Who Eats This Stuff? Some Odd Thanksgiving Foods

Watergate Salad

By Kevin Johnson (Whetstone Staff Writer)

When people think Thanksgiving dinner, they think turkey, mash potatoes, and stuffing.

Not sophomore Brooke Thompson. When she sits at the table, she expects to see these foods but she also expects to see some pretty exotic dishes as well.

“We have Watergate salad made with marshmallows, pistachio pudding and coconuts,” she said. “I don’t eat the Watergate salad though.”

There are weird foods that people eat, but it doesn’t stop at food. There are drinks and sauces that may seem out of the ordinary, too.

“I would not like the turkey without bone-suckin’ sauce,” Thompson said. “It has tomato paste, apple cider vinegar honey, molasses, horse radish, lemon juice, onion, garlic, peppers, and natural hickory smoke.”

Some families’ main dishes have nothing to do with tradition turkey.

“Lasagna is the main thing we have at thanksgiving,” sophomore Ryan Shilling’s said.

Sophomore Patrick Schlosser has eaten some out of the ordinary dishes as well.

“I’ve had a lot of foods come in and out of my Thanksgiving life,” Schlosser said. “Fried cauliflower, delicious. Cauliflower itself is disgusting, fried cauliflower…on another level.”

Other animals besides turkey are eaten during Thanksgiving.

“We have quail (a bird) and venison (deer); I did not think that was awkward because it’s something I have every year,” Schlosser said.

On the healthier side, Media Arts professor Ron Douglas eats a dish that is a slight variant of the traditional turkey.

“We would have tofurkey,” he said. “It’s a tofu turkey imitation that is completely animal free. I don’t have anything against tofurkey, I just prefer regular turkey.”

Thanksgiving drinks can be completely off of the wall, too.

Junior Donte Cooper looks forward to a homemade drink that is a highlight of his Thanksgiving dinner.

“It’s like a cream soda that’s made of 7-Up, red Hawaiian punch, pineapple juice; then you mix it all up, then put sherbet ice-cream on the top of it,” he said.

“Save the recipe, so you can make it and see for yourself that it hits.”