Christmas Dinner Worldwide
Christmas dinner is the primary meal traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In many ways the meal is similar to a standard Sunday dinner. Traditionally, Christmas feasts have been luxurious and abundant. King John of England, in the year 1213, ordered about 3,000 capons, 1,000 salted eels, 400 hogs, 100 pounds of almonds and 24 casks of wine for his Christmas feast.
Christmas dinner differs from place to place around the world. Below are some traditional Christmas dinners in various countries.
Australia
Christmas dinner in Australia tends to be very similar to the traditional English version. However due to Christmas falling in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere's summer, meats such as boar, turkey and chicken are sometimes served cold. Barbecues are also a popular way of avoiding the heat of the oven. Seafood such as prawns (shrimp) is common, as are barbecued cuts of steak or chicken breasts, drumsticks and wings. In summer, Australians are also fond of Pavlova, a dessert composed of berries atop a baked meringue. Fruits of the season include mangoes and cherries.
Austria
Christmas cuisine in Austria is similar to that of Germany. Christmas Eve is the celebration of the end of the pre-Christmas fast. Christmas Eve is historically the day that the tree is decorated and lit with real candles, so that the Christ Santa may visit. Christmas Day is a national holiday in Austria and most Austrians spend the day feasting with their family. Fried carp, Sacher torte and Christmas cookies ( lebkuchen and sterne) are eaten, and many other chocolate delicacies including edible Christmas ornaments. Christmas dinner is usually Goose, Ham served with Gluhwein, Rumpunsch, and Chocolate Mousse.
Brazil
In Brazil, the Christmas meal is quite a feast,( served in the evening on the 24th of December) offering large quantities of food, such as a wide variety of dishes which include fresh vegetables (including Couve a Mineira ¨C Kale, highly seasoned with garlic), luscious fruits and Brazil nuts. Accompanying these are bowls of zesty, colorful rice and platters filled with ham and fresh salad (sometimes cold potato salad is also served) served with roast turkey. Also in some parts of Brazil features roast pork, roast Chicken and fish. Other Christmas items include a variety of desserts such as lemon tart, Nuts pie, chocolate cake and also Panettone.
Czech Republic
A traditional Christmas meal in the Czech Republic is fried carp and potato salad. This tradition started after excessive increase of fishpond cultivation in the Baroque era. Many households also prepare a great variety of special Christmas biscuits to offer to Christmas visitors. These preparations take place many days prior to the feast and take a long time to decorate with the remainder usually ending up on a Christmas tree as a decoration.
Denmark
In Denmark the traditional Christmas meal served on December 24th consists of either roasted pork loin with crackling, pork, goose, duck or different combinations of these. This is served along with potatoes (some of which are caramelised), red cabbage and plenty of gravy. It is followed with a dessert of Risalamande, rice pudding mixed with chopped almonds, sugar, vanilla and whipped cream and served with cherry sauce or strawberry sauce, often with a whole almond hidden inside, and the lucky finder of which is entitled to an extra present, referred to as the almond gift. Christmas drinks are Gl?gg and traditional Christmas beers, specially brewed for the Christmas season. These usually have a high alcohol percentage.
Finland
Christmas table is the name of the traditional food board served at Christmas in Finland. It contains many different dishes, most of them typical for the season. The main dish is usually a large Christmas ham, which is eaten with mustard or bread along with the other dishes. Fish is also served (often lutefisk and gravlax), and with the ham there are also laatikot, casseroles with liver and raisins, as well as potatoes, rice, and carrots. The traditional Christmas beverage is either alcoholic or non-alcoholic mulled wine.
France
In France and some other French-speaking countries, a reveillon is a long dinner, and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word reveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond. Common dishes include goose or duck liver (foie gras); oysters; smoked salmon; lobster; roasted duck, goose or turkey with chestnuts and stuffing; and, for dessert, a traditional Christmas cake called "La Buche de Noel" (Christmas log), a cream cake that comes in different flavours (chocolate, hazelnut...) and which has the shape of a log. The beverage served is traditionally Champagne.
Iceland
The Christmas dinner is eaten on Christmas Eve at 18:00. The main dish varies much between families. The most common is probably Hamborgarhryggur, which is a kind of pork rib steak. Other common dishes are roast game like reindeer, ptarmigan and smoked lamb, and a great variety of steaks such as Duck, Turkey which are also eaten by many on Christmas Day or at other occasions during the Christmas period.
Mexico
In Mexico the Christmas dinner, eaten on Christmas Eve evening, varies with region. Common dishes are various fruits (oranges, lime, tropical fruits) and salad (composed of several ingredients including beets, bananas, and peanuts). In several states, however, stews are made: either pozole, made of pork or beef and hominy in red chile sauce; or menudo made with beef tripe and hominy also in chile sauce. In the center of Mexico, bacalao (codfish) and romeritos (rosemary) prepared with mole are popular dishes. In the north of Mexico the most traditional Christmas dish is tamales served with sauce over them and sometimes cream and a bit of crumbly fresh cheese. There are also sweet tamales: corn with raisins or sweet beans, or strawberry flavored. Stuffed turkey or ham are also common.
New Zealand
The Christmas customs of New Zealand are largely identical to the United Kingdom due to its status as a former British colony, the ethnic Caucasian population being almost exclusively British or Irish in descent, and the still pervasive British cultural influence on the country courtesy of constant movements of people between New Zealand and the UK. Christmas dinner consists of roast turkey, roast vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce. Alternatively, roast ham may be offered as a main course. One important exception from British dinner is the absence of goose, as it is not raised in New Zealand and the MAF prohibits importing foreign meat products. Desserts are almost without exception mince pies or Christmas pudding (or plum pudding) and brandy butter, inherited from British practices. Enjoyment of non-British Christmas foods, such as stollen from Germany, B?che de No?l from France, and panettone from Italy, was virtually unheard of in New Zealand until the late 1990s and is still extremely rare today. Due to New Zealanders celebrating Christmas in the summer, it is also common to barbecue, and eat seasonal fruit such as cherries and strawberries.
Philippines
The Christmas dinner in the Philippines is called Noche Buena by locals. This usually comes after the entire family has attended a late evening mass called Misa de Gallo, or "midnight mass" in Spanish. The centerpiece of a Filipino Christmas dinner is often the Jamon or Christmas ham, which is usually a cured leg of pork ham. It is usually served with Queso de Bola, an Edam cheese ball served popularly during the Christmas season in the Philippines. Middle-class and affluent families tend to prepare a gracious dinner, including lechon or spit-roasted pig, lumpia, escabeche, adobo, rellenong manok (stuffed chicken), mechado (beef stew), caldereta (spicy beef stew) and other popular Filipino fare. Lower-income families would tend to prepare a dinner of much cheaper proportions but nevertheless it is always a Philippine custom to spend more on what a family would consume on a regular dinner for the Noche Buena. The dinner would usually be accompanied with "Tsokolate" or hot chocolate, which is Filipino in style since it is made with pure, locally-grown cacao beans. Some Filipino families prefer hot chocolate made from "tableas" or chocolate tablets.
The importance of the family in Filipino culture is highlighted during the Noche Buena since members from even the extended branches of the family are always expected to come and join in the celebration. Filipino families prefer to exchange Christmas presents right after the dinner, which is different from the usual Western culture of opening presents on the morning of Christmas Day.
United Kingdom and Ireland
Christmas dinner in both the United Kingdom and Ireland is usually eaten in the afternoon.
The dinner usually consists of roast turkey or chicken (although other types of poultry such as goose, duck, or pheasant are common alternatives depending on the number of diners); mashed potatoes; roast potatoes; vegetables (usually boiled or steamed), particularly brussels sprouts; stuffing; chipolatas or pigs in blankets; cranberry sauce; with dessert of Christmas pudding (or plum pudding) and brandy butter.
A common tradition in the United Kingdom is to use the turkey's wishbone. Two people pull opposite ends of the wishbone until it breaks, with the person holding the larger fragment of the bone making a wish.
The dessert of a British Christmas Dinner is almost always Christmas Pudding. Mince pies, a Christmas Cake or a Yule Log may also be eaten.
United States
Many Christmas customs in the United States have been adopted from those in the United Kingdom, although customs from other countries are also found.[4] Accordingly, the mainstays of the British table are also found in the United States: roast turkey (or other poultry), beef, ham, or pork; stuffing or dressing, corn, squash, green beans, and mashed potatoes are common. Dessert often reflects the ethnic background of the participants, but examples include pumpkin pie, marzipan, pfeffernusse, sugar cookies, panettone, fruitcake, apple pie, carrot cake, and mince pie. Children often help their parents in the kitchen making the meal and often get special sweet rewards, like popcorn bals, gingerbread houses, and candy canes, the last usually munched on as they are hung on the tree.
|