Are you ready for some holiday cheer!? We’re exploring diverse celebratory dishes from around the globe with their unique traditions and flavors. From Hanukkah, Diwali, and Christmas to New Year’s, food is central to cultural celebrations. Don’t miss this flavorful adventure on this “Season’s Eatings” episode.
M: I’m Professor Megan
S: and I’m Professor Susan, and we’re
Both: Your Nutrition Profs!
M: We are registered dietitians and college professors who have taught more than 10,000 students about health and nutrition. We have answered a LOT of questions about nutrition over the years –
S: Some questions we get asked every year and some are rarely asked but very interesting.
M: We’re here to share our answers to these common (and uncommon) nutrition questions with you.
S: So bring your curiosity and let’s get started.
Both: Welcome to our class!
M: Welcome everyone to our 25th episode!
S: 25!
M: 25!
S: Wow that’s awesome!
M: We’re so thankful for all of you listeners. We love hearing from you. W’eve gotten quite a few questions recently.
S: We have and this podcast really is a lot of fun to make and we always learn something too when we create these episodes. So we love it!
M: Definitely! And thanks to our International listeners too! We’ve got listeners in more than 17 countries.
S: Woo-hoo! 17! That’s so great! We are so grateful for all of your support!
M: Since this episode is airing during the traditional holiday season here in the U.S. we thought we’d have some fun learning about some holiday foods people consume around the world. We’re calling it “Season’s Eatings”!
S: Yes! You know what, this is going to be a fun episode for us for at least two reasons:
M: Yes, you know we like trying all the different foods on the podcast, so eating holiday foods is right up our alley! And we’d like to apologize in advance for any mispronunciations that we might have along the way. We’re going to try our best!
S: But we are- I’m sure there will be many mispronunciations today. What are you doing for the holidays Megan?
M: You know, seeing family, maybe going to some parties with friends, you know celebrations.
S: Yeah that’s pretty much what we’re doing too. And recovering from the school year!
M: Oh my gosh, absolutely! I can’t wait until that grading is done.
S: That’s right. Well we thought maybe the best way to discuss holiday foods was to do it by holidays. And so we’re going to start with Hanukkah. The word “hanukkah” means dedication, and this celebration is called the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights.
M: This celebration commemorates the victory of Jewish freedom fighters, the Maccabees, over the Greek occupiers in the year 139 BCE. The Maccabees recaptured Jerusalem’s Holy Temple which had been converted into a place of idol worship by the Greeks. They needed pure oil to light the Temple menorah and “rededicate” the Temple, thus the “Feast of Dedication”. They found just enough oil to burn for one day but miraculously, one night’s worth of oil lasted for eight nights.
S: So here in the U.S. we just finished Hanukkah celebrations. They began December 7 and ended December 15. And you’ve really gotta love a celebration that lasts 8 days!
M: Yes! And since it’s about oil – many of the traditional Hanukkah foods are actually fried.
S: That really makes a lot of sense, I hadn’t thought of that before but - so cool. One traditional food served during this Jewish celebration is Latkes or levivot which are potato cakes. They’re made of shredded potato and onion, eggs, and they’re often held together with breadcrumbs or matzo and then they’re fried.
M: Yum! We’ve actually got some here to try. There is a restaurant here in town, Max & Louie’s…
S: Oh yum!
M: …and they have a lot of really good food there, so we picked some up.
S: So we have latkes, and they’re flat and fried and we’ve also got applesauce and sour cream.
M: Sour cream that’s…
S: To put on top.
M: … think that’s the traditional…
S: Yeah. So we’re going to try some. What do you think, Megan?
M: Delicious…
S: I agree.
M: Yeah you can really kind of taste the potato, a little bit of the onion.
S: Mmm-hmmm.
M: It’s really good.
S: It is. And I like the applesauce with it.
M: Me too.
S: And the sour cream.
M: Yeah.
S: So I would highly recommend this.
M: I’d eat these again.
S: For sure. And apparently since the Middle Ages fried doughnuts filled with jelly and topped with powdered sugar called sufganiyot have also been served during Hanukkah. I hope I said that right. We don’t have any to eat here but we did post a recipe in our show notes if you want to try to make them! The recipe looked a little bit too complicated for us… So for those of you really great cooks out there, try it.
M: And let us know. Instead of Sufganiyot, Moroccan Jews eat Sfenj, a fried, sweetened orange-flavored donut because Jaffa oranges come into season at that time.
S: Mmm. That sounds really good. And Challah bread and beef brisket are also commonly served during Hanukkah.
