A little bit like christmas...

Yes.. this is more or less the thanksgiving in NY. The streets are empty, the weather is cold, trees are already without leaves, heaters run at hundreds degrees in the houses.. an people share a big meal in large family groups. Even shops are close.. and TOM'S RESTAURANT as well! This restaurant is open 24/7... it's the first time I saw the famous red sign turned off!
Within our group of italians in NYC we decided to follow the US tradition. We were 20 sitting around a long table with food for 40 or maybe 60 people. The king of the table is obviously the turkey. I'm wondering if at the whitehouse when they announced "we have turkey now" George Bush tought something like "mmm.. did we finish with Iraq already?".
By the way.. our thanksgiving meal was composed by a mix of US and Italian tradition with a bit of German-Thai infusion. Understood?! We take food seriously!
- 2 turkeys, one made in Italian style, the other stuffed in american style;
- 3 kg of potatoes cooked in the oven
- 3 15-people size dishes of parmigiana (pronounced PARMIGGGIANA)
- 15 bottles of high-end wine (no spanish wines indeed)
- 3 cakes (1 shaped like a turkey.. in italian we would call it "pacchianissima")
- 2 home made focaccia with olives (mighty Francesca!!!)
- 5 liters pumpkin soup
- several hand rolled ham-pinapple rolls!
- grilled vegetables
- 10 kgs of ragu (souce made with tomatoes and meat.. used to put on cannelloni)
- 20 hungry guests

Me and Marco were in charge of the soup. I was at the mixer. No, not playing music, mixing the soup, to make it like cream
It has been a second of distraction.. i lost the focus on the blender and a bit of 100 C° of soup spit on my arm. I burned my arm!
Even if all the girls in the house discovered their "nurse" instinct i wasn't able to avoid big bubbles on my arm. Quite disgusting today, i cannot look at it! Also Lamberto joined our group. I was happy because even if we are both in NY the fact of living in uptown (me) and brooklyn (lamb) makes it difficult to meet every week. Even during the night most of the time we are not in sync and when I go to club he goes out with some hot girl and viceversa (Well.. not so many girls for me..)
After almost 6 hours spent at the table we where all pythonized (see Peter Luger's pst to know what it means) and we decided to watch an old italian commedy movie called "Vacanze di Natale 83". A masterpiece of the italian trash commedy! In theory, US tradition brings people in fron of the TV to watch football..
By the way.. here is a picture of Valerio and Francesca busy with an alternative intepretation of the usage of dishes...
Tonight, I was supposed to go out again. I wasn't able. I went out tuesday, wednesday, thursday.. I will go to a party tomorrow. I can't make it. And lots of assignments in pipeline. Put aside parties, thanksgiving, parties.. this is still an MBA!