CAIRO, Egypt — The hunt for Thanksgiving dinner ingredients starts early here.
Scouring the three major grocery stores and the many vegetable and fruit shops, you savor the small victories of spotting a can of whole cranberries or pumpkin puree.
Oh, look — a cranberry candle! Sage! Fresh thyme! Now if I can just find pecans for that bourbon pumpkin cheesecake.
For three years, I've hosted Thanksgiving dinner here for 25 or more friends: Egyptians, Brits, a Canadian, a Peruvian, Belgians, French, a Darfur refugee and, of course, Americans.
This Thanksgiving is the day before the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), when millions of Muslims make what is often a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.
To celebrate Eid, Cairenes slaughter cows, goats or lambs, giving a portion to the poor and feasting on the rest. It isn't unusual in this city to see the animals being led away by a customer or being slaughtered on the street.
At Alpha Market near my apartment building, live lambs feed in a small open-air pen, ready to be sold. Last year I could hear a lamb bleating on the balcony of a neighboring apartment, awaiting its fate.
Surprising ingredients can be found here, particularly in the Zamalek district, where many foreigners live. Often you find them in the most unusual places. For baking soda, well, you go to a pharmacy and ask for sodium bicarbonate, just as in the old days.
I don't have a dinner table but, luckily, my neighbor Tarek is a party planner; he has his people deliver two folding tables, 20 covered chairs and a tablecloth in exchange for a small sum and a plate of food.
You must be inventive to make a Thanksgiving-themed centerpiece, however. Orange-burst persimmons, yellow Iraqi dates, pomegranates, small Lebanese pears, little green apples, orange kumquats, sunburnt Egyptian dates and chestnuts, mixed with colored candles, create a cornucopia effect.
Serving wine with dinner is no problem. Serving good wine is a challenge. Egypt sells its own local wine and a wine from South Africa, but finding French or Italian wines requires a different approach.
Once a month, foreign journalists here may obtain a signed, stamped letter from the Egyptian press center, allowing them to spend $35 on alcohol (or three to four bottles of imported wine) at duty-free shops.
Turkeys are available here but, because of Eid, suddenly became scarce this week. (Egyptians usually eat turkey only at weddings, but not this year for unknown reasons.) One grocery manager said he had some left — real giants, at 26 to 28 pounds.
Last year my handyman, Mahruz, brought a turkey that was freshly slaughtered, its head still attached. Not ready to pluck and clean it, I gave it to him for his family and found a much smaller turkey that my guests picked clean, right down to its bones.
This time, we're roasting two birds at two apartments so there's enough for everyone.
Mahruz is very curious about the whole process and the traditions. He smells all the spices and wants to know all the ingredients of the stuffing, the gravy and pumpkin pie.
And this year as in the past, he'll take home any leftovers, inviting his extended family to celebrate their own Thanksgiving.
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