Cover Story

BY WO CHAN

My family and I came over to America 11 years ago. Like so many Chinese immigrants before, my parents began a business that could earn the most money with the least amount of English required.

Under those conditions, my parents opened up our family restaurant. With the exception of Christmas Day and Thanksgiving, our Chinese restaurant stays open every day for 12 hours. Thus, every year when the foreign holiday of Thanksgiving comes around and offers us the opportunity to depart from our quotidian schedules, we rush to do everything that we consider fun.

Personally, I would spend this free day doing homework while sipping lattes with opera playing in the background. But my parents always insist that we go out to eat. This means driving an hour up north to the closest authentic Chinese buffet with some generic Asian name like "The Bamboo Garden." Surprisingly, there are a lot of Chinese restaurants open on Thanksgiving--and an even more amazing number of Chinese families gathered around steaming hot pots.

The hot pot is a Chinese dining custom usually done in the colder seasons. A large metal pot is left simmering in the middle of the dining table with ingredients like seafood, sliced meats, dumplings, leafy greens, noodles and fish balls (pulverized fish paste, filled with pork and rounded into spheres). This whole cook-it-yourself meal is accompanied with dipping sauces like the classic soy sauce, satay (peanut sauce), sa cha sauce, fish sauce or a creative combination thereof.

Every Thanksgiving, our family relives the same meal around the hot pot. Whether it is in The Bamboo Garden or at home (we have a personal hot pot), Thanksgiving is always a day to remember where I came from.

This year for Thanksgiving, our family is going to a wedding in New York (we have no other free day to go). There will definitely be a hot pot at the celebration. Man, I can taste the sa cha-dipped fish balls already.