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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (10735)	11/17/2001 11:30:59 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The sun never sets on the new USA empire... kpnews.com Celebrating Thanksgiving in Ukraine By Dana Liss, Kyiv Post Staff Writer American ex-pats tend to get extra antsy in mid-November with Thanksgiving Day just around the corner. After all, this quintessential U.S. holiday is traditionally celebrated at home with gobs of family members. Celebrating it in Ukraine, just seems, well, so un-American. There’s no Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and no college football. It just isn’t the same as home. But that doesn’t mean American ex-pats can’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Just ask California native B.J. Bjelajac, who has cooked up a tradition Thanksgiving feast in Kyiv for six years. Bjelajac, along with his girlfriend, Oksana Strashna, see Thanksgiving as a chance to share a traditional American holiday with friends. Although the couple has been celebrating Thanksgiving together since 1996, it wasn’t until two years ago when their flat became one of several American Thanksgiving Day hangouts. The tradition started when former American ex-pat Bette Kestin suggested that the couple’s spacious apartment would be great for a large bash. Kestin said that as long as all the guests contributed something, hosting such a feast would not be too stressful. “According to her plan, everybody had to contribute something,” Bjelajac said. “We had such a good time that we decided to make it a tradition every year.” Thanksgiving is a time of family rituals, such as holding hands around the table and giving thanks. Despite being thousands of miles away from his hometown of Huntington Beach, Bjelajac has created a few of his own. Every year, the couple shows a video of an old American football game, followed by an Austin Powers film. “Maybe we do not have a Martha Stuart Thanksgiving dinner, but we have a lot of fun,” Strashna said. As seasoned Thanksgiving dinner hosts, organizing the event has become a snap. Well, almost. Invitations are sent out by e-mail one week before the event and each guest is told to prepare a traditional dish, such as mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie or turkey. Finding all the ingredients for a foreign dish can be a chore. But Strashna takes it all in stride. “I don’t remember ever being stressed out about finding the critical ingredients,” she said. “If something is missing, we just find the closest substitute.” Many people worry too much about the turkey. Anything that takes hours to cook must be complicated, right? Well, not exactly. “Some people spend hours pacing in front of the oven, not knowing how it will turn out,” Bjelajac said. He recalled how one friend spent two hours thawing a turkey by massaging it in a bathtub full of cold water. “Hey, it worked.” Although turkey is not a common Ukrainian meal, there is an adequate supply of birds in Kyiv. In this emerging market economy, the folks at the market have learned to exploit Thanksgiving. In fact, many sellers at Volodymyrsky and Besarabska are warning buyers that the price will go up just before Nov. 29. Apparently they don’t know that Thanksgiving comes early this year – on Nov. 22. Americans Embassy employees and members of the American Embassy Association can purchase Butterball turkeys for Hr 15 per kilo. Last year the embassy sold more than 100 turkeys. So, what’s the secret to a scrumptious turkey? “If it’s a Butterball, make sure you remove the guts and neck in the plastic bag,” Bjelajac said. Texas native Stephan Korshak said that it’s in the details. “A good way to keep your bird from burning is to sacrifice a towel to the kitchen gods, drench it in butter, and put it directly on the bird for about an hour and a half.” In a land without stuffing mix, Jell-O and canned cream of mushroom soup, finding essential Thanksgiving ingredients or substitutes can be challenging. To make your Thanksgiving dinner shopping spree more efficient, check out what the following bazaars and supermarkets have in stock.