A [Chinese] Thanksgiving Story

See the movie clip here.

Our friends were in town from Taiwan for Thanksgiving, 18 of them to be exact. That made a grand total of 21 people for Thanksgiving dinner. As I'm sure you can guess, that many people would not fit into our apartment for the feast. In fact we only have a grand total of six chairs, of those one is an office chair and one is a rocking chair. Fittingly enough, we agreed (some more willingly than others) to have "Chinese turkey" for Thanksgiving this year, a.k.a. Peking Duck. Some of us had tried it before, others hadn't; either way it made for an experience--what kind is left up to them to decide.

The crew met up at Spring Deer, the only place we've tried Peking Duck in Hong Kong (actually the only place I've ever had it). It is decades old, not much to look at, but is incredibly popular and always packed. We made our reservation several weeks in advance; when we went over two years ago, it took us three or four weeks to get in.
Two tables of ten: our Taiwan family. Surely as close to being with family on Thanksgiving in Asia as we could get.

Oh, these two were so rambunctious as they fed off each other to get more and more hyper throughout the night! At one point Aly had Jadyn laughing SO hard. It was too cute. Food was flying by the end of the night. Good thing the restaurant was so loud and crowded, no one seemed to notice.
"Erin, have you tried the crispy beef yet?" "No, is it good?" "Eat up and will tell ya!" Most of us actually really liked it (me in particular), not sure Erin concurred.
Cody did, but he still preferred the duck.
On to the main event. The waiter slices the duck right there at the table.

The Thanksgiving spread: Part I. Dumplings, crispy beef, green onion pancake, Peking duck.
How to eat Peking Duck: pancake, cucumber, onion, duck, plum sauce.
Lori trying the mystery vegetable. The three of us daring enough to try it were surprised at how good it actually tasted. We think it is some type of mushroom, though it's slightly on the crunchy side.
Thanksgiving spread: Part II. Shrimp, broccoli and bok choy, mixed vegetables with tofu, fried rice, sweet and sour pork, crispy shrimp.
There were so many of us, plus we over-ordered, dinner ended with a large bill. The restaurant manager came out and shook Cody's hand as he left, grinning from ear to ear and thanking him profusely. Can't say we've ever had that happen before.

We ended the night watching the light show on the TST waterfront.

"That [Thanksgiving] would live in our memories as the [Thanksgiving] when we were introduced to Chinese Turkey. All was right with the world." -Ralphie, A Christmas Story