Thanksgiving in Mexico City
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This thread will be interesting to me since I don´t think thanksgiving is that popular in Mexico, I've seen celebrations in the US consulate and Embassy, also, private celebrations but not at restaurants
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That's right, Gary, unlike Halloween, Thanksgiving has not caught on in Mexico. I have had the so-called Thanksgiving meal served by Sanborn's a couple of times, but I would not recommend it.
It's a Canadian and USA observance which Mexico has no equivalent, that I know of. There are traditional "American-like" meals offered where you find an abundance of expats and/or tourists from the USA. Mostly the resort towns such as Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, etc. However, you do find such meals offered in communities Lakeside in Jalisco, San Miguel de Allende, and a few places in Mexico City.
There's a street in Mexico City's Centro Historico (Motolinia, I believe it is) on which there are two or three restaurants which feature turkey year-round and from which some of my residsent-in-Mexico expat friends order their Thanksgiving Day turkeys from. Elsewhere in Mexico City, the hotels which concentrate on international business travelers .. such as those near Chapultepec Park in Polanco (El Presidente, JW Marriott, etc.) and the Sheraton Maria Isabel adjacent to the U.S. Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Cuauhtemoc have in previous years offered Thanksgiving Dinner. Maybe, too, the American Legion Post in Colonia Condesa will be doing that again this year.
There's a street in Mexico City's Centro Historico (Motolinia, I believe it is) on which there are two or three restaurants which feature turkey year-round and from which some of my residsent-in-Mexico expat friends order their Thanksgiving Day turkeys from. Elsewhere in Mexico City, the hotels which concentrate on international business travelers .. such as those near Chapultepec Park in Polanco (El Presidente, JW Marriott, etc.) and the Sheraton Maria Isabel adjacent to the U.S. Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Cuauhtemoc have in previous years offered Thanksgiving Dinner. Maybe, too, the American Legion Post in Colonia Condesa will be doing that again this year.
According to their Twitter, Jaso is offering Thanksgiving dinner from the 21st to the 23rd. (A week before Thanksgiving. I'm guessing chefs Jared and Sonia are going back to the States for the holiday.)
If it's of any interest chef Jared is also doing a Thanksgiving cooking class the 16th and 17th, 10:00-17:00, $2000.
American Legion, as Longford mentioned, is the other one that came to mind. You might ask them on Twitter, @legioncondesa.
If it's of any interest chef Jared is also doing a Thanksgiving cooking class the 16th and 17th, 10:00-17:00, $2000.
American Legion, as Longford mentioned, is the other one that came to mind. You might ask them on Twitter, @legioncondesa.
I, as an Alabamian, sort of miss theThanksgiving dinner tradition back in Alabama but my wife, being from Paris, has no use for that tradition and can be a bit unpleasant if I insist on roasting a turkey and serving it up wiith the historic Alabama accompaniments of cornbread dressing, oyster casserole, cranberry sauce and an orange/coconut dessert famed down there known as "ambrosia". Of course, all of this must be accompanied by copious amounts of Tennessee Sipping Whisky among the menfolk while mama is preparing the meal and sherry to accompany the meal so, by the time the meal is finished, everyone at the table is so looped and overstuffed that a long nap is a necessity.
Back in the 1950s, my grandmother would become besotted with sherry and pass out with her face in the cornbread dressing about half way through the meal. Then, after she recovered, she would steal most of the left over dressing and take it home with her.
Since turkey sammiches on Bimbo white bread the next day are the real reason for Thanksgiving Dinner, this meal should be made at home and at Lake Chapala, all the ingredients are available in November, so make the dinner at home and enjoy those sandwiches for while after that. Otherwise, you may find some Yankee chef screwing up your meal.
Back in the 1950s, my grandmother would become besotted with sherry and pass out with her face in the cornbread dressing about half way through the meal. Then, after she recovered, she would steal most of the left over dressing and take it home with her.
Since turkey sammiches on Bimbo white bread the next day are the real reason for Thanksgiving Dinner, this meal should be made at home and at Lake Chapala, all the ingredients are available in November, so make the dinner at home and enjoy those sandwiches for while after that. Otherwise, you may find some Yankee chef screwing up your meal.
