Christmas is just around the corner and feasting is one of the most pleasurable ways to celebrate the season.
Turkey, ham and mince pies spring to mind when I picture my table on Christmas day, however there are many forms of ‘Christmas fare’ eaten around the world.
Kiviak is a gastronomical Christmas treat from Greenland and is made from the raw flesh of an auk which has been buried under a stone in sealskin for several months until it’s achieved an advanced stage of decomposition.
In Lithuania a twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper is traditional, the twelve dishes representing the twelve Apostles or twelve months of the year.
Portuguese families eat a special meal of salted dry cod-fish with boiled potatoes at midnight on Christmas Eve, followed by the ‘consoda’ on the morning of Christmas Day, when extra places are set at table for the souls of the dead. Food is offered to these souls to bring luck to the family during the forthcoming year.
In Belgium, Christmas breakfast is a special sweet bread called ‘cougnolle’ in the form of baby Jesus and the special Latvian Christmas Day meal is brown peas with bacon sauce, small pies, cabbage and sausage.
People eat rice porridge or Yule porridge on Christmas Eve in Finland. A particular tradition is hiding a whole almond in the porridge. The one who eats the almond will be married the following year. In the evening, Finns eat a traditional Christmas dinner including a casserole containing liver, rutabaga (swede), carrot and potato, with cooked ham or turkey. Some families serve a salad made from boiled beetroots, carrots, potatoes, apples and pickled cucumber called ‘rosolli’ and is often served with herring.
Happy Puzzling!
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