A taste of Christmas
Although turkey is most commonly associated with Christmas, people around the world eat all kinds of festive food, from hallacas in Venezuela to ravioli di castagne in Italy and chicken isthu in India.
ALTHOUGH the ubiquitous roast turkey is most synonymous with Christmas, in reality, there is a multitude of festive food traditions around the world. Here, six foreign chefs with restaurants in Kuala Lumpur reveal what they typically eat for Christmas.
Country: Italy
Chef: Giuseppe Lioce of Nero Nero
Food: Ravioli di castagne & castagnelle
As a child growing up in his beloved south Italian hometown of Bari, chef Giuseppe Lioce knew Christmas was just around the corner when the delicious aroma of Italian cookies wafted out of the kitchen in mid-December, when the women in the household would gather to make sweet treats like ravioli di castagne and castagnelle. The former is dough stuffed with ricotta and chestnuts and then deep-fried. The resulting concoction is akin to a sweet version of curry puff, with a filling that is creamy and rich. The latter is a hardier affair that makes for a great snack.
“Everyone gets together to make the biscuits, because the families make a lot to share. So on the day they make it, everyone is joking and laughing, so it’s not really work – in that moment, it’s about spending time with family,” says Lioce.
In Italy, Christmas typically starts on Dec 24 and in Lioce’s hometown, they usually eat seafood like baccala (deep-fried salted fish) and pasta with eels. On Christmas day, the focus shifts to meat, so cold cuts, sausages, grilled beef and lasagna all make an appearance.
Boxing Day, meanwhile, is typified by the consumption of leftovers and meals like minestra, which is essentially pasta and meat cooked in a broth, because according to Lioce, “we need to clean our system out”.
But despite the table heaving with savoury items, Lioce says for him Christmas still boils down to Italian cookies, not only because of the memories they evoke but also because they have a storied history.
“The tradition of this biscuit is old – my grandmother said when she was young and people didn’t have much money, they would put this on the Christmas tree and wait to eat it on the 25th, because it was sugary. So for the older generation, when they make this, I can see in their eyes it is something special,” says Lioce.
Country: Spain
Chef: David Caral of Mercat Barcelona
Food: Sopa de galets & canelones de navidad
Although Spain has a rich history of Christmas food traditions, different regions have different specialties. In Catalonia, where chef David Caral originates, two Christmas dishes often take pride of place – the hedonistically creamy canelones de navidad and sopa de galets, a nourishing soup with a rich depth of flavours.
“Everyone in Catalonia is familiar with this. We only make it for Christmas, so when you see sopa de galets and canelones, you know it’s Christmas, because the rest of the year, nobody makes it,” says Caral, who will be making both dishes on Dec 25 and 26 this year at his restaurant.
To make his heritage Christmas meals, Caral uses heirloom recipes that hold a lot of meaning for him.
“All these traditional dishes are passed down over generations (his come from his mother). We had to be in the kitchen to learn them, with our eyes, our hands, our taste and memory.
“This is what makes tradition separate from cookbooks. It’s the feeling, culture and experiences that bring together a dish,” he says.
Caral says both the dishes are incredibly easy to make, especially the sopa de galets. The only major investment required is time.
“The soup needs eight to nine hours of slow-cooking. So people should make it on the 23rd because if you cook the soup one day before, it tastes better,” he says.
Country: India Chef: Johnson Ebenezer of Nadodi
Food: Chicken isthu
Although the majority of Indians in India practise Hinduism, Christianity is the third largest religion in the country, with nearly 30 million followers, according to a 2011 census.
And Christmas food traditions in the country continue to go from strength to strength, says Nadodi head chef Johnson Ebenezer.
“I come from a place called St Thomas Mount in Chennai which is full of Christians and Catholics. So there is a tradition of Christmas carols, recreating the nativity scene and putting stars in every home,” he says.
In terms of Christmas food, Johnson says meals are redolent of Indian flavours, with dishes like briyani, paya (lamb trotters’ curry) and snacks like muruku and kul-kul taking centre stage. Most families also make their own plum cakes, albeit with a twist.
“There are not many ovens in Indian homes, so most people take their cake mix to the local bakery and they will reserve an oven to bake it for you – it’s a tradition,” says Johnson.
But for Johnson, the thing that reminds him most of Christmas is also the first thing he eats on Christmas morning: chicken isthu, or chicken cooked in spices and coconut milk.
