Papirex
Dec 14, 2009, 7:40 PM
Post #7 of 17
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Re: [robt65] OK! Now that I know . . . . . .
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Holiday dinners in México vary by region and by an individual families preferences, they will be Mexican dishes but almost certainly not tamales or burros, and they will not usually be turkey or ham dinners as is traditional NOB. My wifes' late father was an American from Texas. He and my suegra (mother-in-law) began their married life in Texas and their first son was born there. My cuñado (brother-in-law) is an American citizen by birth, he has since “regained” his Mexican citizenship because his mother is a Mexican citizen. He is now a dual citizen.
My cuñado was raised in México City until the age of 16. The high school he was attending somehow learned he was not a Mexican citizen at that time and they notified the INMI. They gave him one week to leave the country or he would be deported. He was sent to live with an uncle who was a legal US resident in Alaska. He has lived in The US for 40 years now and he is as American as they come, he is also as Mexican as they come. He is fluent in both English and Spanish. He speaks English with a slight Spanish accent, but he prefers to speak English now. He has worked for Boeing Aircraft in Seattle for over 30 years and he has the second highest seniority of any Boeing union worker. He is layoff proof, and plans to retire to México in a couple of years.
My suegra and my wife have both lived in The US for many years, and both of them love the way holiday turkey dinners are prepared up there. It is a little difficult to find all the ingredients to make a holiday turkey dinner here. Some Mexican restaurants do advertise US style turkey dinners here, but you never know what you will be served. Those dinners are usually delicious, but not the traditional dinners from up north, usually sliced turkey smothered in gravy, no cranberry sauce, and pretty good pumpkin pie with a little drizzle of white cake frosting on it.
This year we tried a Thanksgiving turkey dinner at The Newcomers Club, it is a small group (200 members) of English speaking people here in Cuernavaca. It was served buffet style, there were all of the trimmings, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and 3 or 4 home cooked cranberry sauces. They also had some of the Ocean Spray brand canned jellied cranberry sauce, but no one I saw was eating it with all of the delicious home cooked cranberry sauces. They are not planning on serving a Christmas dinner this year, but we are already planning on eating next years Thanksgiving dinner with them.
There were some meseros (waiters) in the dining room. One of the meseras recognized My wife, Doris, she used to work at a TOKS restaurant near the fraccionimiento where we used to live. Wow! Did we ever get fantastic service then. She brought us extra turkey, pies (tiny slices), juices, coffees, etc. We weren't supposed to tip the meseros, but Doris did slip her a nice tip.
Anyway, to find NOB type holiday dinners down here, you just have to learn the town you are living in, if you are in a tourist area, or Peoria south, it should be no problem. Near the holidays, watch the commercials on the Spanish language TV channels, and read the Spanish language newspaper ads.
The local Sams' Club here was selling very expensive and huge Frozen turkeys imported from The US before Thanksgiving. They were probably an average weight of about 35 or 40 pounds each. Besides needing to find all of the other ingredients, and cooking it all, it would have been too much for just the 3 of us.
One restaurant here gave us a menu for take home parquets of dinners for Christmas and New Years dinners, mostly beef or pork entrées. The problem with them is that the smallest paquet is for 10 persons, the largest is for 25 people. While we have had many house guests over the holidays in the past, we don't plan to have any this year. We will probably have our Christmas dinner this year at one of the pricey, but elegant dinner houses here, where they cater to foreign tastes, and they know how to make a good dry Gin Martini, Doris always makes me drink a few of them when we go to a nice place. I order them to be polite, and I try to resist drinking them, but I am weak.
Gifts are not usually given at Christmas, but on Three Kings Day on January 6th, it commemorates the arrival of the three wise men bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. Everyone is supposed to leave a shoe in the living room when they go to bed the night before 3 Kings Day. The gifts will be in the shoe in the morning. Any gift too big to fit in the shoe will be beside it.
My cuñado in Seattle taught his American kids to observe the gift giving on Three Kings Day.
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
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