Sweet home San Leandro

Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house in Oakland was delicious. We had the usual:

• Lo mai fan (sp? Steamed sticky rice with Chinese sausage, sliced shiitake mushrooms, dried scallops and dried shrimp)
• An intriguing potato salad I grew up with, probably more accurately categorized as fruit salad with potatoes and mayo, and the addition of diced Fuji apples, pineapple chunks and halved longans (the last of which was actually a later development, c. 1992); sounds vile, but I promise it's good
  
• Japanese sweet potatoes and Okinawan purple yams
• Sweet jellyfish and pickled cucumbers, sprinkled with sesame seeds
  
• Cranberry sauce (the canned stuff)
  
• Honey-baked ham
  
• Pumpkin pie
• Mango cake from a Hong Kong-style bakery
  
• And last but not least, our family recipe for turkey, heavily influenced by my grandparents' years in Peru, seasoned with soy sauce and cumin -- damn near the best thing I've ever eaten.

I love that every family I know makes Thanksgiving their own somehow, e.g. Hester's family having turkey with a helping of japchae on the side, the jubilantly autumnal cranberry compote Eli's uncle makes, Keyvan's Persian feast of meat and hair (??).

I've been hiding out at my parents' house since last Tuesday night, mostly reading, catching up on some work, eating good food, and brushing up on my Chinese with the help of chinesepod. I also built out my Netvibes page with lots of great design blogs (I went from three tabs to five!) and continued my cardio streak (I'm at 12 days in a row now). I did no shopping, but I'm at peace with that. :)

Hope everyone had a restful and delicious Thanksgiving!