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The turkey which stands out is one my mother made (of course) when I was around 9. She used a turkey cooker that I think she inherited from her mother-in-law. The cooker was like a miniature oven with a glass top that sat on the counter–like a turkey-sized, rectangular crock pot. That year’s turkey was very flavorful and very juicy. Shortly after that year, she started using cooking bags and/or her microwave oven to make her turkeys. She also became a hypertension nurse in later years, and her use of salt went down dramatically. Some turkeys were still good, but none stood out like that particular year’s.

My own mother-in-law uses a similar old cooker now, despite a fancy convection oven, and she produces similarly tasty results.

Runner-up #2 would be my own turkey from around 2000-2001. I started cooking turkeys in 1989 when Debbie and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together in her junior-year college apartment. I hit my stride at the turn of the century with a few nicely juicy birds. What really made them stand out, though, was the dark, rich gravy. Some mom–Debbie’s or mine–couldn’t believe it had not been enhanced with something to turn it brown, but mostly it was the result of basting the bird with real butter and de-glazing the pan to make the gravy. My roast turkey with stuffing and gravy recipe, which I’ve followed with varying success since, is in an off-blog post on this site —http://joeyhand.com/docs/turkey.html.

My next turkey project, though, is to barbecue the bird–split it open and cook on a slow grill for 5 hours or so.  I might try it for Christmas–Debbie and her father seemed up for it, and her mom had just wanted to freeze their Thanksgiving leftovers and serve those along with a new ham, but we nixed that idea. The danger is if it doesn’t come out good, it puts a damper on Christmas dinner. Also, there’s no stuffing or yummy, rich, dark-brown gravy. Still, I’d like to try it soon.

A few years ago, I heard an NPR Thanksgiving-themed broadcast about historically-accurate alternatives to turkey. The alternative advocate argued along the lines of, “How often do you go to a nice restaurant and order roast turkey when it’s not Thanksgiving? Never, because it’s a dry, hard-to-cook meat.” Although I prefer turkey, I have to admit he did have a point: I never order turkey in a restaurant–with the exception of an occasional deli turkey sandwich. The recommended options, which would have been available to and possibly also eaten by the Pilgrims, were leg of lamb, salmon, or capon. Lamb and salmon are intriguing, although I don’t plan to try any of them any time soon on the fourth Thursday in November.

2nd in a ‘Best’ series

The best shrimp I had was at the No Name Restaurant on the pier in Boston around 1992. It was in a garlic-white wine sauce with carrots and cauliflower, but what really stood out was how tender it was.

My parents, who love seafood, were up visiting us while we were in grad school. My wife, who did not like seafood then, ordered a hamburger steak and got an openly-skeptical, but good-natured, look from the waiter. I have been back to Boston a few times since but have not been back to any of the pier restaurants since they are kind of tricky to get to. I might also note that Anthony’s Pier 4 was out of our price range at the time.

This is the first in a series of posts describing a running list of Best-something’s I’ve kept in my head over the last 20 years or so.

The first entry that I can recall is for best Chinese food, which was at Panda’s, in Ball Square in Somerville, MA.

It was a favorite of my wife (then fiancée) when I moved up to the Boston area in 1991 for graduate school, and I quickly became enamored of the fried rice with sweet and sour pork. The fried rice had a smoky flavor, possibly from sesame oil, that I haven’t found anywhere else, and the sweet and sour sauce contained pineapple, onion, and bell pepper. I don’t care for bell pepper, but the rest was memorable.

After we got married and moved out to Waltham, we tried other Chinese restaurants in Waltham and Newton, but each time Debbie asked, “So how is it?”, my very-consistent-but-truthful answer was, “[One of ‘Ok/Good/All right’] but not as good as Panda’s.” After two years in Waltham and one year in Durham, NC, saying “not as good as Panda’s,” we went back to the Boston area on vacation and made sure to get some sweet and sour pork from Panda’s. Again, my wife asked, “So how is it?” Despite three years of buildup, I finally answered, “Surprisingly, as good as Panda’s. Just like I remember.”

Unfortunately, a later trip to Boston (and reconnaissance on Google Streetview) revealed that while there is still a Chinese restaurant there, it’s not Panda’s.