Although Thanksgiving is still a few days away, some people in the D.C. region are already thinking about how to avoid the foods that they dread.
Some of the holiday culinary traditions are a bit divisive, a new AP-NORC poll found. For one, just three in 10 people who will celebrate Thanksgiving this year identified turkey as their favorite item on the table.
Stuffing or dressing, and then mashed potatoes, are the second- and third-ranked favorites, the poll found.
Outside of Tysons Corner Center on Tuesday afternoon, Jessica described turkey as one of her least favorite Thanksgiving foods. She’s from Germany, and said that if turkey ends up on her plate, it usually remains there until the plate gets thrown away.
Though she doesn’t enjoy the turkey itself, she said her favorite Thanksgiving item is stuffing. As for the “sweet potatoes with marshmallows,” Jessica said that’s an item on the table she considers eating just to make someone at the table happy.
Greg, meanwhile, usually has a lot of Greek-inspired cuisine on Thanksgiving. His mother-in-law does a bunch of the cooking.
“If she does it well, it’s great,” Greg said. “If she doesn’t, it’s not so good. … She overcooks the turkey, and it’s very dry when we eat it. And so we all sit around and tell her how much we love it.”
He said the family uses gravy to address the issue, noting that they “suck it up.” Others turn to cranberry sauce, an item that 2 in 10 people who celebrate the holiday say “wouldn’t be missed,” according to the AP-NORC poll.
But Megan described the cranberry sauce as “the loser on the table.”
“I just don’t put it on my plate, or you put the obligatory dollop, make people feel better, but you don’t eat it,” she said, explaining that they’re a “sides family.”
As for sides that combine marshmallows and sweet potatoes, the poll found that one-third of people would prefer a dish without marshmallows, but 26% of people want them included.
Shelby Brown tries to avoid the potato salad, but said that sometimes, she pretends to eat it to keep everyone at the table happy. If it ends up on her plate, “it goes in the trash,” she said.
Anna said her least favorite Thanksgiving dish is green beans.
“I just refuse to take them,” she said. “I don’t like green vegetables; I’d rather have the sweet things.”
She’s also opposed to the “fake meat meatballs,” but only described their taste as “fake.” Her family usually makes corn pudding, though, which she said is served with dinner even though it could be classified as a dessert.
