International Marketing

International Marketing Review #31

by on 20 December, 2008

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International Marketing Review – Christmas Meals Around The World

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The Christmas meal is one of the main symbols of Christmas in the United Stated. Obviously not all countries eat the same Christmas Meal as you do, so here is a list of some of the different meals eaten for Christmas across the world.

Welcome to the 20 December 2008 edition of the International Marketing Review.

France

I live in France and have been celebrating Christmas as the French do for nearly 25 years. Christmas dinner is so different from my Bahamian home. In France and some other French-speaking countries we celebrate the réveillon with a  long dinner and sometimes a party on Christmas Eve. Dinner is never a simple meal, it has at least 4 courses including:

  • A first course of either:
    • Foie gras and a sweet white wine
    • Different first course seafood and shellfish or smoked salmon. A  dry white wine
  • Main course : Capon or goose that is often stuffed with a chestnut stuffing. Side dishes depend on a lot of things but are often potatoes or rice. Wine here is usually a Beaujolais or red Côtes du Rhone.
  • Cheese is important in France and usually served. Wine varies depending on your cheese, now doesn’t it.
  • Dessert: Yule log and as a wine, the ever popular Champagne.

Grand Christmas Buffet Menu For Tourists In A Bahamian Hotel:

Appetizer:

  • Creamed Conch Soup (Conch is out of season, probably frozen)

Entrée:

  • Carved Turkey (the most common Christmas meal for my family growing up)
  • Coconut Dolphin (Bahamanian’s would not normally eat Dolphin)
  • Sliced Ham
  • Steam Ship Round of Beef
  • Scalloped Potatoes
  • Peas n Rice
  • Baked Macaroni and Cheese
  • Steamed Broccoli
  • Yellow Squash Casserole

Dessert:

  • Guava Duff
  • Rum Cake
  • (Guave Duff and Rum Cake are out of Season, and being a British colony we ate the traditional British Christmas pudding)

Australia

Christmas dinner in Australia tends to be very similar to the traditional English version with a twist. The twist is the location. Christmas is in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer so meats such as ham, turkey and chicken are sometimes served cold or on a barbecue – to avoid the hot kitchen. Seafood such as prawns are common. A traditional meal may include a turkey dinner, with ham, and pork. Australia has a sweet called Pavlova which is common in summer. Fruits of the season include mangoes and cherries. A flaming Christmas plum pudding is common for dessert. During the Australian gold rushes, Christmas puddings often contained a gold nugget. Today a small favor is baked inside the special dessert. Whoever finds this knows s/he will enjoy good luck. Yet another treat is Mince Pies.

Austria

Christmas cuisine in Austria is very similar to that of Germany, but includes baked carp. Christmas Eve is the celebration of the end of the pre-Christmas fast, in which fried carp, sacher torte and Christmas cookies such as  lebkuchen and sterne are served. Christmas Day is a national holiday in Austria and most Austrians spend the day feasting with their family, usually enjoying Gluhwein, Rumpunsch, Goose, Ham, Chocolate Mousse and many other chocolate delicacies including edible Christmas ornaments.

Canada

In English Canada, Christmas dinner is similar to England and the United States. A traditional Christmas dinner can include turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables and plum pudding for dessert. Again, an Eggnog loving country. Other Christmas items include butter tarts and shortbread, which are traditionally baked before the holidays and served to visiting friends, at various Christmas and New Year parties, as well as on Christmas day. French Canadian traditions are similar to the French.

Denmark

In Denmark the traditional Christmas meal served on December 24th consists of either roasted pork, goose or duck. Side dishes include potatoes, red cabbage and plenty of gravy. It is followed with a dessert of rice pudding, often with an almond hidden inside, the lucky finder of which is entitled to a present referred to as the almond gift. Traditional Christmas drinks are Gløgg and traditional Christmas beers, specially brewed for the season. For example, Albani produces two Christmas beers Blålys and Rødhætte.

Finland

Joulupöytä (translated “Christmas table”) is the name of the traditional food board served at Christmas in Finland. The Finnish diner is similar to the traditional Swedish smörgåsbord with many different dishes The main dish is usually a large Christmas ham, which is eaten with mustard or bread along with the other dishes. Lutefisk and gravlax (fish) are commonly. The traditional Christmas beverage is either alcoholic or non-alcoholic mulled wine (glögi in Finnish).

