A Chinese Thanksgiving - Part 1

Thanksgiving is just two days away, and since I can't spend it with my family, I plan to spend it with my new Chinese friends. None of them has ever celebrated Thanksgiving before, but all are eager to learn about this special American holiday. I am just as eager to share it, but am facing a few obstacles in my planning of the perfect Thanksgiving meal.

1. No oven. The vast majority of Chinese food is prepared on a stove top, so virtually no kitchens have ovens. This is problematic for Thanksgiving, since turkey, stuffing, pie, cookies, rolls, casseroles, and corn bread all are baked goods. Lucky for me, however, I was able to use my connections to procure a small toaster oven, and will be using that for my baking needs.

2. No baking soda or baking powder. That means no cookies, biscuits, or corn bread.

3. No cranberries = no cranberry sauce.

4. The toaster is too small to fit a bird inside, and I refuse to handle a turkey carcass anyway, so no turkey.

5. No baking pans. Anything baked needs to be placed in one of several small metal bowls.

With these five restrictions, my Thanksgiving menu has been whittled down to mashed potatoes, apple pie, and pumpkin pie (made from an actual pumpkin - no canned stuff here). I will also be buying some baked sweet potatoes - a Jinan specialty. In lieu of the turkey, I thought I'd make a hearty vegetable soup.

This all seems semi-acceptable until you look at my guest list. Turns out, I have a lot of friends. There's the woman who lent me her oven and her two friends - that's three. Then my grad student friends - seven. Then my kung fu friend, my running friend, and my cooking friend - ten. Plus there's another kung fu friend and her five (!) roommates who really really really want to come - sixteen. Add me, that's seventeen.

So let's review. Seventeen people. A toaster oven. A hot plate. My dorm room.

Wish me luck, because I'm gonna need it.