Scrumptious traditional Christmas foods around the world
Somehow it never really feels like Christmas to me living in the Southern Hemisphere. When I was thinking about the holidays I found myself wondering about traditional Christmas foods around the world? Just how different are the festive season treats and special seasonal food from country to country?
I always think of the sparkly lights that brighten a cold winter’s day and picturesque snow-capped mountains, with acres of pines trees glistening with icicles. When it’s cold the food you eat needs to be so much heartier and needs to warm you. In my part of the world it’s so hot the Christmas meal is most likely going to be a turkey cooked on a barbeque with a salad on the side and maybe a few roast potatoes.
I had a couple of ideas, having spent a few festive seasons in Paris but I decided that I needed some experts. After all, my knowledge was limited and I wanted to know what I was missing. I reached out to some of the best travel bloggers around for advice and asked them to share some of their traditional dishes.
Savoury traditional Christmas foods around the world
Poland: Pierogi
Every country has their own form of dumping. In Poland and surrounding Central European countries, the traditional dumpling is called a pierogi. Many Polish families have their big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve and pierogi are often a highlight of the Christmas Eve meal!
The pierogi are made with unleavened dough and stuffed with sweet or savoury filling. Potato and cheese and sauerkraut with onion are the two most popular savoury fillings. Plum is a popular sweet filling.
The dough is cut into circles and stuffed and filled, then folded in half. The edges are crimped by hand to seal in the delicious filling. The pierogi are boiled in water then fried in butter. The dumplings are often served with sour cream, fried onions, or apple sauce.
In our family, it has always been tradition to make pierogi for Christmas Eve dinner. When I was young and my grandma was alive, it was a process that took three days. We made over a thousand pierogi every Christmas! My grandma is no longer with us but we’ve carried on this tradition throughout my childhood and we are now passing it down to our sons. They look forward to making pierogi every holiday with their grandparents, just like I did when I was a child. The time we spend together making the pierogi is almost as wonderful as eating them! Pass the sour cream, please!
Lissa Paddock
Roots, Wings and Travel Things
Romania: Sarmale
Christmas in Romania means that the cook of the house has to spend at least 3 days in the kitchen preparing all sorts of delicious dishes. A Christmas meal is generally composed of appetisers, soup (the traditional borsch), stuffed cabbage rolls, homemade sausages, steak, piftie (pork knuckles boiled for hours with garlic and carrots) and of course dessert!
“Sarmale” is the most famous and delicious Romanian food. The rolls can be made with cabbage leaves or vine leaves, called by the locals: blond sarmale and dark samale. The leaves have to be soft, so they can be easily folded. The small cabbage rolls are stuffed with minced pork and beef, rice and a few spices such as onion, fresh parsley, basil, dill and tomato sauce. The mixture is then put very carefully inside of a cabbage leaf, rolled and folded. After that, they have to be slow cooked for 3 or 4 hours. It is said that the longer they are cooked, the better they are! And they are amazing indeed!
Roxana Popescu
The Nosy Suitcase
Pinnekjott: Norway
Pinnekjott is one of the most traditional food items that can be found on the Christmas table in Norway. While the eastern part of the country tends to stick to crispy pork belly, the west coast goes crazy for a bit of pinnekjott. Pinnekjott is cured mutton (can be lamb or sheep) ribs that can be found boxed in stores. They can sometimes be found smoked.
To prepare, you must steam them on top of sticks, preferably birch, and let them prepare for a couple of hours. They are eaten traditionally with mashed rutabaga called ‘kalrabistappe’ and boiled potatoes with a tasty gravy. When prepared, the dish exudes a very distinct odour that can be smelled outside and it is absolutely delightful. Christmas in Norway is very special and there is nothing more special than eating pinnekjott while watching the snow fall outside.
Megan Starr
Tamales: Guatemala
The traditional Christmas dish of Guatemala is Tamales. Each family will have their own recipe and they’re made as gifts for friends. We were lucky enough to try ours in Quetzaltenango (Xela) with our friends at the Language School Sol Latino where we spent 2 months learning Spanish.
Traditionally for a whole day before Christmas mothers and their eldest children gather ingredients and cook together. Christmas Tamales have a mole like salsa made of tomatoes chillies, pepitas and sesame seeds. There are made from rice flour and fillings of chicken or pork. All wrapped in banana leaf. The banana leaf parcels are steamed until the leaves change colour. Christmas Tamales from Guatemala are tasty, moreish and full of traditional meaning.
Sarah Carter
Spiced Beef Ireland
Spiced beef is a salt-cured rump or silverside beef, which is traditionally served cold at Christmas in Ireland. The tradition started in the town of Cork but grown into popularity around the country. The Irish people originally used salt curing as a way to preserve the meat but as technology progresses, the salt-cured beef has remained a part of Irish cuisine.
Spiced beef is traditionally eaten at Christmas in Ireland because it’s expensive to buy. If you decide to make your own, it is quite labour intensive to prepare. So it is a special meal reserved for a special occasion only, such as Christmas.
