Colombian Thanksgiving (Acción de Gracia)

My mom is always super helpful with reminding me about when certain holidays are, when to change the clocks etc. So about a month ago she was quick to remind me about Canadian Thanksgiving, and then suggested I should make Thanksgiving dinner in Colombia. At first I sort of laughed at this idea because:
a) I dont know how to cook a turkey
b) I didnt know if Colombia sold turkeys (turns out grocery stores do)
c) Im not a big fan of turkey, I prefer ham
d) I dont have a functional oven in my apartment

But after thinking about it, the more I wanted to do it. It was something Canadian I could pass on to my friends here, and have them experience what a Thanksgiving dinner is like. But the first thing I needed to figure out was what I was going to cook, and turkey was not something I was willing to do. Next best thing? Roasted chicken! Another tweak in the plans was that I could not find gravy anywhere in any of the grocery stores here, and my friends had no idea what it was either. So I scrapped the idea of making mashed potatoes (sad day...). I finally decided on making a roasted chicken, with herb roasted potatoes, steamed carrots, garlic bread and a chocolate cake for dessert.


We ended up making dinner in Sara´s house because she has a functioning oven. Side note: apparently an oven is NOT a basic necessity in Colombia, as the majority of people do not have ovens that work in their homes (at least in Medellín that is)... hmm strange. Anyways so we cooked all the food at Sara´s apartment. However the best part was that we didn´t make the chicken. We called a store to order a precooked one, and they delivered it to her apartment. So we cheated a little bit, but we made everything else, so it wasn´t a completely false "cooked" dinner ;)





The dinner turned out to be an absolute success, as the food was delicious and we didnt burn the house down. WIN ! Before eating, Leo said grace (in Spanish), and then we went around the table and each person said what they were thankful for. Canadian Thanksgiving in Colombia? SUCCESS.




Here are 2 videos I made. The first one I thought I was in Canada, the 2nd one I got it right: