Thanksgiving in Korea

Since we could not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, Adam and Nichole were kind enough to host a dinner at their place on Saturday. It was Thanksgiving potluck style, but Adam and Nichole provided us with food too. Daniel, in spite of the fact that he is Canadian, helped prepare some delicious chickens and stuffing (a special thanks to our boss who gave us some money to help cover the dinner). Of course we had all the normal Thanksgiving fixings. It was delicious. I told everyone that I would bring wine (which led to the birth of a new Thanksgiving tradition).

I was at E-Mart-uh trying to decide what wine to bring. There was a surprisingly wide selection, but a lot of it was expensive and none of it was really what I wanted. I saw on the bottom shelf a giant jug of Carlo Rossi Sangria and thought for a minute about whether or not it would be hilarious for me to bring that. Ryan and I had talked several times in the past about some of his friends drinking barrels of that stuff. I decided against it. But that is when inspiration struck. SANGRIA! I found some inexpensive bottles of a lighter red, a 3 liter plastic jug and a bag of oranges. After borrowing some sugar I started in on slicing oranges and chilling wine. About halfway through I realized that I didn't have any brandy or triple sec. I went to the corner store and stared at their alcohol, trying to find something to substitute. Cognac, whiskey, beer, soju...none of these seemed appropriate, especially soju (ie. paint thinner). I found a bottle of "Traditional Korean Raspberry Wine." I decided that it would have to do. I was set. I put the concoction in the fridge and waited for it to chill. Normally, you're supposed to let sangria sit over night, but this is Korea so it seems fine to let it stew for only 40 minutes.

While the sangria could have been more alcoholic, it wasn't terrible, and all of it was consumed. I thought it was pretty good, something I could work on perfecting for Christmas. I am pretty sure that from now on I will have to make sangria at every Thanksgiving.