A vendor sells imported turkey in a Beijing market for home roasting. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Many restaurants in Chinese cities offer a holiday-style dinner on Thanksgiving - and often on the weekend after. Some also offer turkey dinners you can take home, either piping hot or ready to cook. Markets like Beijing's Sanyuanli offer imported US and Canadian turkey by the kilogram for home roasting - if you have a big enough oven.

At Opposite House, Hu had been responsible for the take-away turkey dinners now for several years, a feast he enjoys making rich with tradition.

His stuffing, for example, is made with pecans, onion and sage, a match he says is perfect for the season and combines well with turkey.

"Sage in particular has been known for its culinary and medicinal use. Onion as everyone is aware is very fragrant. Other ingredients are combined with pecan, sage and onion and are put inside the turkey, which then is roasted for three hours."

After roasting, his kitchen crew takes out the stuffing and combines it with chunks of baguette bread (not cornbread) and milk, which is then shaped into a long tube or circle and wrapped in aluminum foil for 15 more minutes of baking.