Thanksgiving and then some

The aftermath of thanksgiving and the latest in the food world.

Turkey Day

The U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving last week, which lead plenty of bloggers to struggle with the inevitable Thanksgiving meal - how it's made, how it's eaten, and how to cope with its aftermath.

Making it: here's a cool rundown of the creation of the perfect Thanksgiving meal. Eating it: Americans have somehow transformed the turkey into an icon of excess, from calorific bacon n' turkey to these ten awesome (awesome?) turkey recipes. Recovering from it: turkey doesn't really make you sleepy, apparently.

From The Cook Food Blog

Vegan. Not a vegan.

Vegan reverts to meat-eating, and sparks fervent debate. Vegan blogger Natasha found that her health problems needed to be addressed with a little more protein than her vegan diet could give her, so she decided to go back to eating meat.

Her blog entry detailing her story turns out to be more than just a personal account of her veg-to-meat switch - she reveals her struggle between her activism and pragmatism, her disdain for the "dark side" of veganism, and her realization that a strictly vegan lifestyle was simply "wrong".

Unsurprisingly, the comments thread blazed with both support from other meat eaters and approbation from vegans. LAWeekly has an analysis of the outcome, as does Metafilter.

From Voracious

Ham it up!

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas… along with the Yuletide Season comes Christmas ham, so beloved by Noche Buena enthusiasts. Pinay blogger Mommy Lace brings us her family recipe for Pineapple Christmas Ham, while Nigella Lawson throws in her own take on this Christmas treat.

From ModernMom

Foie gras issues

"Foie gras, then. The most divisive delicacy in gastronomy. No doubt you have a view already, but it's worth recapping the notorious facts." The Guardian gives a rundown of the pros and cons of this rich poultry product.

While foie gras has its fans, plenty of foodies are also firmly in the opposition, helped along by animal-rights groups who feel revolted by the force-feeding aspect of making the stuff. That's still not going to stop the true believers who use foie gras to create transcendent dishes.

From The Guardian

Tea 101

Tea - it ain't just for connoisseurs, it's for hackers, too. Read up on tea guru Tony Gebely's guide to making better tea - "the process, the kinds, and the care necessary to cultivate a great taste for tea". (LifeHacker also has an awesome rundown on coffee and what good it's for.) But if you like your warm drinks a little less arty and a little more boozy (who doesn't?) here's a recipe for Kahlua rum coffee, perfect for the cooling "Brrrr" months.

From LifeHacker

Bento beauties

Some inspiration for baon-making nanays: a great catalog of bento arrangements. (And in case you needed to know, here's the Wikipedia page on bento.) Lunch in a Box also has a great blog on bento arrangements, inspired by her baon-toting son.

From PopArtichoke

So you want to be a chef?

Anthony Bourdain asks, "So you wanna be a chef?" while Forme of Cury asks "Should you go to culinary school?" The answers to both questions are ultimately illuminating, if slightly depressing.

From Ruhlman.com

Turkey photo from sxc.hu
Vegan party spread photo from Emilie Hardman | CC by nc-sa 2.0
Ham photo from boodoo | CC by nc-sa 2.0

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