Let Us Give Thanks For ... Bread

For Thanksgiving this year, Andy and I were not expecting to get anything close to turkey with all the trimmings. Our friend H., however, is fortunate to know someone who works with a luxurious private club in Kowloon. And this club was serving a traditional Thanksgiving buffet.

So we suited up the best we could for a posh place like this (way more posh than I've ever experienced, that's for sure), and had a really good turkey dinner after all. One of the highlights was the brussels sprouts, of all things. Q: How do you make brussels sprouts edible? A: By cooking them with bacon, of course. Sometimes I think that cooking with some kind of cured pork fat is like deep-frying -- it makes just about everything tasty.

The real highlight for me, though, was the bread. It lay on the cheese board, a whole, warm baguette, its waist wrapped in a white napkin, next to a bread knife. Normally, I get annoyed by the shower of crumbs that result from cutting into a crusty loaf like this, but this time I welcomed the sight. (I admit, it probably helped that I didn't have to clean up after it.) I skipped the cheese and just went straight for the bread.

I forgot to take photos, but I wouldn't have been allowed to take them anyway. I learned later that you're not allowed to take pictures because some members might be dining there with companions who are not their wives!