Where to Buy a Turkey in Bangkok or How I Battled this Big Ass Bird and Won

Happy Thanksgiving, Bangkok!



I'm delighted to report that it is not excessively hard to find a turkey in Bangkok for Thanksgiving, as I discovered for my Canadian Thanksgiving party feast I had in October—nor is it stupidly expensive. Thanks to the most useful Facebook group for expats in Bangkok, Desperately Seeking Bangkok, I was given great tips from da hood to host the most epic dinner party of my life with the most butterlicious bird to ever enter my mouth. If you are desperately searching for a place to pick one up either for Canadian or American Thanksgiving or Christmas try these recommendations below.

Did you know that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different date than Americans?

 If this sounds like an obvious knowledge nugget, you need to back.right.up, (hoser). To my chagrin it was obviously not obvious to most of the Europeans I had invited to my dinner (if you're Canadian I'm sure you have suffered at the repeated stings of the world's ignorance). The Canadian day is a day of munificence  to celebrate the end of the harvest season the second weekend of October. Whereas the Americans celebrate as a historic symbol of cooperation between the Native Americans and the pilgrims at the end of November. Boom. Knowledge. 





Where to find the turkey: Tops Supermarket
After searching far and wide I found my butterball baby at Tops Robinson Srinakarin at Asoke. It cost a little less than 3000 Baht. I was told that you could find turkeys at Villa Market but for Canadian Thanksgiving I checked at Villa on Sukumvit Soi 11 and I was sorely disappointed.

Warning: I'm not sure if all Tops carries turkeys. I went to Tops Central Silom and they did not have them.

Check the map here for your closest locations.

Cranberry Sauce & Turkey Cooking Supplies: Villa Market
You can find turkey basters, oven thermometers, aluminum tins for the oven and basically everything you could possibly need to cook the shit out of your turkey. I was also able to find canned cranberry sauce at Villa Market Sukumvit Soi 11 (but not gravy..).

Check the map here for Villa Market locations

The Result
This was the first time I had ever touched, let alone cooked a turkey. I enlisted the forces of my French and Canadian friend and it got ugly. We were all turkey cooking virgins but that did not stop us attacking the hell out of this bird with tubs of butter and youtube video intelligence being consulted every 2 minutes ("Oh, there is  plastic bag of guts inside its ass, wtf!"). Being a weekday vegan, this was especially gruelling.

In the end, we hosted a whopping 27 people in an epic potluck dinner of friends from around Bangkok. Being away from my family on my favourite holiday was not easy, but when you're an expat your friends become your new family and they fill those heart gaps with love, fun and food! If you're away from home this American Thanksgiving, I wish you the best of luck with your turkey fest and if you're on a budget or not uber rich, a potluck is the best way to go. You can invite as many people as you want to share in the festivities.

If you have any tips of where you bought your turkey and supplies around Bangkok please share! Happy Thanksgiving, World!


My precious. Our relationship is sweet and tender..



Then..Horror is unleashed from its pink terrible flesh!! 

A battle to the death. I'm not proud of what we had to do.. Sadly we now suffer from PTSD (post-turkey stress disorder)


The kill is well received. 27 people in an epic feast. First Thanksgiving hosting of my life is a great success (Borat accent*). Everyone cooked amazing food too from around the world with the likes of tarte au chocolat, some pasta dish from Vienna, butterfilled mashed potatoes (french touch again), homemade Indian curry and so much more. 

And what better way to dance off your butterball booty than with a night of dancing? Legendary! Happy Thanksgiving or whatever holiday it is that requires big ass birds!