An American Thanksgiving...in Vietnam

As I have mentioned on this blog too many times to count, I love food. I also love celebrations and holidays. So, naturally I had to find a way to celebrate the great ol' American holiday we call Thanksgiving in Hue.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, how do you have a real American Thanksgiving without access to all the good holiday favorites in Hue like yams, jellied cranberry, pumpkin pie, etc., etc. Oh, and did I mention that ovens are very rare and hard to come by in Vietnam, meaning that we do not have one at our house. Hmm...

Well, my roommate and I bought as many traditional Thanksgiving items as we could during our recent trip to Hanoi (in a very popular expat part of town around Tay Ho district). I also asked my friend whose family owns a bakery here in Hue (bakeries are about the only places that actually have ovens) if we could use their oven for an hour or two.

After spending a lot of time planning, trying to figure out how to make traditional dishes without all of the necessary ingredients, and with help from some friends, the final Thanksgiving menu ended up something like this:


- Roasted chicken breast rubbed in butter, oregano, pepper, thyme and a little bit of chili powder (no turkey to be found but the chicken actually turned out really good!)


- Sweet potato pie complete with lots and lots of brown sugar, butter, marshmallows, ritz crackers and candied yams...amazingly good! (the above picture just features the yummy toppings)


- Stovetop stuffing with vegetables


- Salad...a REAL salad complete with goat cheese, cranberries and vinegreatte dressing


- Jellied Cranberries...a Thanksgiving celebration isn't complete without them


- Pumpkin Pie for dessert



The end result: six individuals (4 Americans, 1 Vietnamese and 1 Norwegian) with extremely full, satisfied bellies.