The United States has a number of timeworn culinary traditions: baseball games and peanuts, the Fourth of July with its barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, and Thanksgiving, laden with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie in a holiday centered entirely around paying homage to one meal.

This year, while many people will continue this typical type of observance, some UCLA students will go against the Thanksgiving grain, opting for a less orthodox holiday celebration.

From exotic foods to Thanksgiving in foreign lands, students are discovering unusual alternatives to the traditional turkey feast.

One trend is dismissing the turkey altogether, as a growing interest in different dishes has recently surfaced. For some, such as vegetarians and vegans, this practice reflects their lifestyle.

Melissa Felix, a fourth-year neuroscience student and vegetarian, finds the yearly meal with her relatives to be difficult.

“There’s an enormous amount of food there, but I usually don’t get to really eat anything because it’s all turkey and turkey-based,” Felix said. “It’s really hard, especially over the holidays, to find something vegan or vegan-based that you can have.”

Felix, however, has discovered her own alternative with Tofurkey.

“It’s amazing what tofu can taste like,” she said. “It’s just like having turkey slices.”

Outlets such as Whole Foods Market have catered particularly to the needs of vegetarians and vegans, offering a multitude of non-meat products. These include Tofurkeys and also a new addition, a tofu-free vegan Gardein field roast that has quickly gained popularity, even with meat eaters.

According to Ashley Gibbons, Whole Foods marketing supervisor, the field roast was made to taste a lot like poultry and chicken and have a similar consistency, without being made with tofu.

Devoted carnivores, however, needn’t feel left out. Whole Foods also looks to satiate their palettes with organic turkeys and more unfamiliar Thanksgiving entrees such as pistachio mashed potatoes and orange cranberry chutney.

Gibbons attributes these newer selections to an increased interest in more exotic options.

“The Thanksgiving meal is getting broader, especially in Southern California, which has a more alternative taste that is ahead in food trends,” she said.

Gibbons also noticed that many families were mixing the usual Thanksgiving options with their own cultural dishes.

“There are a lot of fusions going on now between cultures for Thanksgiving,” she said.

While mixing tamales and sushi may seem off the deep end for some, the traditional holiday dinner itself isn’t truly authentic.

The pilgrims back in 1621 never actually ate many of the dishes Americans have come to cherish. Instead, they partook in varied types of meat such as venison, wild fowl and fish, and were left without access to our now beloved mashed potatoes, pies and cranberry sauce.

While food remains the most prominent aspect of the Thanksgiving dinner, many students also celebrate the holiday with more interesting activities besides simply scarfing through their fifth helping of pumpkin pie.

While some may be turned away by such zealous adherence to wacky holiday traditions, other students find themselves more disappointed by a lack of holiday spirit, especially those who are abroad during Thanksgiving.

Rachel Nelson, a second-year biology student, currently resides in England, a country not exactly hospitable to the pilgrims’ cause.

“The British aren’t too big on stocking turkeys, pumpkins or cranberry sauce in their grocery stores, so that’s the main disadvantage to being in a country that doesn’t celebrate the holiday,” she said.

Nelson still plans to observe Thanksgiving, despite the limited resources.

“None of my flatmates are very adept chefs, and we only have one pan, one pot and one baking dish, so it will definitely be an adventure,” she said.

Still, not every new tradition is a break from the old, as some students discovered in taking a more charitable route to the holiday.

The National Society of Collegiate Scholars recently celebrated Thanksgiving on Nov. 15 at Angel’s Flight, a local shelter for runaway teens.

Janet Lee, NSCS community service chair and fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, found the program through the volunteer Web site L.A. Works and started a new tradition for the society with its first dinner. Society volunteers each brought a Thanksgiving dish, settling down for a more personal meal with the teens.

“They’re probably not going to be home for Thanksgiving, so for these teens, that was the only Thanksgiving they’re going to have,” Lee said.