“We normally go for midnight mass on Dec 24 and end up going to bed around 3am. In the morning, my mother would have made chicken isthu with idlis or idiappam. Isthu is like a stew to dip your idli or idiappam in and it’s coconutey.
“You can smell the fennel seeds and ginger and coconut milk as soon as you wake up and you know it’s Christmas, because that’s the only time you get isthu,” says Johnson, who is doing a tribute to his childhood Christmas at Nadodi with a menu that will include lobster isthu.
Country: United States Chef: Jeff Ramsey of Babe Food: Beef tenderloin roast
Half-American, half-Japanese chef Jeff Ramsey grew up in Washington DC and has fond memories of Christmas meals that were pretty much replications of everything the family ate at Thanksgiving.
“We did a big Thanksgiving dinner, and American Christmas food is generally the same as Thanksgiving dinner. So it was turkey, candied beets, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, meatloaf, all kinds of beans and corn on the cob,” he says.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of roast turkey in the US, Ramsey himself is a little averse to making the bird because of a particularly embarrassing episode early on in his career. “I had been cooking professionally for a few years and I was so excited and went home and said, ‘I’m going to take charge of Thanksgiving this year’. And I undercooked the turkey – it was raw in the middle and my sister made so much fun of me and my mum was really upset. So I think subconsciously, I am afraid to cook a turkey,” he says.
So these days, Ramsey is trying to establish new Christmas traditions with fuss-free meals like beef tenderloin roast, which requires minimal skill.
“As a chef, sometimes you want to use a more exotic bird like guinea fowl or quail, but I have kids, they like typical food, so this would be something that everyone could eat. And who wants to spend all day in the kitchen? This is something you can start preparing the day before – just season it and pop it in the oven and it’s mostly done,” he says.
Country: Venezuela Chef: Tamara Rodriguez of Casa Latina Food: Hallacas (pronounced ajacas)
In Venezuela, Christmas food can be summed up by one epic dish: hallacas. Similar to tamales, which are ubiquitous throughout Latin America, hallacas are incredibly delicious but also require a veritable army of people to assemble. Hallacas is made up of a dough fashioned out of cornmeal, chicken stock, annatto and pork lard. The dough is placed on cleaned, torched banana leaves and topped with a stew made with beef, chicken, pork, onions, capsicum, chilli, leeks, spring onions, olives, raisins and wine.
“This dish has a very deep flavour. And the beauty of it for me is that it’s family-centric,” says chef Tamara Rodriguez.
“Usually a few days before Christmas, the family gathers to make this and everyone has a role, whether it’s making the stew or chopping the ingredients. And when the stew has been left to sit for a day, we clean and torch the banana leaves. And the day we make the hallacas, it’s like an assembly line – someone puts the dough on the leaf, then it gets passed down to another person to add the stew and someone else to garnish with almonds or chickpeas. And usually, the men are the ones who tie up the packets. And the whole day is like a party, because someone is in charge of putting on the music and making drinks for everybody,” she says.
Hallacas is typically eaten late on the night of Dec 24 after misa de gallo (midnight mass) alongside other dishes like ham bread, roasted pork leg and chicken salad. “That’s like our Navidad, so on the 25th, everybody sleeps after so much partying and eats leftovers from the day before,” says Rodriguez, laughing.
Country: Belgium Chef: Evert Onderbeke of Soleil Food: Stuffed roasted lamb leg with roasted vegetables
Growing up in Belgium, Evert Onderbeke and his family didn’t really follow set Christmas traditions. Although most Belgian families favour turkey for Christmas, Onderbeke’s family often had lamb or seafood.
“It was normally something for sharing, like roast beef, roast lamb or even seafood – it was different every year. We’re not very traditional when it comes to food,” he says.
According to Onderbeke, people in Belgium typically opt for more premium produce during the festive season, which is why duck liver, oysters and lobster are supermarket staples during the period.
Although he hasn’t been in Belgium for Christmas in over a decade, Onderbeke still goes back to childhood favourites and prefers a meal that can be shared, like a roast leg of lamb, which can comfortably feed 10 people.
“It’s not difficult to make, maybe the most difficult thing is rolling the lamb leg and tying it. People can actually prepare it one day in advance and roast it on the day. That’s what we normally did in my family,” he says.