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Nibbles and Sips Around Town ~ Mitsitam Serves Up Special Thanksgiving Menu

Jordan Wright
November 18, 2016

The entrance to NMAI

The entrance to NMAI – photo credit Jordan Wright

If your plans are not yet etched in stone for Thanksgiving Day, you may want to consider doing something a bit different this year. Our small family did one year, when we found ourselves gathered outside of our normal Northeast coastal locale. We still talk about the year we were all in Miami and decided to cook up a Cuban feast – turkey with mojito seasoning, black beans with ham hocks, a huge platter of tropical fruits, rice pilaf, hearts of palm salad and tres leches cake for dessert. That year’s holiday celebration is fondly, and amusingly, retold to this day. So, why not try something new this year and add it to your collective memories?

Here’s an outstanding option you may not have considered, or even known about. Mitsitam, the award-winning restaurant in the National Museum for the American Indian, is doing a complete Thanksgiving dinner to eat in or take out. They tried it last year and it was a huge success. It dovetails with the free three-day dance festival featuring the Northwest Coast, and will be held at the museum November 24th through the 26th to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. How much fun would that be?

The pond planted with native species at the museum

The pond planted with native species at the museum – photo credit Jordan Wright

To give you an update, recently Freddie Bitsoie (Navaho) has taken over the Executive Chef position at the restaurant since former Exec Chef Jerome Grant has moved over to Sweet Home Café in the Museum of African American History and Culture. Bitsoie, who has been at the forefront of Native American foods for over ten years, has worked on a wealth of projects with universities and museums including the prestigious Heard Museum in Los Angeles. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Scottsdale, AZ with further studies in Cultural Anthropology and Art History at the University of New Mexico, Bitsoie uses creative interpretation, coupled with years of research in culinary history, to develop his indigenous recipes.

Mitsitam Executive Chef, Freddie Bitsoie shows off some of his Thanksgiving dishes - photo courtesy NMAI

Mitsitam Executive Chef, Freddie Bitsoie shows off some of his Thanksgiving dishes – photo courtesy NMAI

Among other honors and accolades, Bitsoie was the winner of the museum’s Living Earth Festival Native Chef Cooking Competition in 2013, and was named “a rising star in the constellation of young chefs” by Native Peoples magazine in 2011. He has been featured on an episode of PBS’s Lidia Celebrates America and is working on his own show Rezervations Not Required, about indigenous cuisines around the world.

At a recent press gathering, I tasted a number of the dishes offered for this Thanksgiving feast and they are indeed unique and delicious. They are all inspired by tribal foods from the Great Plains, Meso-America, South America, the Northern Woodlands and the Northwest Coast. If you’re adventuresome, this could be the most memorable Thanksgiving you and your guests have ever experienced.

Sweet Red Chile and Orange Rubbed Free Range Turkey with pan gravy and spiced cranberry sauce - photo courtesy of NMAI

Sweet Red Chile and Orange Rubbed Free Range Turkey with pan gravy and spiced cranberry sauce – photo courtesy of NMAI

Here’s how it works. If you choose take out, you only need cook the turkey in your home, all else has been prepared for you. (See appetizers, sides, salads, gravy and desserts listed below.) If you opt for eat in, and I have been told whole families come, some laying out their best tablecloths, you will relax over your meal in the cafeteria overlooking the gardens and lovely water features. Imagine. No clean up! Just a relaxing day with friends and family. Bring as many as you like. Afterwards take in the dance festival or a stroll along the Mall.

Cedar Smoked Salmon and assorted side dishes - photo courtesy of NMAI

Cedar Smoked Salmon and assorted side dishes – photo courtesy of NMAI

The take home menu serves 6-8 people and ranges from $180.00 – $195.00 depending on your entrée. Or you can just order these dishes separately to add to your at-home dinner.

If you opt for the whole meal deal choose one of three entrees – Sweet Red Chile and Orange Rubbed Free Range Turkey with pan gravy and spiced cranberry sauce; Sumac Crusted Bison Tenderloin; or Juniper Glazed West Coast Salmon. Then build your meal around that with two large side orders of the following options – Brown Sugar and Butternut Squash Soup sweetened with Maple and topped with Candied Pumpkin Seeds or North Atlantic Clam Soup with Sunchokes and Leeks. Appetizers are Local Blue Crab Cakes or Wild Rice Baked Fritters with queso fresco and blueberries. Sides are numerous and diverse but I mention just a few of your choices – Roast Beets with Sage; a cold salad of Hominy with Fire Roasted Peppers, Onions, Lardons, and Watercress with a Lime Vinaigrette; Mashed Potatoes with Walnuts and Agave; Braised Kale with Shallots and Apricots and. A half sheet of Blue Cornbread comes with each whole meal order, as does one pint of Cranberry and Pineapple Sauce and dessert of either Apple Cobbler or Classic Pumpkin Pie.

To place an order call Miriam Menkir at 202 633-7044 or email [email protected]

The National Museum of the American Indian, Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20013. nmai.si.edu/visit/washington/

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