"Unusual" Christmas Foods

What do eat at Christmas that is "unusual" ?  Christmas Eve dinner at my aunt's includes  kibbi,  stuffed grape leaves,  baklava.

Merry Christmas from Texas!

Well, I suppose it might not be unusual to Brits, but I hear a lot of, "What's a yorkshire pudding?" and "What's trifle?"

That's less an "unusual" food, however, and more culturally related. Then again, I bet your aunt wouldn't consider her stuffed leaves all that unusual!

Ooh, and Merry Christmas from a different South - South England! >__>

Christmas Eve with my family always consisted of Mexican food -- taco, enchiladas, and (especially) tamales.  Maybe not so unusual for some -- but we have no Mexican roots in or genealogy -- my parents must have just decided they really liked it (well before I came along).

I would have like to continue that tradition with my own family -- alas, they were/are not interested

Original Post by lalabanana:

Well, I suppose it might not be unusual to Brits, but I hear a lot of, "What's a yorkshire pudding?" and "What's trifle?"

That's less an "unusual" food, however, and more culturally related. Then again, I bet your aunt wouldn't consider her stuffed leaves all that unusual!

Ooh, and Merry Christmas from a different South - South England! >__>

mmmm, drool -- yorkie pudding....

Coach: I know, I love them! We've tried making some with soymilk this year. They're a bit of a funny shape. D:

my mom always puts out a shrimp ring as an appetizer. it's not the weirdest thing, but it's a little different.

There's a big pot of Hungarian goulash cooking on the stove which should take off some of the 0 F chill of a Chicago white Christmas.  Cross country skiing this afternoon to work it off if it warms up a little.

We had fried rice for dinner yesterday during Christmas Eve! It was strange because it was unplanned and my mom brought the rice back from her office's Christmas party.

We're making a pizza for Christmas dinner!

The last few years, my mom has done different ethnic foods every year. One year was Polish, last year was Mexican. This year is Chinese.

We used to do traditional American Christmas food...ham, mashed potatos, rolls, that kind of stuff.

I just wish that I liked Chinese food....what to do, what to do?

No sausage rolls?  We had oyster chowder last night.  For Christmas dinner we are going to try playing with puff pastry- store was out of fillo dough- will put cheese, spinach, mushrooms in the pastry.  Think we're supposed to brush the outside with egg and water mix.  We'll have that with salmon and a bit of ham for our guest who does not like salmon.  I have a lemon pepper marinade for the salmon.  A naughty friend sent us a tray of fillo dough goodies- baklava etc. Stuff that has pistachios in it and names that I never heard of- guaranteed to raise the fat level on any one's waist line! 

popovers!!! hashbrowns, sausage, grapefruit and this weird egg dish that i absolutely love!! same thing every year, wouldn't change it for the world

I don't know if our dinners qualify as "unusual," but I do love them! : )

For Christmas eve we have a traditional Italian 7-fish dinner: We have smoked salmon as fish #1 for an appetizer, and for dinner we have fish stew over homemade fettuccine. It's delicious! It's a tomato-based stew, and this year included tuna, cod, tilapia, shrimp, clams, and crab legs. Top it with some parmesan, and oh, it was so good. : ) For dessert, I made meringue snowman.

For breakfast, we make panettone....unusual for the US, I guess! And Imade a not so unusual feta, sun dried tomato, and spinach (crustless) quiche that came out well. Normally we have coddled eggs, which are wonderful, but I thought I'd mix it up. 

For Christmas dinner we have beef tenderloin, a simple green salad and homemade ravioli! It's just a simple ricotta-parmesan-herb filling, topped with a simple mushroom, olive pasta sauce. The fettuccine we had last night was just made from left over ravioli dough. We live in the south and are really fortunate to still have fresh rosemary and thyme from our garden, which makes a big difference in everything. Dessert's different every year. This year we kept it simple: pumpkin pudding, Fannie May chocolate, and Christmas cookies : ) 

In recent years we've gotten away from the family traditions that dated back to my grandparent's Abruzzo upbringing in Italy where Christmas Eve was a meatless meal.  We used to have a sit down dinner on Christmas Eve with pasta and seafood dishes. This all has to be prepared and put on the table to be eaten immediately - it just doesn't hold.

