insideKENT Magazine Issue 69 - December 2017 | Page 98
FOOD+DRINK
Christmas Feasts AROUND THE WORLD cont.
JAPAN
Although not technically a Christian country,
Japan is known for its consumerism, and
Christmas is no different. Turkey was a tricky
thing to find back in the 1970s, so expats who
were keen to have as traditional a Christmas as
they could even if they were away from home
had to improvise. If turkey wasn’t on the menu,
then chicken would have to do. And why slave
for hours over a hot stove when Kentucky Fried
Chicken (KFC) was open on Christmas Day,
selling a ‘bargain bucket’ that could easily feed
an entire family? KFC noticed the trend and
created the Christmas Chicken Bucket in 1974.
The trend has never diminished, and many
Japanese families – natives as well as expats –
enjoy some finger lickin’ chicken with a glass
of champagne at lunchtime on 25th December.
Afterwards, there is a tendency towards cake.
SWEDEN
In Sweden, the Christmas feast is called the ‘julbord’ or ‘Christmas table’. And it is just that
– a table overladen with delicious bits and pieces for everyone to tuck into. Christmas
dinner is not such a formal affair in Sweden as elsewhere in the world, and guests aren’t
required to sit around the table if they prefer not to. Grab a plate, fill it with boiled ham,
‘dopp i grytan’ (literally translated as ‘dipping in the kettle’, hunks of bread are dipped in
the gravy made from the ham centrepiece), boiled whitefish, syrup covered cabbage and
a variety of smoked and cured meats. To drink, it’s the traditional glögg, which is an
excellent word for mulled wine. Dessert is very much a sugary, spicy kind of dish. It’s all
about baked goods, and there are a lot of them, which will be cooking slowly from early
on Christmas Eve right through the night, enveloping each home in a warming cinnamon
and nutmeg fragrance – the smell of Christmas. The favourites in Sweden are fruktkaka
– a light fruit cake; mandelmusslor – gooseberry jam topped with whipped cream in a
thin almond pastry shell; kokosbollar – chocolate truffles rolled in oats and coconut; and
risgrynsgrot – a very thick, very rich, very creamy rice pudding.
ITALY
Italy, as with many mainly Catholic countries,
celebrates its Christmas feast on Christmas Eve,
leaving Christmas Day free to attend mass. The
Italian meal has its own name – The Feast of
the Seven Fishes – and it’s huge. Traditionally
seven courses (hence the name), in many
households this can swell to 12 or more, as every
member of the family wants to cook their own
dish and add their own personality to
proceedings. The basis of the meal is that there
must be at least seven different types of fish,
and those fish must be cooked in entirely
different ways. From boiling and roasting to
poaching and eating raw with a homemade
salsa, there are no hard and fast rules for what
needs to be done. Favourite fish across the
country, and ones that are often included, are
cod and calamari. Everything else is open to
interpretation. The good news is these seven or
so dishes aren’t eaten all at once – the meal is
spread out over the entire afternoon and
evening, making it a lot easier to digest!
98