Producers note: This Dispatch originally aired in 2017 and we thought it a good one to revisit while we are off on our own Thanksgiving adventures...
It was admittedly a moment of sheer American holiday nostalgia. Cooking a turkey in India. I thought it could be a fun adventure. I just didn't realize that finding a turkey was the least of it.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata.
My friend Milena Chilla-Markhoff, an expat who spends half the year in Kolkata, made a deal with me.
MC1: In the beginning we had that bet of ok who's going to find the turkey first versus who's going to find the oven first
I had to find the turkey. She was going to find an oven big enough for it
I began my turkey hunt in its poultry section of the mazelike 19th century New Market among squawking chickens and ducks in big baskets.
Palan Laskhar who sells chickens told me he could get me a turkey from his village by local train. I just needed to pay an advance. He gave me no receipt, his store had no name. He told me...
PL1: Desi maal. Baari posha maal. Bhaat guro shob kicju
"don't worry I'll get you a good turkey, raised at home, eats rice and grain, not one of those factory fed ones."
On the appointed day I showed up bright and early. Laskhar was there. As was the tiurkey. Snow white, red wattle and very much alive. As if I should put a leash around its neck and take it home.
We had to find a butcher. And so Lashkar marched down the busy market street past honking cars and vegetable vendors with Snow White while I followed guiltily behind.. He said he's been in the turkey business for a year. He does not eat them but He sells about 50-60 during the holidays.
PL2: Theek nai. 50-60 bikri hoy
Later I discover there's a whole little community of turkey farmers around here. I could have just gone to Tona organic farm which has dozens of gobbling turkeys.
Its owner tells me they supply dressed turkeys regularly to the American consulate. And sell molten cheese and turkey ready to eat meals all year around. Then there's
Rezaul Kalam who runs Bengal Turkey Farm. Kalam once lived in Brooklyn but he never ate turkey there, only deli chicken breast. Now he eats turkey but he confesses he's not sure how to cook it.
RK1: . I don't know what recipe is proper and tasty. And my wife also does not know how to cook turkey. We cook regular way like we cook chicken.
He keeps no chickens. He likes turkeys. They dance like peacocks. Other villagers come to gawk at them.
RK2: very decent. Dancing like peacock. Very interesting. A lot of people in my village. Where my farm is situated. Lot of people come to see.
My turkey was not dancing. But its feet were waggling in the air in my taxi cab as a went bounced through Kolkata streets. I realized to my horror I hadn't got them lopped off. Off we went to the local butcher. But it's siesta time. But as Milena says some requests, no matter how odd, are easier in Kolkata.
MC2: Ok I need some feet chopped off of my turkey and the neck and you can just go round the corner and wake up five guys sleeping on their chopping slab. And they will first of all not only admire the bird and say how beautiful and big it is but help you out and chop it. This is not something I could have done in Berlin or New York.
There were more hurdles to cross.. My pomegranate tandoori recipe had come all the way from the San Francisco bay area chef Laxmi Hiremath. But then I realized I had no pot big enough to marinate it IN. Thank goodness for my stash of sturdy American imported Hefty trash bags. Milena has sourced a roasting pan. She'd also found a full size oven at a friend's place. And so we Ubered over there with the turkey sloshing in its trash bag. When that turkey was done it had ridden on a train, Uber and yellow cab. It had been to three markets. And needed the help of a dozen well wishers.
MC3: Lots of neighborhood involvement in the feast
And in the end isn't that what a holiday feast should really be all about? Not just a butterball in the frozen section of a supermarket.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW.