The following provide just a taster of favourite festive foods, from around the world:
Austria
Austrians
celebrate Christmas in grand style with a Christmas Eve supper of carp
simmered in a ginger and beer-flavoured sauce and seasonal vegetables,
followed by Topfenpalatschinken (sweet cheese crepes topped with an
apricot caramel sauce) for dessert. The traditional fare on Christmas
Day is roast goose with all the trimmings.
Australia
Australian
Christmas dinners vary from state to state and from one group of people
to another. In general, however, traditional Australian festive fare
consists of roast turkey, with ham and/or pork. Christmas pudding
(containing a lucky token) and mince pies are also served for afters.
Bulgaria
As
with many other European countries the main Christmas meal is enjoyed
on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day. A typical Bulgarian
Christmas dinner consists of twelve different meat-free dishes such as
beans, nuts, dried fruit (usually plums), cakes and Banitza (cheese and
spinach filo parcels).
Brazil
In Brazil, chicken,
turkey, pork and ham are all popular meats for the main Christmas meal,
served with rice, salad and dried fruits.
Czech Republic
Christmas
is celebrated on Christmas Eve, in the Czech Republic. Following a
typical starter of cod roe soup, a main course of carp or Wiener
Schnitzel is served with potato salad including carrots, peas, celery,
onions, eggs, pickles and mayonnaise, or with sauerkraut and dumplings.
Linzer (sweet vanilla flavoured delicacies) are popular for dessert.
Finland
Codfish
cooked in a creamy, spicy sauce, served with boiled or mashed potatoes,
and roast pig, ham and vegetables are typical Christmas dishes, in
Finland.
France
In France, Christmas fare varies from
region to region. The Parisians, for instance, are fond of oysters and
foie gras for their main Christmas meal, whereas in Alsace, goose is
favourite. In other regions including Burgundy, Christmas food is
similar to a traditional British Christmas dinner with turkey, cranberry
sauce and chestnut stuffing, followed by Christmas pudding and mince
pies. But the French tend to take their festive fare one step further,
with a mouth-watering array of sweet pastries and petits fours.
Germany
Christmas
Eve, fondly referred to as “dickbauch” (fat stomach) is when the
Germans gather together to enjoy their main Christmas meal. German and
Austrian Christmas dinners are very similar, consisting typically of
gebackener karpfen (carp), or roast goose served with potatoes, cabbage,
parsnips and pickled vegetables. Sweets include Christbaumgerback,
sweet, sugary dough delights cut into festive shapes and baked until
crisp, as well as Stollen, the traditional German Christmas cake.
Greece
Pork is the most popular meat for a Greek Christmas feast, served with sweet loaves called Christopsomo (Christ Bread).
Greenland
Christmas
treats, in Greenland range from lamb to a dish of small auks,
(seabirds, wrapped in sealskin until they decompose before they are
ready for cooking), or whale steaks. After the meal Mattak (whale skin
with a strip of blubber inside) is passed around the guests.
Italy
A
traditional Italian seven-course Christmas dinner (Cennone), may
consist of antipasto, anchovies, various fish, pasta especially
spaghetti, meat (only occasionally), salads, fresh broccoli, fruits,
cheese, sweets and magnificent cakes and pastries that vary from region
to region.
Malta
Turkey and plum pudding are
traditionally served for dinner on Christmas Day, in Malta. Timpana
(pastries filled with minced meat macaroni) are also popular.
New Zealand
Barbecued
meats such as pork, lamb or venison served with roast vegetables
including sweet potato and pumpkin, salads and coleslaw are all popular
Christmas fare, in New Zealand. For pudding, hot fruit compote with
custard and ice cream is a “hot” Christmas favourite among New
Zealanders!
Poland
Christmas in Poland is celebrated
on Christmas Eve (Wagilia) with a traditional feast of twelve different
dishes, each representing a month of the year. Oplatek (Christmas wafers
or sacred offerings) are also shared. Fish dishes, especially herring,
pike and carp are generally served instead of meat, at Christmas time.
Other Polish festive favourites include fish or mushroom soup, or red
borscht (beetroot soup served with soured cream), sauerkraut with wild
mushrooms with pierogies (crescent-shaped, stuffed dumplings with a
variety of fillings), and kutia (a rich dried fruit compote) for
dessert.
Portugal
The Portuguese are partial to a
speciality dish called Bacalhau (dried salt cod). For dessert, Rabanadas
(bread soaked in wine, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and fried in
eggs) or Bolo Rei (a fruit cake with a topping of glazed fruit and
chopped nuts), are traditionally served at Christmas.
Scandinavia
The
focus, in Scandinavian countries, is on sweet foods more than on
savoury dishes. Pepparkakor (cinnamon and gingerbread biscuits) in the
shape of stars, moons, hearts, even pigs, are traditionally baked for
Christmas.
Sweden
In Sweden, the main celebratory
meal, consisting of pork, ham, fish (usually herring) and brown beans is
served on Christmas Eve, rather than on Christmas Day.
Spain
Similar
in many ways to Portugal, Spanish festive fare focuses on seafood.
White sea bass roasted in olive oil, onions and lemons and sprinkled
with breadcrumbs is a traditional Christmas dish. Almonds and marzipan
both feature prominently in most traditional Spanish Christmas
“puddings” and sweets. Turrón, (nougat made from toasted sweet almonds
and honey, similar to nut brittle) is particularly popular.
Ukraine
In
the Ukraine, it is customary to serve a special twelve-course supper,
on Christmas Eve. Traditional courses include borscht (beetroot soup),
various fish dishes, cabbage stuffed with millet, and dried fruit
compote topped with honey and crushed poppy seeds.
Christmas Dinner Past & Present
Did you know that…
•
In Britain, during Elizabethan times, the well-to-do would feast on
roast swan, peacock, boar’s head and goose, for Christmas dinner?
•
More and more people, in Britain today, are foregoing the traditional
Christmas dinner of turkey with all the trimmings, in favour of
vegetarian options such as chestnut patE, borscht, savoury strudel
parcels, chestnut stuffed mushrooms, cranberry sauce and walnuts, or
vegetarian Christmas lasagne?
• In some European countries,
including Slovakia and in the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas’s birthday,
December 6th, is also celebrated, with sweets pastries and goodies
handed out to children who have been particularly well-behaved,
throughout the year. Naughty brats are traditionally handed pieces of
coal, potatoes or onions!