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Hahaha. I have to agree with Hound Dog! There is no way a Mexican restaurant or even an American owned restaurant, is going to be able to replicate an American tradition like Thanksgiving. It's best to invite a few of your family members / best friends over for a Thanksgiving feast you prepare on your own. If everyone brings a dish, hopefully their favorite recipe, it will provide good dinner conversation of where the recipe came from as everyone loves reminiscing about good times and good people. And....it's an excuse to try absolutely everything on the table and not have to drive!
The question was about restaurants in Mexico City, not cooking at home.
I think that point was lost in the earlier story-telling. :confused2: Maybe one will not "replicate" the entire at-home family/friends experience of Thanksgiving Day, but certainly, and without a doubt, there are restaurants in Mexico City which provide a Thanksgiving dinner meal no different than what many Americans (the USA type) eat at home on that day. That such a meal wouldn't be available in Tulum or throughout Mexico is something I understand.
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If you think that "without a doubt" there will be restaurants in Mexico City that will be offering a Thanksgiving meal, I'm sure we'd all appreciate your providing their names.The question was about restaurants in Mexico City, not cooking at home.
I offered suggestions in #4.
Here's a list from 2011:
Restaurantes con cenas de Thanksgiving (Gracias..., por el atasque) | Chilango.com
The Palm, Country, El Bife del Padrino, Jaso, Diana, and Pergamino. I think it's safe to say there will be restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner, it's just a question of finding them.
Restaurantes con cenas de Thanksgiving (Gracias..., por el atasque) | Chilango.com
The Palm, Country, El Bife del Padrino, Jaso, Diana, and Pergamino. I think it's safe to say there will be restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner, it's just a question of finding them.
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Too pricey for my modest eating-out budget, I fear, but that's to be expected since almost all of these places are located in pricey Polanco. In any event, thanks for posting this information.
[QUOTE=Longford;2345329]It's a Canadian and USA observance which Mexico has no equivalent, that I know of. There are traditional "American-like" meals offered where you find an abundance of expats and/or tourists from the USA. Mostly the resort towns such as Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, etc. However, you do find such meals offered in communities Lakeside in Jalisco, San Miguel de Allende, and a few places in Mexico City.
There's a street in Mexico City's Centro Historico (Motolinia, I believe it is) on which there are two or three restaurants which feature turkey year-round and from which some of my resident-in-Mexico expat friends order their Thanksgiving Day turkeys from. Elsewhere in Mexico City, the hotels which concentrate on international business travelers .. such as those near Chapultepec Park in Polanco (El Presidente, JW Marriott, etc.) and the Sheraton Maria Isabel adjacent to the U.S. Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Cuauhtemoc have in previous years offered Thanksgiving Dinner. Maybe, too, the American Legion Post in Colonia Condesa will be doing that again this year.[/QUOTE]
This is Posting #4 that Longford suggested answered Isla Verde´s inquiry as to where to find a U.S. style Thanksgiving feast in Mexico.
Let´s just forget the obvious that Thanksgiving is more than a normally mediocre meal of roasted turkey accompanied by various sides favored by the family presenting the "feast" and their guests but always keeping in mind that that the meal, such as it usually is served , is simply the basis for the reason for gathering and the real purpose is to get together with family and friends you cannot normally bear to be around except once a year or so.
The key to understanding the history of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the reason this sort of "feast" evolved is to understand that the reason for that is what I call the "Presbyterian Church Syndrome". In the deep south in the United States, the tradition each Sunday is to begin roasting the beef as the family heads out to worship "De Lawd" in the presence of other pious folks so inclined which is a social call in such places and the notion is that the side of beef will be properly cooked upon their return from religious duties when, at that time, the accompinaments could be prepared in short order. If one were sitting in a pew in a House of God in those days and the preacher became long-winded in his praise of the Lord and the roast was overcooking, this was an unacceptable faux pax on the preacher´s part and if he did that often enough he was destined to end up in Yazoo City or some place in the dreaded Texas.
The Thanksgiving feast was designed around this tradition. Pre- make the cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce; put the turkey in the oven, throw the oyster casserole into the oven at the last minute and there you have it. Go get soused. What does some fancy hotel dining room in Mexico City understand about this besides catering to lonely business travelers. A bad joke.
