Although I’ve lived in the US most of my adult life, I never fully embraced Thanksgiving. Don’t take me wrong, I think it’s a terrific holiday. A truly American, non-religious holiday, solely about family and friends enjoying each other’s company, cooking and eating a big meal, and giving thanks for what they have. Our family celebrated the date in the traditional manner many times over the years because we are in the US, our daughter is American, and sometimes we just felt like going all out with the celebration. Not this year, though. This year I really didn’t feel like cooking that elaborate, highly caloric and not exactly tasty meal. Too much hassle. So we just decided to eat out with our daughter and her boyfriend and went to Fogo de Chão, in Beverly Hills. That’s a traditional Brazilian steakhouse chain found in several big cities in the US, where servers dressed as “gauchos’ come around to your table with endless skewers of different meats until you’ve had enough. They also have a fabulous salad bar and several Brazilian side dishes. Oh, today they even had turkey and all the usual thanksgiving side dishes, but we weren’t interested. The place was packed and very festive. We had a blast, ate delicious food, drank Brazilian “caipirinhas” and, best of all, when we finished the meal there were no dishes to clean, no leftovers to store, and no unpleasant feeling of having eaten too many carbs. Something tells me this will become a Thanksgiving tradition in our family. I didn’t take my camera so these shots were taken with my iPhone.

Fogo de Chão, in Beverly Hills.

Restaurant row, Beverly Hills.

The restaurant’s door with the map of Brazil carved in the middle.

The crowded dining room.

The gaucho serving meat,

Nice view of Rodeo Drive, on the way back home.

The sun was beginning to set as we drove down Wilshire Boulevard.