In autumn, an old American's fancy turns to turkey. Now is the time of year when every American newspaper is filled with ways to perk up the traditional "holiday treats" of Thanksgiving.
It would be a mistake to suppose that what has happened since 11 September has made America any less interested in the minutiae of the Thanksgiving meal. The opposite seems to be true, if magazine sales are anything to go by. A recent New York Times report compared circulation figures to show that since the World Trade Center disaster, while sales of magazines about luxury travel have slumped, home-making periodicals are booming. Americans are seeking comfort in the imagined security of an ideal home. You can be sure that Martha Stewart is cashing in big time. Her latest Living magazine has pictures of Thanksgiving pear upside-down cake and turkey with unusual trimmings on immaculate china, images of domestic order in an anthrax-crazy world. The November issue of Oprah's magazine, O, has an editorial advising us to "celebrate every moment" after the "calamity", plus new recipes for cornbread and sage butter, turkey and apple stuffing.
Essentially, the novelty of these Thanksgiving recipes is nothing new. Every year without fail, American food writers are expected to come up with innovative ways to serve the turkey dinner: little finesses that will distinguish your feast from the boring/sickly/lumpy one your grandmother used to serve. Vodka green beans: a new twist on an old vegetable! Parmesan mashed potatoes: add exciting Italian flavour to this American favourite! Oven-roasted yams: a modern take on a traditional classic! Cranberry-raspberry sauce: surprisingly different! (All of these are real examples.)
However, away from these glossy pages, some ordinary Americans are preparing Thanksgiving meals that really do offer new twists on an old theme. In an academic paper from earlier this year, William and Yvonne Lockwood of the University of Michigan studied the way the Thanksgiving meal was cooked among Arab Americans in Detroit. Their research seems all the more interesting now. Detroit has the "largest and densest Arabic-speaking community outside the Middle East and North Africa", with about 300,000 people of Arab descent, primarily Lebanese, Yemeni, Palestinian and Chaldean. One might expect that these communities would have little interest in celebrating Thanksgiving, which is, at its heart, a eulogy to the Protestant Anglo-Saxon roots of America. There was a history, over the 20th century, of the American immigration authorities promoting Thanksgiving as a means of forging true Americans, and of many immigrants, especially Jewish and Catholic, rejecting this national holiday.
Lockwood & Lockwood, however, have found that most Arab Americans do participate in Thanksgiving and, in participating, they make the meal something different. The Lockwoods call this culinary "creolisation". For example, in those Arab households that do serve turkey, the bird might be rubbed with cumin, lemon and garlic before roasting. Whereas the Ameri-can turkey is traditionally brought, aloft and incinerated, to the table and carved ostentatiously by the head of the household, "in many Arab-American homes, the turkey is carved in the kitchen before the dinner is served". Instead of the stodgy American stuffings - usually bread or cornbread - Arab Americans in Detroit often serve hashwa, a fragrant combination of rice, meat, nuts and sweet spices, ubiquitous at Arab feasts. Because few Arab Americans like turkey, according to the Lockwoods, other meats may be served. Instead of boring sprouts and yams, there will often be fresh green tabouli, stuffed vine leaves, strained yogurt. In place of pumpkin pie, there might be fresh fruit and sweet, syrupy semolina cakes, with strong cardamom coffee in place of the dishwatery American brew.
Most of these innovations sound highly desirable from a culinary point of view. But Thanksgiving is not just about culinary desirability, as anyone who has ever tasted sweet potato casserole with marshmallows can confirm. Thanksgiving is the most symbolic of all symbolic meals in the American year. It is about the process of becoming a chosen people and giving thanks. Creolisation, moreover, works both ways. Hence many of the nasty packaged goods that form the backbone of the true American Thanksgiving will be present on Arab American tables in a more or less symbolic capacity.The Lockwoods spoke to Yemenis who bought in Jell-O salads and "packaged Stove Top dressing for the turkey", and to a Lebanese Muslim woman who, despite being regarded as one of the best Arab cooks in the community, would buy in Sara Lee pumpkin pie specially for Thanksgiving, a gesture of national respect.
Canned cranberry sauce was purchased by many of the families to whom the Lockwoods talked. Tellingly, however, "no one we talked to admitted eating it". As an attitude to their chosen country, that is just about right.
