Christmas is fast approaching and for people all over the world, this heralds the arrival of long-held food traditions. But just what counts as ‘traditional’ can be markedly different from one part of the globe to another.
Christmas is fast approaching and for people all over the world, this heralds the arrival of long-held food traditions. But just what counts as ‘traditional’ can be markedly different from one part of the globe to another.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the interesting Christmas foods across the world.
The land of the rising sun is also the land of quirky, quirky food traditions. In Japan, less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian and Christmas Day is NOT a national holiday.
Regardless, the custom of eating KFC for Christmas has prevailed since the 1970s. It began when KFC launched its ‘Kentucky for Christmas’ marketing campaign in 1974, with party buckets filled with fried chicken.
Chalk this up to one of life's strange mysteries, but in Japan, Christmas almost always means an order of a KFC bucket of fried chicken! — KFC MALAYSIA/instagram
KFC’s official explainer details that a foreign customer came to Tokyo over the Christmas period and ended up in KFC on Christmas Day as they were unable to find roast turkey. Allegedly, someone from the sales team heard the customer’s remark about eating fried chicken for Christmas and turned it into a marketing opportunity.
The concept caught on like wildfire and these days, many consumers book their Christmas party bucket – which typically includes eight pieces of fried chicken as well as side dishes like shrimp gratin and chocolate cake – well in advance – to avoid the long, serpentine queues that typically trail outside KFC outlets come Christmas Eve.
Suffice to say – if you go to Japan, nothing says Christmas quite like KFC!
Christmas is huge in the Philippines and the merry-making begins early on in the month. And there is little that is anticipated more than the heady Christmas Eve meal called Noche Buena.
The dishes that are the show-stoppers for Noche Buena showcase Philippines’ long colonial history and association with Spain, which has consequently deeply influenced its culinary culture.
In fact, the Spanish were said to have introduced more widespread consumption of pork to the Philippines as a means of encouraging the adoption of Christianity in the country, one of many moves that was successful, as the country now has a 90% Christian population.
This is evident in jamon, or ham, a byproduct of Spanish invasion that continues to remain a Christmas staple to this day, albeit with tropical innovations like pineapple-based glazes.
Lechon or a whole roast pig is a Christmas delicacy that Filipinos look forward to every year. — PIGSENYOR/Instagram
Lechon meanwhile is the dramatic diva of the Filipino Christmas table. The word ‘lechon’ comes from the Spanish word ‘leche’ which means ‘milk’. The name was originally ascribed because suckling pigs – which still drank their mother’s milk – were the animals of choice for this roast dish.
These days, a whole adult pig is utilised instead and is rotated over an open charcoal grill until the skin puffs up and crisps up beautifully. The pig is then whipped out to dazzle guests present for the hearty Christmas Eve meal.
Interestingly, traditional iterations of roasted pig probably existed in the Philippines pre-Spanish colonisation, but the name of the dish still remains – one of the vestiges of colonialism, even if just in name.
You might never have heard of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but that’s probably also because it is a tradition that is unique mostly to Italian-Americans.
The tradition of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve dates back to ancient Roman Catholic times. When Italians migrated to America in droves in the 19th and 20th centuries, they adapted it to the current iteration of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, presumably out of nostalgia for Italy and an old tradition.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is celebrated by Italian-Americans during Christmas and entails serving up seven different kinds of seafood dishes. — MELINA HAMMER/Instagram
The idea is simple: customarily seven different fish dishes are prepared for Christmas Eve although modern adaptations also include crustaceans and shellfish on the festive menu. Some popular menu items include baccala (salted cod fish), shrimp cocktail and stuffed calamari in tomato sauce.
In the United Kingdom, Christmas pudding harks back to medieval times when it started its life as a plum pottage served at the start of the meal. In the 14th century, this was often also called a plum pudding and essentially resembled a thick, slurry porridge made up of boiled figs, water, wine, almonds, raisins and honey.
