What does the world eat at Christmas

This is a very cool page published on Balsam Hill, here.

The page header in black and white is an interactive world map with twenty-five pinpoints. Click on the pinpoints and you're taken to the area of the page showing a table spread with food, a plate filled with food and another photo of a family gathered around the holiday table. And this gives you a peek into presumably average homes across the world during a holiday gathering.

And everyone's fat.

Not really. There are plenty of skinny people too. But it's obvious, the adage is true, you really do become what you eat.

"We eat a Chester which is a special kind of poutry that looks like an overgrown chicken." 

That's from Brazil. So I looked up Chester chicken to see what's so special about it, and found this.



Well, okay then. Your chickens win.

But your dad looks like a real character, and why isn't the girl's dad invited? Maybe he's taking the picture.

The family in Mexico says this year they experimented with meat broth and then roasted vacío steak with rocket and potatoes.

Rocket is arugula. Why do they call it rocket? Does it grow upward like a rocket blastoff? Does it grow fast as a rocket? In France arugula is called roquette. I'm imagining it comes from that. But vacío means vacant, so why call meat vacant?

That queary led to another site Real Food in Toronto where they offer this cut of meat, positioned near the flank steak, except different, for a very good price. Their site offers six little videos so I watched and learned something about butchering. Obviously skip this if your tender tofu-eating selves are disturbed by butchery. I like this guy. I like everything about this guy; his manner, his style, his dress, his hat, him not wearing those ridiculous latex gloves.

You know, those gloves are actually more bacteria-spreading than bare hands? They prevent the wearer from feeling things on their fingers, while bare hands are washed and rinsed continuously because hands with stuff on them bugs them. It's fascinating watching him separate layers to get at this particular cut.

Reading the rest of the Christmas meals page filled me wonder. 

The Ukrainian Varenyky dumplings look a lot like potstickers. Their household is charming. Their description of twelve dishes being transformed to twelve ingredients during the famine and how that works to present benefit is touching.

Argentina made me sad realizing this layout was taken previously.

Australia looks like a couple of goofballs. 

The asparagus casserole from Peru looks like something I want.

Latvia features pickled vegetables while Slovakia meal looks humble with fried fish and scalloped potatoes. I must say all of these plates look really good. Ghana has a bottle of apple juice served or shown on a plate.

A lot of places eat fish and dumplings. 

Looking through them forces me to realize how much work my mother put into maintaining Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions. She really did put out a spread and cooking was not her thing. She lacked enthusiasm for it and she lacked creativity. She did what she was taught. And now my sisters do the same things. So it worked. And it worked very well. As I grew up and moved out I began to not value that whole effort and now that I'm old I can see its importance and the truly great effort she put into it. 

Mum, please forgive my stupid attitude.

Her Christmas meals were very similar to her Thanksgiving meals except a lot more pies and tons of Christmas cookies. From cookie cutters that were used only once a year. Her cookie decoration was rudimentary. 

One time my sister's family was over with her daughter and two boys. We piped some decorations on gingerbread men and gingerbread women. We drew tits and penises and the boys literally fell on the floor laughing. And that turned out to be a very good idea for a party. The premise was come over and decorate cookies however you like. We had little decoration kits for everyone and put on a self-administered contests. The things people came up with were outrageous. They loaded their ginger people with drawings of hair, clothing, jewelry, accouterments, accessories, implements, and tools. They turned them into little dolls. 

It all looks great to me.

I made a gingerbread house. And that stupid thing was carefully packaged and dragged out every year thereafter as if it were made of wood. I wouldn't be surprised if one of my sisters still has it. That's how important those things were to the traditions they made for themselves and for us.