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of fried pheasant, the plates seemingly bottomless."

Get Manikowski's detailed recipe, featuring leeks and parsnips or olives and plums, on globalgourmet.com.

"A whole roasted pheasant is not only a surprising switch at Thanksgiving, replacing the traditional turkeyjust for a changebut its unique presentation, actually a little weird-looking, adds to the festivities," says Manikowski. The weirdness comes from cutting slits in the skin and stuffing them with leeks and parsnips. "After roasting, it appears a bit like it might have died of leprosy but don't let your guests razz you, it'll taste great and they'll beg for more," he says.

Duck
Another type of fowl that can serve two to three people for a festive main course is duck.

At the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, Calif., chef Jason Miller has done slow-roasted Sonoma duck, which he serves with foie gras, bread pudding and cider-glazed pippin apples with toasted hazelnuts.

David Lentz, chef at Opaline in Los Angeles, suggests a slow-roasted duck breast, stuffed with walnuts and fennel and served with black kale ravioli and butternut squash puree.

Gugino prefers it stuffed with chopped apple, onion, celery, bay leaves and a cinnamon stick and laid on a bed of chopped onion, celery and apple in a roasting pan.

He recommends Pekin duck, which is the easiest type to find. "It has a mild flavor, but this can be cranked up by letting the duck sit in the refrigerator, unwrapped, for up to four days," he says. "Not only does this produce a gamier flavor but the evaporated moisture allows the skin to become crisper."

While many game birds and roasts can be found in your local grocery store, you may have trouble finding squab, duck or some of the other more exotic meats locally unless you live in a cosmopolitan area. However, exoticmeats.com in Seattle offers everything from duck to rabbit to rattlesnake for purchase online with shipping in time for your holiday dinner.

"Replacing the turkey on Thanksgiving with salmon, fresh ham or duck not only gives you something different to talk about at the dinner table (instead of lying to mom about how good her turkey was), it provides you with a bonus afterward: a week without turkey leftovers," says Gugino.

Learn more about this author, Karyn Campbell.
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