Aside from salt, the beef is also seasoned with different spices and herbs which includes ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, pepper and whatever spices that cook preferred. It is then steamed or boiled until it’s cooked which creates a very tasty and tender beef that brings Christmas comfort.
Christine Rogador
Sweet traditional Christmas foods around the world
Portugal: Bolo da Rainha
The most famous Portuguese Christmas cake is Bolo do Rei, which means King’s cake. It’s a ring of brioche dough filled with and covered with candied fruit and as such is overly sweet for my tastes, no matter how festive it may look.
I much prefer the less glitzy Bolo da Rainha or Queen’s cake. This is made from the same slightly sweet dough mixture, which contains varying amounts of secret ingredients such as port wine, Licor Beirão (a ‘medicinal’ Portuguese liqueur) and spices.
However, instead of the teeth-jarring colourful candied fruits, Bolo da Rainha is rich in sultanas and nuts. Topped with whole walnuts and a dash of glaze, once it’s cooled down from the oven, it’s ready to go. As soon as you slice open a Bolo da Rainha, it’s prone to dry out quickly so the best thing to do is eat it within a day, two at most, while it’s still moist and full of flavour.
Julie Fox
Philippines: Puto Bumbong
Puto bumbong is a purple rice cake prepared by steaming ground purple glutinous rice mixture (though the use of regular glutinous rice and purple artificial food colouring is also popular) in cylindrical bamboo stem moulds where it got its name from. Bumbong is a Filipino word which roughly translates to canons in English. Two or more pieces of these cylindrical rice cakes are served on banana leaves and topped with sweetened grated coconut and butter.
Puto bumbong doesn’t really have a religious or historical link with Christmas but these sumptuous sticky rice cakes are usually only available as Christmas gets nearer. Especially during the start of the nine-day dawn masses from December 16th to Christmas Eve. People flock to churches as early as four in the morning are usually too hungry by the end of the dawn masses. This makes puto bumbong an instant hit as it is the only thing sold that early.
Noel Cabacungan
Jamaica: Jamaican Christmas Cake
The Christmas season does not begin in Jamaica until you have had your first slice of Christmas fruitcake accompanied by a Sorrel drink. These cakes are frequently used as gifts and if you are lucky you might get a few for Christmas!
Every Jamaican has their own special secret ingredient that they believe makes their fruitcake unique. However, the base ingredients are raisins, currants and prunes that are soaked in a mixture of rum and port wine for months in anticipation of the Christmas season.
Other ingredients include the butter and sugar that are creamed until fluffy, next comes the eggs, rum and vanilla. Then the prepared fruit mixture is added. Red wine, molasses and yes a bit more rum is added. The flour mixture is then folded in. The resulting mix produces a dark, rich, delicious fruitcake. Oh and to keep it moist, yes then we add more rum!
Charmaine Hutton
Cyprus: Melomakarona and Kourapiedes
Melomakarona are egg-shaped Greek soft cookies made mainly from flour, olive oil, and honey, orange zest, fresh juice, cognac and cinnamon.
Kourapiedes are small shortbread style biscuits with a generous dusting of icing sugar which makes them look like little snow mounds. They are traditionally made with pistachios, roasted almonds and dried dates.
This is a traditional dessert prepared primarily during the Christmas holiday season and no house is ever without them! We always typically calculate our post-holiday weight gain by counting how many kourapiedes and melomakarona we’ve consumed! Some bakeries are even coming up with gluten-free and vegan versions so everyone can enjoy them!
Galatia Savva
Christmas pudding: United Kingdom
Christmas Pudding (sometimes known as Plum Pudding) is a very traditional dish in the United Kingdom. In my opinion, Christmas dinner just isn’t complete without finishing the meal with a serving of this deliciously rich, dark, fruity dessert.
It’s principally made from dried fruit which is mixed together with egg and suet and flavoured with a range of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Every family’s recipe is different but ours requires regular dosing of the Christmas Pudding with brandy for around a month beforehand. This stops it drying out (and also makes it a dessert that’s very high in alcohol!).
Traditionally, the Christmas Pudding is served with a spring of holly on top of it. In our family, we also warm extra brandy and pour it over the pudding before lighting it. The pudding is then taken to the table surrounded by a blue haze of flame!
It’s quite a sight (and tastes delicious too)!
Clare Dewey
Epic Road Rides
MORE TO READ
- 11 OF THE BEST THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN PARIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME
- A MOUTH-WATERING GUIDE TO BOROUGH MARKET LONDON
- A MUST READ BEFORE YOU BOOK A EUROPE CAR RENTAL
- 11 POPULAR THAI DISHES THAT YOU MUST TRY IN THAILAND
- 14 STYLISH, COOL AND QUIRKY LONDON HOTELS
- 10 OF THE BEST BRUNCHES IN LONDON YOU HAVE TO TRY!
- WHERE TO STAY IN ROME – THE BEST AREAS AND HOTEL GUIDE
Need a reminder? Pin it!
