The Thanksgiving desk isn’t a stranger to carbs—potatoes, cornbread, rolls, biscuits, mac and cheese, stuffing. However the one carb that may by no means depart mine is rice. I’m not referring to fragrant rice pilaf or wild rice dressing, however plain outdated white rice straight from my Zojirushi rice cooker.
There are tactical benefits to the presence of this pot of rice. It takes mere seconds to prep and could be assigned to just about any member of the family (my elder brother in our case). It masterfully soaks up gravy and the mish-mash of flavors of the meal, and is a needed factor to my most popular next-day use of leftovers: turkey fried rice and turkey congee.
Rising up, we spent most Thanksgivings with my mother’s aspect of the household. My mother is Chinese language American and rice graced our dinner desk each evening of the week (and infrequently breakfast and lunch too). We didn’t solely eat rice with Chinese language-ish meals. It was the bottom for roast rooster, steak, and grilled greens, and a needed addition to each soup. At any given time, there was at all times a spare quart or two of rice within the fridge for fried rice with lap cheong or bacon.
For a lot of Asian American households who rejoice Thanksgiving, it’s logical that rice has a seat on the dinner desk. It’s there nearly each different evening and, in a meal that in any other case seems to be distinctly American, is a method of tying our roots again to our heritage. Despite the fact that annually’s feast seems to be a bit totally different (the primary 12 months after my dad and mom moved to Miami, I made a key lime pie as a substitute of pumpkin), the one fixed at each Thanksgiving meal is a good pot of rice.
