Two years ago, my pointless posted a short list of unusual Christmas traditions. Building on that post, I offer these unusual Christmas food traditions:In southern Africa, some people eat the plump fuzzy caterpillars of the emperor moth fried in oil as a special Christmas treat. (see right)
In Japan, the oft-preferred Christmas menu is pizza from Domino's. (Domino's reports that its busiest day of the year in Japan is Christmas Eve day).
In Austria, children leave beer for Santa. British children might leave a snifter of brandy for Father Christmas. In Tyrol, they leave a glass of Schnapps. (Here in the US, it is just milk and cookies...)
In Italy, eel and squid is a popular meal on Christmas Eve.
In Belgium, cougnou is eaten for breakfast on Christmas morning. Cougnou is bread that is in the shape of baby Jesus.
In Mexico, on the afternoon of January 6 (Epiphany) families share a loaf of traditional bread... which contains a doll of the baby Jesus.
Some Norwegians eat the traditional lutefisk (pictured above) for Christmas. For the uninitiated-- lutefisk is cod (or ling) fish that has been soaked in lye (a corrosive that is used in strong soaps and Drano), giving it the consistency of gelatin and the flavor of fishy lye. More Norwegians opt for traditional ribbe (pork ribs) or pinnekjøtt (dried ribs of mutton).
According to Weird Christmas, "During the Prussian siege of France in 1870, Voisin's, an upscale restaurant in Paris, prepared a Christmas dinner using animals from the zoo and elsewhere. The menu included consomme of elephant, braised kangaroo, antelope pate, cat and rat."
previous post-- mypointless: strange Christmas traditions
information in this post was drawn primarily from Weird Christmas by Joey Green. Here is the link to get it at Amazon.
for other posts about Christmas, click the label below or in the label cloud
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