ReplyDeleteso when we were on our way to san fran, frank was sitting next to this tiny asian girl who at 8 am had a yam in tin foil that she was devouring. practically making love to it. then THEN she took out a whole corn cob. chomped her way through that too. I bet if we had kept watching a whole watermelon might have been unfurled from her bag o tricks.
it was the best party of the trip.
baby bananas rock
ReplyDelete