Screw Turkey: Nine Alternatives to the Traditional Thanksgiving Feast

A quick search of SFoodie's fellow blogs will find you lists of the bistros and American-style restaurants serving turkey and trimmings. But not everyone wants to shell out for the traditional Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant. SFoodie can think of a number of reasons why:

A. You hate Thanksgiving and all it stands for.
B. You just hate turkey.
C. You're orphaned this year and don't want to wallow in someone else's recreation of the holiday.
D. You're broke.

Or E., you've just forgotten about it, like the guy who answered the phone at the O'Farrell Naan 'n' Curry this morning. When we asked him whether the restaurant was open on Thursday, he responded, "Sure. What's Thursday?"

We told him, and he whooped. "Good thing I'm off!" he said, then quickly added, "But the restaurant's open."

In fact, SFoodie called all the non-Western restaurants in the critic's picks section of the SF Weekly restaurant guide to see who was open on Thanksgiving Day.

1. Bund Shanghai, 640 Jackson, 982-0618
Turkey substitute: Crab xiaolongbao and lion's head meatballs

2. Hakka Restaurant, 4401 Cabrillo, 876-6898
Turkey substitute: Salt-baked chicken and pumpkin coated in salted-egg batter

3. Kingdom of Dumpling, 1713 Taraval, 566-6143
Turkey substitute: Lamb dumplings 

4. Lers Ros, 730 Larkin, 931-6917
Turkey substitute: Fried rabbit

5. Naan 'n' Curry, multiple locations
Turkey substitute: Karahi chicken

6. Poc-Chuc, 2886 16th St., 558-1583
Turkey substitute: No substitute ? try relleno negro, or turkey braised in black mole

7. R&G Lounge 631 Kearny, 982-7877
Turkey substitute: That San Francisco classic, crab for Thanksgiving

8. Shanghai House 3641 Balboa, 831-9288
Turkey substitute: Salt-and-pepper pig knuckle

9. South Sea Seafood Village, 1420 Irving, 665-8210
Turkey substitute: Lobster noodles

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What Makes a Turkey a Bona Fide Heritage Bird?

There are technically only 10 turkey breeds that can be legitimately called "heritage."?Our favorite morsel from the blogs.
Food labeling standards in this country approach the scandalous on the 364 days of the year that aren't Thanksgiving, so why should Turkey Day be any different? At Chow.com last week, Lessley Anderson flashed a light on heritage turkeys. Like, what is a heritage turkey in the first place, and is every bird dressed up in antique feathers really a heritage breed? First, definitions. Anderson links to the Heritage Turkey Foundation's breed primer, which IDs birds listed on the American Poultry Association's turkey Standard of Perfection of 1874 as bona fide heritage specimens: the Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Jersey Buff, Slate, Black Spanish, and White Holland. Later additions include the Royal Palm, White Midget, and Beltsville Small White.
But "heirloom" isn't exactly "heritage," as in the case of Diestel's American Heirloom Collection turkeys. "American Heritage Collection" sort of sounds like a Home Depot line of Colonial-inspired paints, but no, they're turkeys, what Anderson calls "an organically raised crossbreed that incorporates both heritage genes and nonheritage." A bit of heritage gaminess, we're guessing, fused to the kind of mild-tasting turkey meat most everybody grew up sawing through at the kids' table.
Are stricter labeling laws for heritage birds in the works? Maybe. Until then, Anderson writes:

anybody wishing to get their hands on an actual breed of bird that looks and tastes pretty much as it did 100 years ago is advised to (1) read the fine print and apply critical thinking, and (2) call the farmer and ask what their definition of heritage is.

Advice that's probably too late for this year.
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