In the 19th century, the term ‘Christmas pudding’ took off after the title bestowed in Eliza Acton’s best-selling cookbook, published in 1845.
In England, Christmas pudding has evolved from a thick porridge to a rich pudding over the centuries. — ROBYN PUGLIA/Instagram
The Christmas pudding is rife with Christian symbolism, including the holly which is typically garnished atop, which represents the crown of thorns associated with Jesus.
In the UK, Christmas pudding is normally made five weeks before Christmas and modern variants typically include raisins, dried currants, sultanas, walnuts, cinnamon and mixed spice, alongside traditional baking ingredients like flour and baking powder. The magic ingredient? Brandy – lots of it, which gives this steamed pudding a rich, flavourful punch.
To the whole world, the culinary symbol of Christmas is almost definitely a big, fat burnished golden turkey.
But the roast turkey is a relatively new addition to the British Christmas table. In fact, according to an article in the BBC, it only became a Christmas classic from the early 20th century onwards.
Earlier iterations of Christmas meals differed in England based on social class. The BBC article mentioned above illustrates how the wealthy Bishop of Salisbury sat down to a Christmas meal in 1406 that consisted of rabbits, piglets, swans, wild boar, sheep, ducks, oysters, conga eels and whelks – just to name a few.
In the UK, a roast turkey is now always associated with Christmas although its popularity only started in the early 20th century. — CLAUDIO SCHWARZ/Unsplash
The turkey meanwhile was introduced to England in 1526 by landowner William Strickland and was a hit with upper-crust Britons. In the 19th century, Charles Dickens wrote about roast turkey in his classic novel A Christmas Carol, published in 1843.
Dickens’ was credited with popularising a roast turkey Christmas dinner among the British middle and upper-crust but it was only in the 1930s when the roast turkey became a mainstay on the Christmas table, largely due to increased affordability.
These days, roast turkey is as essential to a British Christmas as Hanwoo beef is to Koreans. In fact, when I asked famed British food personality Nigella Lawson what her annual Christmas feast at home looks like, she said, “Every now and then people over here go, ‘Oh, do we have to have turkey?’ And I go, ‘No one has to have turkey, but it’s not Christmas if there isn’t turkey.’”
In Mexico, tamales have a rich and varied history and are thought to have originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 BC and were typically made to honour the Aztec god of sun and war as there was an ancient belief that corn was used to make humans.
Tamales are recognised as one of the oldest recipes in the world and have a special significance in Mexico during Christmas, where families gather together for tamale-making parties.
Tamales and tamale-making parties are part of Mexico's culinary culture come Christmas. — MARISA LEON/Unsplash
So what are tamales? Tamales are made up of corn dough wrapped in a corn husk and filled with anything from chicken to chillies, black beans. These concoctions are then steamed, which makes them become sturdier and more portable.
Eating a tamale simply requires unwrapping the corn husks and tucking into the corn-tastic meal!
In Ethiopia, doro wat reigns supreme come Christmas Day. Interestingly, in Ethiopia, Christmas Day is observed on 7 January every year and the 40 days preceding the day are marked by a vegan diet.
Christian observation is particularly strict in the country, and so Christians in Ethiopia are only allowed one vegan meal a day in the 40-day period.
In Ethiopia, Christmas is celebrated in January after 40 days of veganism and is marked by doro wat, which is a spiced chicken stew. — SENGIBYCHEFCOCO/Instagram
This also makes doro wat – which is essentially meat slathered in a rich sauce – all that much more enticing. According to an article in NPR, doro wat is served throughout the year, but the Christmas variant utilises a rooster, as opposed to a hen.
The rooster is cut into exactly 12 pieces to represent the 12 apostles and the sauce is made up of plenty of onions and a chilli called berbere. It is typically simmered over low heat for up to five hours and the entire meal is served as the centrepiece of the Christmas feast.