There's a street in Mexico City's Centro Historico (Motolinia, I believe it is) on which there are two or three restaurants which feature turkey year-round and from which some of my resident-in-Mexico expat friends order their Thanksgiving Day turkeys from. Elsewhere in Mexico City, the hotels which concentrate on international business travelers .. such as those near Chapultepec Park in Polanco (El Presidente, JW Marriott, etc.) and the Sheraton Maria Isabel adjacent to the U.S. Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Cuauhtemoc have in previous years offered Thanksgiving Dinner. Maybe, too, the American Legion Post in Colonia Condesa will be doing that again this year.[/QUOTE]
This is Posting #4 that Longford suggested answered Isla Verde´s inquiry as to where to find a U.S. style Thanksgiving feast in Mexico.
Let´s just forget the obvious that Thanksgiving is more than a normally mediocre meal of roasted turkey accompanied by various sides favored by the family presenting the "feast" and their guests but always keeping in mind that that the meal, such as it usually is served , is simply the basis for the reason for gathering and the real purpose is to get together with family and friends you cannot normally bear to be around except once a year or so.
The key to understanding the history of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the reason this sort of "feast" evolved is to understand that the reason for that is what I call the "Presbyterian Church Syndrome". In the deep south in the United States, the tradition each Sunday is to begin roasting the beef as the family heads out to worship "De Lawd" in the presence of other pious folks so inclined which is a social call in such places and the notion is that the side of beef will be properly cooked upon their return from religious duties when, at that time, the accompinaments could be prepared in short order. If one were sitting in a pew in a House of God in those days and the preacher became long-winded in his praise of the Lord and the roast was overcooking, this was an unacceptable faux pax on the preacher´s part and if he did that often enough he was destined to end up in Yazoo City or some place in the dreaded Texas.
The Thanksgiving feast was designed around this tradition. Pre- make the cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce; put the turkey in the oven, throw the oyster casserole into the oven at the last minute and there you have it. Go get soused. What does some fancy hotel dining room in Mexico City understand about this besides catering to lonely business travelers. A bad joke.
I thought it was to remember the starving Pilgrims, without survival skills, who failed to grow crops in beach sand. The indigenes took pity upon them and showed them how to eke out a living by taking advantage of others. They had Miles, the guy with the guns, after all. So, they invited the generous anf friendly indegens to dinner, thanked them, sent them away and shortly thereafter they did their very best to exterminate them, always praising de lawd, of course.
I consider that to be a fine observation RV. Actually, it seems to me that they shared that dinner and those North American indigenous agricultural techniques handed down over generations and then exterminated their new-found friends in the service of "De Lawd" Praise the Lord and pass the dressing. You must admit, however, that those birds providing the meat for that original Thanksgiving were probably scrawny and tough little buzzards so it was necessary to kill the indigenous hosts , steal the patents and improve the product with hormones to produce the beautiful breasts and succulent meat of today´s turkeys. Thank God for gunpowder.
I am doing it myself found everything I need in the stores and have invited 20 Mexican friends to share it all will be homemade and all the things that you need are easily found
Menu thanksgiving
Turkey 1 large
Duck 2 each
Cranberry sauce
Green bean casserole
Mashed potatoes
Dressing / apple dressing for ducks
Pumpkin pies, Lemon pie, mince meat pie
Pumpkin cheese cake
With rum sauce
Gravy
Rolls
Egg nog
Waldorf salad
Menu thanksgiving
Turkey 1 large
Duck 2 each
Cranberry sauce
Green bean casserole
Mashed potatoes
Dressing / apple dressing for ducks
Pumpkin pies, Lemon pie, mince meat pie
Pumpkin cheese cake
With rum sauce
Gravy
Rolls
Egg nog
Waldorf salad
Perhaps that was a native American Thanksgiving dinner and they were having some Pilgrim on it
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Joke for Hound Dog
Quote from HoundDog
.[/QUOTE]This is Posting #4 that Longford suggested answered Isla Verde´s inquiry as to where to find a U.S. style Thanksgiving feast in Mexico.
Let´s just forget the obvious that Thanksgiving is more than a normally mediocre meal of roasted turkey accompanied by various sides favored by the family presenting the "feast" and their guests but always keeping in mind that that the meal, such as it usually is served , is simply the basis for the reason for gathering and the real purpose is to get together with family and friends you cannot normally bear to be around except once a year or so.
