CALO's Kitchen: What's for Thanksgiving?

Each year, the CALÓ News staff comes together to share their Thanksgiving plans and the foods that define their holiday celebrations. From time-honored classics to unique family traditions, our team highlights the diverse array of dishes enjoyed by families from different cultural backgrounds.  

Amairani:

Many of my siblings and myself do not like turkey. So every Thanksgiving instead of having turkey as the main dish my mom makes Pollo Revuelto with a side of buttery white rice and frijoles puercos. Pollo Revuelto is cooked with a lot of vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, corn, french beans, bananas and even raisins. I usually enjoy eating this dish with white bread or hawaiian bread to dip it in the sweet, spicy juice it comes with. This dish that my mom makes is one of the typical dishes from Sinaloa, Mexico, which is where all my family is from.

Andrea:

On both Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, my dad and brother have one special request for my mom: frijoles puercos. While we also have all of the traditional American dishes, my family makes sure to throw in a few Mexican staples as well; tamales and pozole, of course, are always welcome. As far as the frijoles puercos, I have not yet outgrown some of my more picky eating habits, so I personally don’t indulge in the dish. Still, I’ve come to find the smell of frijoles, chorizo, chiles and queso extremely comforting and a reminder of how beautiful it is that we get to combine two cultures.

Denise:

Each year, we switch Thanksgiving between my family and my husband’s family. When we spend the day with my family, it’s about vegan and vegetarian dishes because my father is a vegetarian and my stepmom is vegan. They sometimes feature traditional turkey as well, but they often go with the tofurkey. When we go to my husband’s side of the family, my sister in law makes Salvadorian turkey. My husband loves it because it has olives and I prefer to eat the ham because I don’t like olives. In 2020, when we spent Thanksgiving at home because of the pandemic, we bought the Popeyes Cajun turkey and it’s the most delicious turkey I’ve ever tried. But the holiday is more about spending time with family, so I’m okay missing the Cajun turkey.  

Michelle:

I don’t typically celebrate traditional “Thanksgiving,” because I try to honor Indigenous communities and the complex history behind the holiday. Instead, I focus on keeping an open home and cooking for the people I love.