Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day Celebrations

Yesterday was Memorial Day in America, a day when we celebrate our armed forces, remembering those killed in past wars as well as prisoners of war and those missing in action. It's also a day when a lot of Americans get together with family and friends for cookouts. My whole family, several states away, had a barbeque. And we did too! I write here about my experiences in an intercultural marriage and that's mostly about my adjustment to the Pakistani influence in my life, but my husband and his family could write a blog all about the exact opposite situation - intercultural marriage and dealing with the weird American influence in your otherwise Pakistani life. For heaven's sake, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law tasted a hot dog for the very first time yesterday. Does it get an more American than hot dogs on Memorial Day?

Actually our whole day was an exercise in the American experience. We all started the day with yard work. We're building a planter in our backyard and it's requiring everyone to pitch in. Then we all went for a dip in the inflatable pool - it was 95 degrees outside during all that yard work, after all.

After that we fired up the grill and then came a little. Pakistani influence. Dulhan spiced up half the ground beef with Pakistani spices because ahe thought plain burgers would be too boring. But don't worry, the hot dogs were unadulterated :-) We also had potato chips, pickles, lemonade and watermelon.

Then, as we all munched on our mostly-American fare, I put on a movie for us. What better way to cap off a day of classic Americana - Superman! Truth, justice and the American way!

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday!
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6 comments:

Sara said...

Grilling is one of A's favorite American things to do! His family has a grill, but they only use it for grilling corn, so he'd never truly "cooked out" before me...this whole "beer in my hand, [veggie] hotdogs on the grill, [vegetarian] baked beans and potato chips on the table" thing is very exciting for him! We're buying a new gas grill soon, which we should be able to use in our new apartment (moving in August!)...until then, we drag our charcoal and picnic stuff down to the park at the end of the corner and use the oooold crusty public grill.

Anonymous said...

Very cute! I think it would be fantastic if Dulhan would ever consider a guest post from her perspective!

P.S. My mil calls hot dogs "gori kabobs". Sigh :)

Aishah said...

My DH and in laws love grilling, but it usually doesn't include hot dogs :-(

@Anonymous-Your Mil is cool, "gori kabobs", is really funny! I love the idea of a guest post too, it would be very interesting.

AM/Beauty Junkie said...

Random question, but is M's family strict with the Halal meat situation? Meaning, did you get Halal hot dogs or Kosher hot dogs or just plain old American hot dogs? I ask because Halal hot dogs have just become more available here in NY!

You might have discussed this in an earlier post, forgive me if you have and I'm just asking about something you already talked about, LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm curious about the hot dogs too. M's mother wouldn't eat jhatka would she?

The Gori Wife said...

You're right, M's mother would not eat jhatka meat. We buy kosher hot dogs, and the rest of our meat comes from the local zabihah butcher. Chachoo and Dulhan also eat zabihah-only or kosher meat.