Chinatown LA Turkey Dinners

I never realized that getting an already prepared turkey to go from Chinatown Los Angeles was a Thanksgiving tradition for many people in the Los Angeles area. I used to joke with George Yu, the Executive Director of the Chinatown business improvement district, that one of the funniest parts of the holiday movie, A Christmas Story, was when the dog ate the turkey and the family went out to the local Chinese restaurant for the celebration meal. But in the movie, they are the only ones in the restaurant, but from what George says, going to ChinatownLA for turkey is quite a holiday event.


This year ChinatownLA makes it easy to find a ChinatownLA restaurant serving turkey by promoting various locations on their website for turkey to go or to be the centerpiece of a multi-course chinese banquet. In fact in ChinatownLA, you can also find local poultry stores to buy your own turkey to take home. Imagine the fun of going with a large group of friends or family to ChinatownLA this Thanksgiving, and having a variety of Chinese foods, including a Chinese style.

Ever since I visited a heritage turkey farm in Maryland, I have been a big fan of heritage turkeys. Last year, my wife and I had a Mary's Farm (bought from Bristol Farms) heritage turkey throw-down (yes we are Bobby Flay fans). I prepared mine in the weber barbeque and she prepared hers in the oven. For Thanksgiving 2010, LA Times Food Editor Russ Parson discusses how this year he is preparing his own smoked turkey on his own barbeque. The difference is that he is not using a rotisserie.

The New York Times even recently reported about Greenberg turkeys, a tradition of mail order smoked turkey that comes from a place in east Texas along the Louisiana border that has been selling for almost 100 years.

In addition to the ChinatownLA turkey options, you can find free range turkeys, or even heritage turkeys, which need to be ordered in advance from local outlets such as Bristol Farms, Whole Foods, etc. But in closing, here is an up close ChinatownLA thanksgiving turkey ready to eat.