Like many Americans, I traveled this weekend to visit family. I am incredibly grateful that my aunt and uncle in Miami bought my ticket to spend this Thanksgiving with them.

It could not come at a better time, I’m fighting off a flu and I was almost literally freezing in Washington. If there is one thing that this year has taught me, it is how to survive radically changing weather. I have gone from tropical summer rains to dry desert heat to sprinkling capitol snowflakes. I have not really adjusted the varying climates all that well and still want to go back to California. So for this year, I can’t think of a better birthday present than getting away from the cold to eat some good Thai and Cuban food with family.

Oh, and on the controversial topic of Thanksgiving Turkey: most of the guests here were pretty anti-turkey too. They much preferred their yuca with pork. However at the Thanksgiving table it seems that most could not tell the difference from well-prepared turkey and the pork that was served. Of course this was a clash of traditional plates prepared fairly similarly, a different comparison from the difference between turkey and the superior duck.