Today I’m thankful for: Imitation Crab Meat.

Growing up in a Muslim family, my brothers and sisters and I were taught never to eat crabs, lobster, or any other shellfish because they are “scavengers” or “bottom feeders”. So we didn’t. Now that I’m adult and Christian, I can eat crab, shrimp, lobster, or any other shellfish I want. For a long time, I ate the crab meat in pasta salad, one of my favorite cold summertime dishes, always thinking of my upbringing and how tasty it was, eating this forbidden meat. Only I didn’t know it wasn’t crab meat. When I found out it was imitation crab meat, I was floored. But shock soon turned to bewilderment: what was I eating?

I was eating what’d I’d been eating all my life, rather than pork or beef: fish!