all the kids waited for christmas to come to taste her Christmas turkey. Great Expectations indeed!! Because the bird was big and everyone would have a bigger portion of meat on the proverbial plate.
As she did not have any oven, she decided not to have it roasted. the pastor Lau Ngo Kee had told her that the Americans would roast a turkey for Christmas.
Well indeed Christmas day came, and the turkey was a little too mature for the pot.
Uncle slaughtered the turkey and had it boiled in a pot. After a few hours of slow boiling, the turkey was still too tought. so Grandma decided that the whole turkey must be taken out and chopped into small pieces and stir fried again with ern chow.
The meat was still tough and it took the family and the kids many days to finish the one and only turkey raised by grandma.
It was the story of never again to raise turkey. Moh no sey....meh siak ri.
What we Foochows raised in the yard must be edible. We should not waste our time and effort to raise turkey.
I think this story would have made some Peace Corps teachers in Chung Cheng School smile a little - why there was no turkey reared in the Foochow villages of Sibu.
Note : Perhaps with China leading in turkey rearing in the future, people's mindset will change regarding turkey.)
1 comment:
i knew a family at ek dee road who raised turkeys in the later half of 60's. my grandpa lived there. on our way to visit him, i always saw turkeys roaming along the road and would sometimes chased us. i thought they ate charcoal because their throats were as red as the burning charcoals inside my mother's iron (we always watched her ironing the cloth). as a little kid, i was very afraid of these turkeys.
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