In Spain’s Catalonia region, a traditional Christmas meal always begins with sopa de galets (also known as ‘escudella’, which is essentially Catalonia’s hugely popular giant snail-shaped pasta shells (galets) swimming in a broth fashioned out of beef and ham bones, chicken breast, pig’s trotters and vegetables, simmered on low heat for a few hours to extract flavour.
To this concoction, pilota (or large meatballs) spiced with parlsey and garlic are added as well as vegetables like potatoes. Leftover meat is also often used to make cannelloni the day after Christmas.
Sopa de galets is a Catalonian Christmas soup made up of large pasta shells, broth, meatballs and vegetables. — Filepic
The soup has medieval roots that harks back centuries. The 14th century writer Francesc Eiximenis wrote that Catalans ate it daily, 700 years ago!
On Christmas day, the dish is served in two parts – the broth with the pasta first, followed by a platter filled with the meat and vegetables used, called the carn d’ olla.
After the Portuguese conquered Goa in 1510, a huge number of the denizens of Goa became Roman Catholics. As a result, at least a quarter of the Goan population now celebrates Christmas.
Many of their culinary customs are a byproduct of their geographical locale as well as the influence of the Portuguese and British colonisers.
In Goa, the pork stew of sorpotel is a Christmas staple that is made up of pork pieces cooked in a vinegar toddy. — KUNAL VIJAYAKAR/Instagram
In Goa, a Christmas must-have is sorpotel, a dish that was introduced by the Portuguese in India, according to an article in Saveur. The article also details how the recipe was actually developed by African slaves in Brazil to utilise leftover offal and unwanted parts of an animal. The basis of the stew is vinegar, which is used lavishly and was originally intended as a means of extending the shelf life of sorpotel.
In modern iterations, sorpotel is made up of boneless pork pieces and liver cooked in toddy vinegar (attained through the fermentation of coconut palm sap) and chillies. The stew, once cooked, is left to sit for several days, to allow the flavour to develop and is typically warmed up on Christmas day and served hot.
South African food is rich in colonial influence and the country’s famed malva pudding is no exception.
The sweet dessert is thought to have roots and ties to Dutch colonists who arrived in south Africa in the 1600s. Looking for a slice of home, the Dutch made use of the wide availability of apricot trees in the region and created a version of a brand new dessert.
Hundreds of years later, it has since evolved into a Christmas must-have in South Africa.
The deliciously silken soft Malva pudding is a south African Christmas must-have that incorporates apricot jam. — ALL_ABOUT_FOOD_16/Instagram
It is thought to have been named malva pudding after the Afrikaans term ‘malva’, which means ‘marshmallow’ or another theory is that it is so named because it once contained Malvasia wine.
What is Malva pudding? This spongy soft pudding is infused with apricot jam and a vanilla-based cream sauce is typically poured over it. It has a high concentration of egg yolks and jam, which is what gives the dessert its silken squishy texture and this indulgent quality is amplified as cooks normally poke holes through the pudding when it is hot, pouring the sauce into all its crevices and saturating it with both flavour and a soft, liquid centre.
In Norway, nothing spells Christmas quite like pinnekjott, which is a traditional dish of salted and dried lamb chops. In some regions of Norway, smoking the meat is also common. Lamb chops have a high fat content, which is why they are prized in winter time and have become a Christmas Eve staple.
The name ‘pinnekjot’ refers to the birch sticks used to smoke or steam the meat although there is also a belief that the meat’s resemblance to birch sticks is what earned its name.
Cured, dried lamb ribs are such a hit that over 75% of Norwegians eat it for Christmas. — SIMENVATNE/Instagram
Traditionally, the dish featured lamb ribs that were brined for a few weeks, then hung up to dry in a cool place for another six to eight weeks.
In modern iterations of the dish, pre-cured and dried ribs are soaked in water for about 18 to 30 hours, then steamed over birch sticks or metal grates for a few hours. The ribs are often served with sausages and potatoes.
According to Visit Norway’s official website, as many as 76% of Norwegians eat it for Christmas!
