Clearly in the context of this song, turkey is seen as a high-class affair (which the Lady, in her rebelliousness, doesn’t want, preferring the blue-collar Irish stew instead.) That was from the 40’s, I think (not sure) so I guess it was classier to have turkey back then.
My Thanksgiving dinner had two turkeys, one cooked in the traditional way and the other taken to an Indian restaurant and cooked Tandoori-style, extremely spicy and blackened to a crisp on the outside. (This was at my uncle’s house, and he is fond of doing unorthodox things like that.) It wasn’t bad but was way too spicy for most of my family.
> This doesn’t even remotely answer your question, but I wish to point out that
> military chow halls serve turkey several times a week all through the year. And
> it’s not processed, it’s honest-to-God roasted turkey.
Although this has nothing strictly to do with fine restaurants, I suspect turkey is fairly common in institutional cafeterias (i.e., work, school, military, etc.) One or more turkeys are cooked just like you would do for Thanksgiving. They are sliced right there at the serving counter. There are enough people to insure that nearly all the turkeys served will be consumed. The amount left over to be thrown out (or perhaps reused for later meals) is small enough that it’s worth it to go through the trouble of roasting turkeys.
I worked at the Hilton Hotel and one of my side jobs as a Room Service Waiter was to carve the whole roast turkey that we offered three times a week on the free bar/lounge buffet during happy hour. We used to snag bits of the leftover carcasses all the time. I got tired of turkey real quick.
That happy hour buffet was the best deal in town, even considering the overpriced drinks. You could go in during Happy hour buy a draft and depending on what day it was, eat all you could of free carved turkey, chicken wings, meatballs, pizza, veggies, cheese, nachos, mini burritos, etc.
I love turkey - the white meat, that is (true, the white meat is dry, but that’s why you pour gravy over it!) I’d love to find it served somewhere regularly. When we had family dinners, there were always left overs, and tradionally we ate early (around 3 pm), then in the evening, we had hot turkey sandwhiches - yummy - white meat on white bread with hot gravy poured over. Sometimes there’d be enough left to make cold turkey sandwiches the next day (on white bread with mayonnaise). Mother would then make turkey soup from the remains. In Sept. hubby and I moved 500 miles away from family, so we were faced with roasting a turkey for just the two of us and eating in front of the tv as usual or going to a restaurant. Eating Thanksgiving dinner in front of the tv just didn’t sit right with us, so we went to al restaurant and the food was very good. (But, damn, no candied sweet potatoes.) We ate around 6, which is early for us, then around 9, I had a craving for a hot turkey sandwich. Next day, I suggested to hubby that I get a turkey; he said turkey is just for Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas – he had not interest in it otherwise. I agree the turkey breast alone is not the same. So I, too, would love to find a place that serves turkey.