Surrogate Thanksgiving day feast in Da-Nang

Since a lot of the people around here have actual jobs where they have to wake up on Fridays at an ungodly hour and be coherent doing something like teaching children, Thanksgiving is not celebrated on the usual Thursday here in Da Nang. I was kind of surprised that it was celebrated at all.

Don't get excited, this wasn't a super feast the likes of which many of you perhaps experienced with your families back in the states.

Most of the people in attendance weren't even American, not that any of that matters. No one in the picture above is American but they did do substantially more than this American did to provide food for the masses. We had a big turkey that was brought in a suitcase from the states and painstakingly preserved and prepared, some Yorkshire pudding, a bunch of veg salads, ribs, corn, mashed potats, and other fun things as well.

The lasagna was done "American style" which in my mind simply means that it had twice as much cheese and sauce on it than an Italian one would. Being an American, I prefer this style even if the Italians turn their noses up at it. Whatever, I liked it a lot and it was made by an Italian-American who also happens to live here.

I honestly don't know what that is in the back there. whatever it was I didn't eat any of it. Oh, and there was also a 12 pack of Budweiser which none of us think is a great beer but we drank it for the irony and then argued about whether or not it is better than the local Vietnamese brews. I think it is even though the Bud here might taste completely different than it does in USA since they have their own brewery here.

This blurry doggy friend who is named "Mew".... which I am told means "cat" in Vietnamese, kept sneaking in for scraps and to steal dog food from the dog that actually does live here whose name is "Sleepy." Sleepy and Mew have a strange relationship where they just get slobber all over one another. Mew has zero fear of Sleepy despite being 1/6 his size.

I know the place is a bit of a dump but it is where all of the Dumbo folks meet on non Dumbo days as well as some of the official Dumbo days.

We had a good time and I am thankful that someone else organized this because I certainly wasn't going to. I'm a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to holidays these days, especially when they are ones that don't really have any bearing at all on the local culture. Actually, I don't like the local culture's holidays either.... bah humbug!