Then all the cousins got married and had children of their own and people's lives changed, so now everyone drops in on Christmas Eve on their way to whatever they're doing.  The dinner has evolved into a pot luck buffet.  All you have to do to see all my cousins is perch somewhere for the evening and they will all eventually come by.  The food is whatever they bring.

One of the old favorites was plain cappelini with garlic infused olive oil, parsley and grated Locatelli cheese.  This would be accompanied by fried smelts, very crispy little fish, a plate of roasted red peppers, and a huge salad, and of course, lots of bread. 

Somebody always went to the fish market and got big baskets of clams and mussels which were scrubbed and soaked the day before, then steamed open with wine, garlic, olive oil and parsley.  Sometimes there were lots of Maryland blue crabs too - very messy to eat.  We never used exotic herbs or spices, just the simple, plain food.  This dish was often spooned over spaghetti and of course you needed lots of bread to sop up the delicious juices.

None of this can be prepared ahead and served buffet style! 

clairelaine: No way! We have the tradional fish dinner because it's what my great grandparents, who came over on the boat from Abruzzo, Italy (they're from Alba Adriatica -- I still have cousins and aunts and uncles there) always had. Our fish stew recipe goes way back. : ) How cool, I guess my family's tradition is not so unusual at all.

Lasagna, salad, bread. That is what my Mother-in-law makes every year.

Original Post by fighead:

clairelaine: No way! We have the tradional fish dinner because it's what my great grandparents, who came over on the boat from Abruzzo, Italy (they're from Alba Adriatica -- I still have cousins and aunts and uncles there) always had. Our fish stew recipe goes way back. : ) How cool, I guess my family's tradition is not so unusual at all.

 Fighead, all four of my grandparents are from the town of Chieti, in Chieti Provence, Abruzzo, way up in the mountains.  The fish dinners apparently involved sombody going down the mountain to the Adriatic to buy fresh fish and bring it up to be cooked the same day.  My grandmothers were very simple, country cooks - nothing fancy. 

My family is Asian, so we're having hot pot for dinner.  Yea! =]

im in the lasagna, salad and bread boat too! hahaha. we have lithuanian bacon rolls and shrimp before hand. and dessert is always cheesecake, kaloczkys (can't spell sorry maybe if i liked them id learn to spell it right), homemade sugar cookies, almond cookies, and little chocolate from fannie mae.

what a fun topic!

This year we ate lobster soup with shrimps for starters, boiled hailbut with broccoli, spinach and mashed potato with chives for main course, and Cloudberries with "krumkaker" and cream for dessert. It was fantastic!

I'm just going to include what's normal in norway as well :)

option 1: Pinnekjøtt (literally translates into "stick meat") This is salted and dried ribs from lamb that is steam-boiled for serving. Usually served with potoao and mashed rutabaga.

option 2: Pork ribs. Usually served with cabbage of some kind, "medisterkaker", cranberry jam and potatoes.

Option 3: "Lutefisk" (lye fish). A dish made from stockfish or dried and salted whitefish, and soda lye. Often served with potatoes, bacon and mashed peas.

mmmm....fish for Christmas....we go for chrystanthem's option 3 around here:

"Option 3: "Lutefisk" (lye fish). A dish made from stockfish or dried and salted whitefish, and soda lye. Often served with potatoes, bacon and mashed peas."

but will be eating it closer to New Year's.  I didn't know about the Italian pre-Christmas fish dinner tradition, which sounds great! [any bacala fans out there?] Ours is more a general winter dinner tradition.

Lutefisk is also a very low cal food - around 20 cals to the ounce - but after adding all the potatoes and fat (we use butter and cream sauce instead of bacon) it's not so low cal.  My grandma used to start with the little boxes of stockfish and lye a few days before eating.  The results were variable and several times she turned the fish to near-liquid.  We've been eating the more consistent commercially prepared Olsen's (from the Minneapolis area) for the last few years.  From time to time I'll soak out a whole stockfish to make brandade or New England-style one pot dinner, but I have always used fresh water.  The lye helps the fish rehydrate and makes it super tender, while a plain water soak sometimes leaves it tough and chewy.  

I've read about the rib dishes, but have never eaten them.  My ancestors were from the coast of Norway, so tended toward herring, sardines, lutefisk, crab and salmon; along with every kind of dairy and egg dish.