Germany

The Germans often have special baking evenings for making spiced cakes, cookies and gingerbread houses. The German Christmas tree pastry, das Christbaumgebäck, is a white dough which is molded into shapes and baked to make tree decorations. On Christmas Eve, there’s an evening feast, generally of carp and potato salad (meat is avoided for religious reasons). On Christmas Day the family tucks into suckling pig or roasted goose, white sausage, macaroni salad, and regional dishes, der Christstollen, long loaves of bread with nuts, raisins, lemon and dried fruit, der Lebkuchen, ginger spice cookies, das Marzipan and der Dresdner Stollen, a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit annd marzipan. In Germany common dishes are roast goose, macaroni salad, marzipan, porridge (reisbrei), spice bars (lebkuchen), stollen (several types of bread, including Christstollen, Dresden stollen, etc.), suckling pig, and weisswurst.

Honduras

In Honduras tamales are traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve evening. Tamales are filled usually with a small bits of chicken piece or pork and some combination of rice, potatoes, garbanzos, peas, and green olives. Tamales are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks. Some eat their tamales with ketchup. Arroz con pollo is also a popular celebration meal, as is a similar dish that includes bits of other meats and is called Chop Suey − El Jefe. Whatever is served absolutely must be accompanied with tamales. No exceptions. Sandwiches (usually chicken on sliced white bread with mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard) are another popular food this time of year. Cake is often served to guests, as is rompopo. Red grapes and apples are traditional at Christmas time. Frozen turkeys, canned cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie filling are readily available in the grocery stores and becoming more popular, possibly because of the influence of their Norther neighbors.

Italy

The essence of Christmas Day in Italy is family, love and food, la famiglia, l’amore e il cibo. Italian festive food varies from region to region, although there are some common dishes. In the Italian Catholic tradition, Christmas Eve is a day of abstinence from meat so a celebratory banquet frequently features fish – some families even prepare as many as 20 different fish dishes! In Rome and southern Italy, il capitone, a dish made with fried eels is a firm favourite. After dinner, Italians head off for midnight mass. Lunch, il pranzo, on Christmas Day is the most important of all the Christmas feasts and is a lengthy affair. Delicacies such as crostini with liver pâté or the classic tortellini in chicken stock, brodo are on the table, while lo zampone, a pig’s foot filled with spiced mince meat, or il cotechino, a sausage made from pig’s intestines containing a similar filling, are particularly popular in northern Italy. Others opt for lamb, l’agnello and accompanying vegetables include mashed potato and lentils, lenticchie. Tortellini, cotechino and lenticchie are often on the menu again on New Year’s Eve. Panettone Sweet-toothed Italians indulge in desserts such as nougat, il torrone, and a light Milanese cake filled with candied fruit and raisins, called il panettone. The main, traditional cake is gold bread, il pandoro, which is very similar but without the candied fruit or raisins. A gingerbread with hazelnuts, honey and almonds, il panforte, is also popular. In fact, most Christmas sweets contain nuts and almonds as, according to peasant folklore, eating nuts aids the fertility of the earth and people, increasing flocks and family.

Mexico

In Mexico the Christmas dinner, eaten on Christmas Eve evening, varies with region. Common dishes are various fruits  and salad. In several states stews are made: either pozole, made of pork or beef and hominy in red chile sauce; or menudo made with beef tripe and hominy also in chile sauce. In the center of Mexico, bacalao and romeritos prepared with mole are popular dishes. In the north of Mexico the most traditional Christmas dish is tamales served with sauce over them and sometimes cream and a bit of crumbly fresh cheese. For dessert, atole with buñuelos, or buñuelos soaked in sugar and cinnamon water, are served. There are also sweet tamales: corn with raisins or sweet beans, or strawberry flavored.

Netherlands

Christmas dinner in The Netherlands is a bit different from customs in neighboring countries. One typical Dutch tradition is that of ‘gourmet’. This is an evening long event where small groups of people sit together around a gourmet-set and use their own little frying pan to cook and season their own food in very small portions. The host has prepared finely chopped vegetables and different types of meats, fish and prawns/shrimps. Everything is accompanied by different salads, fruits and sauces. The origin of gourmet lies most likely in the former Dutch colony Indonesia. The Dutch also enjoy more traditional Christmas-dinners, like roast beef, duck, rabbit, pheasant or roasted or glazed ham. This generally served with different types of vegetables, potatoes and salads. In recent years, traditions from Anglo-Saxon countries have become increasingly popular, most notably the UK-style turkey.