The key to understanding the history of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the reason this sort of "feast" evolved is to understand that the reason for that is what I call the "Presbyterian Church Syndrome". In the deep south in the United States, the tradition each Sunday is to begin roasting the beef as the family heads out to worship "De Lawd" in the presence of other pious folks so inclined which is a social call in such places and the notion is that the side of beef will be properly cooked upon their return from religious duties when, at that time, the accompinaments could be prepared in short order. If one were sitting in a pew in a House of God in those days and the preacher became long-winded in his praise of the Lord and the roast was overcooking, this was an unacceptable faux pax on the preacher´s part and if he did that often enough he was destined to end up in Yazoo City or some place in the dreaded Texas.
The Thanksgiving feast was designed around this tradition. Pre- make the cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce; put the turkey in the oven, throw the oyster casserole into the oven at the last minute and there you have it. Go get soused. What does some fancy hotel dining room in Mexico City understand about this besides catering to lonely business travelers. A bad joke.[/QUOTE]
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Hound Dog frequently refers to his Alabama past so I laughed out loud when I read the following last night: (This is for you HoundDog but all in fun.)
A good ole Alabama boy won a bass boat in a raffle drawing. He brought it home and his wife looked at it and said: "What are you gonna do with that? There ain't no water deep enough to float in a boat within 100 miles of here."
He said: "I won it and I'm a gonna keep it."
His brother came over to visit several days later. He saw his brother's wife and asked where his bro was. She said: "He's out there in his new bass boat," pointing to the field behind the house.
So he headed out behind the house and saw his brother sitting in a bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand out in the middle of a big field. He yelled out to him: "What are you doing?"
His brother yelled back: "I'm fishin', what does it look like I'm a doing?"
His brother yelled: "It's people like you that give people from Alabama a bad name, makin' everybody think we is stupid. If I could swim, I'd come out there and give you what for!"
Quote from HoundDog
.[/QUOTE]This is Posting #4 that Longford suggested answered Isla Verde´s inquiry as to where to find a U.S. style Thanksgiving feast in Mexico.
Let´s just forget the obvious that Thanksgiving is more than a normally mediocre meal of roasted turkey accompanied by various sides favored by the family presenting the "feast" and their guests but always keeping in mind that that the meal, such as it usually is served , is simply the basis for the reason for gathering and the real purpose is to get together with family and friends you cannot normally bear to be around except once a year or so.
The key to understanding the history of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the reason this sort of "feast" evolved is to understand that the reason for that is what I call the "Presbyterian Church Syndrome". In the deep south in the United States, the tradition each Sunday is to begin roasting the beef as the family heads out to worship "De Lawd" in the presence of other pious folks so inclined which is a social call in such places and the notion is that the side of beef will be properly cooked upon their return from religious duties when, at that time, the accompinaments could be prepared in short order. If one were sitting in a pew in a House of God in those days and the preacher became long-winded in his praise of the Lord and the roast was overcooking, this was an unacceptable faux pax on the preacher´s part and if he did that often enough he was destined to end up in Yazoo City or some place in the dreaded Texas.
The Thanksgiving feast was designed around this tradition. Pre- make the cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce; put the turkey in the oven, throw the oyster casserole into the oven at the last minute and there you have it. Go get soused. What does some fancy hotel dining room in Mexico City understand about this besides catering to lonely business travelers. A bad joke.[/QUOTE]
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Hound Dog frequently refers to his Alabama past so I laughed out loud when I read the following last night: (This is for you HoundDog but all in fun.
)A good ole Alabama boy won a bass boat in a raffle drawing. He brought it home and his wife looked at it and said: "What are you gonna do with that? There ain't no water deep enough to float in a boat within 100 miles of here."
He said: "I won it and I'm a gonna keep it."
His brother came over to visit several days later. He saw his brother's wife and asked where his bro was. She said: "He's out there in his new bass boat," pointing to the field behind the house.
So he headed out behind the house and saw his brother sitting in a bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand out in the middle of a big field. He yelled out to him: "What are you doing?"
His brother yelled back: "I'm fishin', what does it look like I'm a doing?"
His brother yelled: "It's people like you that give people from Alabama a bad name, makin' everybody think we is stupid. If I could swim, I'd come out there and give you what for!"
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