An American's Thankgiving Dinner in Beijing

choi

Debra Bruno, Thanksgiving, as made in China. Washington Post, Nov 26, 2013.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/li ... 03681809_story.html

Quote:

I bought a "rock-hard frozen imported" turkey at "meat shops in Sanyuanli 北京 三元里 小区, a covered market popular with expats * * * I paid a shocking 331 yuan, or $54, for a turkey that barely reached 14 pounds. That’s far more than what American shoppers are paying. But this bird, which hailed from Moroni, Utah, (by way of a company called Norbest) had made quite a journey to thaw inside my Beijing refrigerator.

"this past summer when I boiled a dozen eggs that either had rotted or were fake, since some Chinese entrepreneurs have figured out a way to make money by selling fake eggs. These food forgers actually made eggs out of wax, gypsum powder, and calcium carbonate for the shell, and resin, starch, and pigments for the white and yolk.

Note:
(a) Crisco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco
(Introduced in 1911 by Procter & Gamble, it was the first shortening to be made entirely of vegetable oil; called Crisco, a modification of the phrase "crystallized [hydrogenated to solidify (now known to be harmful to health)] cottonseed oil;"  JM Smucker Co in 2002 obtained the brand)

Later the author writes:
(i) "As I wandered around, I kept showing storekeepers what I thought was the right translation for shortening: 'su you.'" 酥油
(ii) "So I took the advice of a friend and bought 'margarine de caisson,' French cooking margarine, instead."
(A) I can not find "margarine de caisson" in the Web (except this article, that is).
(B) English:
margarine (n; French; from ancient Greek margaritēs [from this word comes female given name Margaret] “pearl”).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/margarine
(C) margarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine
(section 1 History)
(D) French English dictionary:
caisson (noun masculine): "box"
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caisson

(b) "When we were expats in Brussels, you had to know a guy who sold turkeys out of the back of his dry-cleaning shop. Looking back, that Belgian celebration seems like a piece of gateau."
(i)  gâteau (noun masculine): "sponge cake"
(ii) The above became a loanword in English and changed the meaning.

gateau (n, plural: gateaus (English plural form) or gateaux (French plural form)):
"a rich, usually iced, cake"
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gateau
(iii) "a piece of gateau" is a word play on "a piece of cake." You know, Bregium is roughly divided into French (in the south) and Dutch (north) zones. Thus this implies the author lived in the Belgian south.

(c) Moroni, Utah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroni,_Utah
(section 1 Name)