New Zealand

The Christmas customs of New Zealand, like Australia, are largely identical to the United Kingdom, their former colonail masters Christmas dinner consists of roast turkey, roast vegetables, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Roast ham may be offered as a main course. One important exception from British dinner is the absence of goose which is not common in New Zealand. Desserts are almost without exception mince pies or Christmas pudding and brandy butter, like the Brits. Many non-British Christmas foods, such as stollen from Germany, Bûche de Noël from France, and panettone from Italy, are still rare today, but starting to make a show. Due to New Zealanders celebrating Christmas in the summer, it is also common to barbecue, and eat seasonal fruit such as cherries and strawberries.

Philippines

The Christmas dinner is a family affair in the Philippines and called Noche Buena by locals. This meal is usually served usually comes after the entire family has attended a late evening mass called Misa de Gallo. The centerpiece of a Filipino Christmas dinner is often the Jamon or Christmas ham, which is usually a cured leg of pork ham. It is usually served with Queso de Bola, an Edam cheese ball served popularly during the Christmas season in the Philippines. Middle-class and affluent families tend to prepare a gracious dinner, including lechon or spit-roasted pig, lumpia, escabeche, adobo, rellenong manok, mechado, caldereta and other popular Filipino fare. Lower-income families would tend to prepare a dinner of much cheaper proportions but nevertheless it is always a Philippine custom to spend more on what a family would consume on a regular dinner for the Noche Buena. The dinner would usually be accompanied with “Tsokolate” or hot chocolate, which is Filipino in style since it is made with pure, locally-grown cacao beans. Some Filipino families prefer hot chocolate made from “tabletas” or chocolate tablets. The importance of the family in Filipino culture is highlighted during the Noche Buena since members from even the extended branches of the family are always expected to come and join in the celebration. Filipino families prefer to exchange Christmas presents right after the dinner, which is different from the usual Western culture of opening presents on the morning of Christmas Day.

Peru

On Noche Buena the extended family join together for a succulent dinner around the turkey, stuffed with ground beef and peanuts and decorated with fresh slices of pineapple and cherries; roast potatoes and apple sauce. The desserts include marzipan and assorted bowls with raisins, almonds and the panettone, accompanied by a cup of thick hot chocolate. At midnight, a toast is made, and good wishes and hugs are exchanged. A designated person runs to put Child Jesus in the Nativity scene. Then, the family members take their seat on the dinning room while singing Christmas Carols.

Spain

Christmas sweets are the main seasonal staple. El turrón, nougat, is essential. This almond-based tablet traditionally comes in two versions, duro, hard, with whole almonds in a paste of sugar, honey and egg white, or blando, soft, where the ingredients are ground together. Las figuras de mazapán, marzipan figurines, are also popular, together with los polvorones, soft crumbly cakes made with lard, flour and cinammon. The main meal takes place on Christmas Eve, la Nochebuena, and consists of a major dish of meat or seafood, such as cordero, lamb, bacalao, cod, or marisco, shellfish, which varies according to the region or the family’s preferences.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom is usually eaten in the afternoon. The United Kingdom and in Ireland usually consists of roast turkey or roast goose (although duck is common alternatives depending on the number of diners), sometimes with ham or, to a lesser extent, pork; roast potatoes; vegetables (usually boiled or steamed), particularly brussels sprouts; stuffing; chipolatas or pigs in blankets; cranberry sauce; with dessert of Christmas pudding (or plum pudding) and brandy butter. In England, the evolution of the main course into turkey did not take place for years, or even centuries. At first, in Medieval England, the main course was either a peacock or a boar, the boar usually the mainstay. After the French Jesuits imported the turkey into Great Britain, it became the main course in the 1700s. A common tradition in the United Kingdom is to use the turkey’s wishbone to make a wish. Two people pull opposite ends of the wishbone until it breaks, with the person holding the larger fragment of the bone making a wish. The dessert of a British Christmas Dinner is almost always Christmas Pudding. Mince pies, a Christmas Cake or a Yule Log may also be eaten. That concludes this edition of The International Marketing Review. If you have a post that you would like included in a future review, email me the link and if appropriate, I will try to include it.


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