Thanksgiving, while not the most popular holiday, is still very widely known and loved
by people around the United States. Despite this holiday not really being shared anywhere else in the world, there are still many different traditional variations to the classic Thanksgiving meal. “What could possibly be different?” One may ask, but shockingly enough, it’s true; depending on the state you go through, there are certain dishes that might be present on the dinner table. Thanks to the melting pot that is America, it comes with a large melting pot of dishes, too!
In many states, there seem to be a lot of out-of-country dishes that people eat. Baltimore, Maryland, for example, quite likes the German dish sauerkraut due to the large German-American population around there. Along with this, New York and New Jersey’s heavy Italian-American population also makes it so that many Thanksgiving sides consist of delicious Italian dishes like manicotti. To top it off with all the different cultural dishes, New Mexico and Arizona are also known for their Mexican roots, and therefore an interesting few dishes like a pumpkin empanada and chile-rubbed turkey.
On the more uncommon side of dishes, Texas seems to particularly enjoy fried turkey for their Thanksgiving meal. Apparently, frying turkeys is also incredibly dangerous and Texas is infamous for its incidents! Around the west is also an interestingly-named “frog-eye salad”, where it consists of acini di pepe pasta, pineapples, mandarin oranges, Cool Whip, and marshmallows. Despite its crazy name, frog-eye salad seems more like pasta than salad.
To conclude this small trip around the different American customs, I can’t help but find it fascinating how many different cultures still manage to shine in just one country. Despite how
identical Thanksgiving dinners might seem each year, there’s always something or someone out there that helps to give the holidays some more special variety.