The meal started off extremely well, with the annual Thanksgiving excursion to... White Castle. Now, while this sounds odd ("Won't you be full before the meal even begins?"), let me explain - in years past, Chris's younger brother Nick used to not eat much of what was served at Thanksgiving, so the family would stop off at White Castle so that he could get some food inside of him and not have to starve all day. Now, years later, Nick does eat a bunch of the Thanksgiving offerings and yet the tradition persists, albeit in a more symbolic way. We picked up a #3 Combo (10 burgers, 2 drinks, and 2 fries), which, if you're familiar with White Castle, is not much food split between 5 people. I had three of the tiny steamed hamburgers, and had my usual reaction to it which is this: "What, this is barely even food. I keep forgetting that. So soft and mushy and, oh, what the hell, I'll have two more. What, there aren't anymore? Dammit! I love those things!" It's very strange, but I'll admit it: White Castle is what I crave.
After our brief (and very secret) stopover, we arrived in Baldwin, NY. Immediately upon our entry we were greeted by a large spread of cheese, crackers and olives. Unfortunately, I had to restrain myself here in order to not throw a lot of appetizers on top of my White Castle and then not be able to recover by dinner proper. I did try a few cheese and cracker items (notably the parmigiano reggiano was very good), and, at Chris's mom's urging, an olive, which was remarkably buttery and not too salty - a definite homerun. However, the breakout star of the pre-dinner feast was the plate of shrimps and cocktail sauce. Not only were the shrimp delectable and fresh-tasting without a hint of brininess, but the cocktail sauce was phenomenal. It was sweet without being ketchuppy and tangy-spicy without crossing the line into acidic. In other words, perfect. I would have been happy to eat tire irons dipped in the sauce if I had to. Honestly, that good. I'm not sure if it was a prepared sauce or what, but mad hats off.
Thankfully, there was a good refractory period between the spread of snackers and the dinner itself, which hit the table at about 5 o'clock or so. Despite my pacing of myself earlier in the afternoon, I was still not exactly hungry, but I was certainly able to eat. I was told that the guy preparing dinner was an excellent cook and that I was to expect a delicious meal - just surveying the table I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed. It was packed from edge to edge with plates and dishes and bowls, and it all just smelled like Thanksgiving.
The turkey was moist and flavorful, and there was plenty of it. The gravy was obviously homemade and had a very good flavor (like a rich, spicy broth), though it was perhaps on the thin side. I would have preferred a little more stickiness to it, but it did taste good. The stuffing was a bit of a curveball, with heavy sausage and chestnut notes, but it still retained the familiar stuffing taste. I can never get enough stuffing, so that was a good thing. The usual sides were also represented, with delicate sweet potatoes and hearty cooked squash balancing the saltiness of the turkey and stuffing quite nicely. The only dud on the table was the corn bread, which was a little dry and dense for my liking. It was more than made up for by the excellent, excellent spoonbread, a dish which I had never had before. It resembled a moist, pudding-ish cornbread that had to be scooped out of dish - and it blew me away with its pure blasts of delicious corn flavor. Of course, I'm a sucker for anything with corn in it - but this was awesome. Highly recommended if it comes your way.
After rolling onto the couches for some food-induced napping, it was soon time for dessert - and dessert did not disappoint. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with Thanksgiving desserts, but it's easy to go mediocre. This spread, however, was phenomenal - the pecan pie was full of round, buttery pecan flavor without being cloyingly sweet, the pumpkin pie was cool and spicy and refreshing, and the apple pie was a perfect balance of tart and sweet. If I had one complaint, it would be that the caffeinated coffee ran out before I could get a second cup. But no matter - dessert more than satisfied by post-dinner cravings for a sweet capper to an overwhelmingly quality Thanksgiving spread.
In conclusion, this Turkey Day was no turkey. I'll give it a four corn kernel rating.