M: Challah is a special bread usually made up of braided strands of dough. It can have 3, 4, or 6 strands braided and the braids look like arms intertwined, symbolizing love. Before braiding a portion of the dough is separated as a contribution to the Lord – considered a mitzvah – a blessing or a good deed. The word “challah” means portion.
S: And we have some challah bread here.
M: Yes, also from Max & Louie’s.
S: Mmm. Nothing like fresh bread.
M: It’s so good.
S: It melts in your mouth.
M: Yeah.
S: That is really, really good.
M: Mmm-hmm.
S: I love fresh bread.
M: Me too.
S: In Columbia, South America Jews eat patacones or tostones which are kind of like the latkes but are made with green plantains instead of potatoes.
M: Interesting.
S: The plantains are sliced and fried in oil. It’s a popular side dish or appetizer year round in Columbia.
M: Another group of Jews called “Beta Israel” are found in Ethiopia. They traditionally don’t celebrate Hanukkah the same way as those in Israel do, but they do eat a celebratory dish called doro wat which is chicken stew or yebeg wat which is lamb stew. These stews are slow cooked dishes that simmer for hours with lots of different spices like cardamom, clove, paprika, ginger, garlic, and berbere. It’s often served with hard boiled eggs and a traditional Ethiopian bread called injera.
S: I’ve actually had doro wat both in Ethiopia and in the U.S. I have some Ethiopian friends who made it for me. And it is delicious! The slow cooked chicken is super tender, and because they cook it for so long with all of the spices it really melts in your mouth. Injera is really a spongy bread. You tear off pieces and that is what you use to sop up the stew and to eat it. So you don’t use forks or spoons, you use the injera instead. And I love it!
M: In Ethiopia doro or yebeg wat are not just eaten for Hanukkah, they’re the National dish of Ethiopia and are eaten during many celebrations. In fact, Ethiopian Christians often eat it on Christmas Day.
S: So let’s talk about some other Christmas foods. Christmas season is celebrated in many countries around the world, but especially in Western Europe and the Americas. Celebrations often start in early December with the beginning of Advent and they culminate in Christmas Day which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.
M: Scandinavian countries begin the holiday season with the celebration of St. Lucia’s Day which kicks off Advent. According to legend, when Christians were still a persecuted Roman minority and hiding in the catacombs, St. Lucia brought them food while wearing a candle lit wreath on her head to light her way so her hands were free to carry more food. Scandinavians celebrate St. Lucia’s day with a “St. Lucia’s Wreath” – a glazed, sweetened bread decorated with candles and colorful ribbons.
S: I think I’ve seen pictures of them.
M: I think I have too.
S: And if you’re celebrating Christmas in Italy, cuccidati are popular and those are similar to Fig Newtons but much more delicious!
M: And if you’re lucky and like seafood, the “Feast of the Seven Fishes” is also commonly eaten there, often with eel as one of the 7 fishes.
S: And, of course, in Italy there is panettone. This bread is thought to originate in Milan and it is a sweet bread or fruit cake kind of thing and it has a cup shape- a cupola shape. It takes several days to make and it usually contains some type of citrus with raisins or chocolate. We’ve got one here to try that we purchased from our neighborhood grocery and this one has orange in it. Orange and raisins. So it’s a sweet bread with orange and raisins. Let’s try it.
M: It’s so good.
S: That orange is really good in there.
M: It really is. It’s softer than I was expecting it to be but it’s really good.
S: It really is. I think the orange makes it for me. It would be really good with coffee.
M: Yes!
S: So that’s panettone. I would totally eat that again.
M: I just ate all of it.
S: Good for you Megan!
M: If you’re in Canada you might be having butter tarts which are small pastries with a sweet filling. Ingredients include butter, sugar, maple or corn syrup, eggs, and sometimes walnuts and raisins.
S: After Christmas Eve services, Canadians eat tourtiere which is a meat pie made with anything from ground pork to salmon.
M: Pies are also popular in England – called Christmas pie or mince pies or mincemeat. Traditionally these were made with shredded beef or mutton, suet which is the fat from beef or mutton, dried fruit, and spices and they were shaped like a manger. Now they’re less savory and more sweet, often made with pastry dough, dried fruit, a spice mixture of things like nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon, and of course, distilled spirits!
S: Of course. I’m sure that’s what makes it…. So let’s move on to Greece. Christmas is a big deal in Greece. There are many, many foods associated with this celebration, but some that we found are melomakarona cookies. And these are honey-soaked and topped with ground walnuts
M: Which sounds good.
S: Which sounds so good. They also make something called christopsomo or “Christ’s bread”. And this is a sweet round loaf and it’s infused with cloves, cinnamon, orange and then topped with a cross of dough and the cross ends (the dough ends) are wrapped in walnuts.
M: It also sounds delicious.
S: Yes it does.
M: If you’re celebrating Christmas in Poland you might eat babka or sweet bread. This is often eaten on Christmas Eve following a fast. Polish families set out an extra place setting for the “lone wanderer” who may pass through. And chrusciki or angel wings, also called bow-tie fritters are sugary fried doughnuts.
S: Sounds like we need a trip to Poland.
M: Definitely. And Greece.
S: And if you happen to be enjoying the Christmas markets in Germany or Austria, try stollen. Now stollen which is a spicy, sugar-covered fruitcake. And I do want to say Merry Christmas to my sister Sabine who lives in Germany.
M: Merry Christmas!
S: Merry Christmas Sabine!
M: In Russia and Ukraine get ready for a feast. They do a 12-dish vegetarian feast to commemorate the 12 apostles. Often the first of the 12 dishes is schivo or kutia made of cooked wheat berries, poppy seeds, dried fruit, and honey. All guests must have at least one spoonful but customarily you wait until the first star appears in the sky before eating.
S: I don’t know if I could wait that long. In Russia, you may eat shuba which means “herring under a fur coat”.
M: Interesting.
S: Its main ingredients are pickled herring, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and grated vegetables like carrots or beets or potatoes and onions). The top layer is usually made of mayonnaise or some kind of beet dressing and that resembles a warm winter coat. So herring under a fur coat.
M: Interesting. You might also have kholodets or meat aspic. This is a savory veggie salad made by boiling meat until the stock is gelatinous and then using it to stick the veggies together.
S: I have to say that doesn’t sound too appetizing.
M: Any of the aspics… I’m a little bit like… I mean I’d try them… I’d try it.
S: Oh for sure, I would too. If you’re in Finland you could try a star or windmill shaped cookie made with ricotta and filled with prune jam called joulutorttu. And I want to say Juva Juoulua which is Merry Christmas in Finnish! I learned that from my sister Tuija. She lives in Helsinki.
M: Nice. Well staying in the Scandinavian countries, on Christmas Eve in Sweden you might enjoy a julbord. This is a buffet-style feast of “cold” foods like sliced meats, fish, cheese, and pickles; or a hot dish called Jansson’s Temptation and this is a casserole made with potatoes, onions, anchovies, and cream.
S: And staying in Scandinavian counties… in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the U. S. like Minnesota you might get to try lutefisk! It’s made by soaking dried cod or another whitefish in lye or sodium hydroxide. And you soak it for several days, then it’s steamed to create a very gelatinous texture and an interesting smell. And yes folks, it tastes like it sounds, we don’t have any here to try. But my grandfather liked to eat it on Christmas Eve and so we often had it on the Christmas Eve buffet and the rest of the family let him eat what he wanted. The rest of us avoided it!
M: Of course if you’re in Norway you’ll probably have some Lefse. This is a very thin flatbread made from potatoes. And we’ve actually made some since both of us have Norwegian ancestors! So we’ve also got some here to try! It’s usually topped with butter or butter and sugar, or some people add cinnamon or jam, and then it's rolled up and eaten.
S: Ok, so we’ve got one with just butter and that’s Megan’s tradition, is butter only, right?
M: Butter only.
S: Ok let’s try butter only. What do you think of the butter only Megan?
M: It’s good.
S: Yeah, I think it’s good too. Let’s try butter and sugar.
M: Ok... also good.
S: I agree. So my tradition is butter and sugar.
M: And in my house– absolutely not. Just butter all the way.
S: Make sure your butter is really soft.
M: Yes, that's helpful.
S: Because they’re really, really thin. Iceland makes a similar flatbread to lefse, but it’s made with wheat flour instead of potatoes. Still it’s super thin, and it’s usually cut into geometric patterns, like even snowflakes, before it’s deep fried. And they call it laufabrauo which means leafbread or snowflake bread.
M: And our last European country is France where they have a beautiful dessert called Buche de Noel or a Yule log. This is a chocolate cake that’s baked in the shape of a log and dusted with confectioners sugar to look like fallen snow.
S: You know, one year I tried to make a yule log… you know, it tasted ok. I like to bake.. It tasted ok but it didn’t look anything like the beautiful yule logs you see on the internet.
M: They do look tricky to make. So let’s go to the Philippines where they serve rellenong manok on Christmas Eve. This is a chicken stuffed with ingredients like pork, cheese, raisins, pine nuts, olives or really whatever you want and then roasted. You may also enjoy a lechon – a pig slow roasted over a charcoal pit.
S: If you’re still in the Philippines for breakfast, try bibingka. It’s rice flour or sticky rice, coconut milk, sugar, and water and then it’s wrapped and cooked in banana leaves. You can garnish it with eggs, cheese, or coconut flakes. And it’s kind of a sweet/savory combo that actually sounds really delicious!
M: I’d like to try that.
S: Yeah me too.
M: Here is an interesting dish. If you happen to be in the Czech Republic for Christmas you may have bathtub carp. It’s called bathtub carp because families used to keep a carp alive in their home bathrooms…
S: Surprise! 18.22
M: ….for up to a week before the holiday. Now you buy a live one from street vendors, bread it and fry it with potato salad and fish soup and you’ve got a traditional Czech Christmas meal.
S: Speaking of interesting seafood holiday dishes, check out these from Greenland. One is called mattak. This is raw whale skin and this is diced into squares.
M: I don’t know. I don’t know.
S: I’m pretty adventurous but…
M: Raw whale skin?
S: Yeah, I’m sure it’s delicious. Let’s hope. Anotherone is called kiviak and this is made- Get this, they stuff a seal skin full of hundreds of seabirds and they let them ferment inside it for 7 months!! I think I’d rather have the whale skin.
M: That’s a hard pass. Yeah I’d go for the whale skin over that.
S: Well after the 7 months, I guess the birds are removed and they’re served from the hollowed out seal carcass.
M: Yum…
S: Yum!? Happy holidays!
M: In countries in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas occurs in summer, dishes are lighter and often use things like meringue and fresh fruit.
S: Several countries also make items which are wrapped- fillings wrapped in something, so they’re kind of like wrapped presents! In Puerto Rico, they make pasteles and the filling is usually ground pork or chicken and it’s combined with things like chickpeas, or raisins, or olives and then they put a sauce on it- adobo sauce. And this is wrapped in masa dough made of grated green bananas, yautia, which is a starchy vegetable, and spices. It’s then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in hot water.
M: That is very similar to the tamales they make in Mexico which have filling made from pork, chicken, beans, or roasted veggies, all wrapped in masa dough made of corn meal, and then wrapped in corn husks and steamed.
S: We actually have tamales here with us today. These are bean and cheese tamales.
M: Yeah, these are not hard to find in Texas.
S: No they’re not. Especially south Texas which is where we are. So let’s try it. The beans have a nice spice and sometimes on tamales I think the masa is a little bit dry.
M: I agree but that’s good.
S: These are good.
M: Yeah, these are good.
S: They have a little more moisture, I think. They’re hard to make- usually you have a big tamalada where the whole family comes over- its a couple of days…
M: Wow.
S: …putting these together, so… appreciate it. In Venezuela they make something very similar. They’re called hallacas, I think. It’s cornmeal wrapped in banana leaves and they have some sort of filling inside.
M: But if you happen to be in Japan during Christmas, you may be surprised. It’s not a religious holiday there, more like a cross between Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. And if you want to fit in you’ll eat Kentucky Fried Chicken!
S: Kentucky Fried Chicken?
M: But make sure you pre-order it though or you may be waiting in line for a few hours or it may be sold out.
S: Wow, that popular? Crazy
M: They call it “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” which means “Kentucky for Christmas!”
S: You did that really well.
M: Thank you.
S: You know, there are so many Christmas foods and beverages from around the world. So let’s talk about some holiday drinks. During the Christmas season you’ll find mulled wine, it’s also called gluhwein or “glowing wine” and you can find this Christmas fairs in places like Germany and Austria. So we actually have some gluhwein that we purchased here. So we’re going to try it. It’s served warm.
M: Cheers!
S: Served warm and it’s a red wine. And we heated it.
M: And then garnished it with orange.
S: Yes
M: And it’s delightful.
S: That is really, really good.
M: Yeah, I like that.
S: I’m going to drink that year round. Of course there are other holiday beverages that you might hear about in the U.S. things like eggnog. Not my favorite…
M: No…
S: …but lots of people love it! And oftentimes with eggnog you’ll add some alcohol to it, like rum or whiskey or brandy.
M: I could get behind that. And in Peru they sip “la chocolatadas”... a hot chocolate made with condensed or evaporated milk and spices like cinnamon, chili powder, cloves, and nutmeg. It’s like Mexican hot chocolate, usually made with bittersweet chocolate and spices so it’s less sweet than the hot chocolate in the U.S. In Peru, they serve it with a cake similar to the Italian paneton which is a Christmas fruit cake.
S: There are so many more Christmas foods, we just gave you a small “taste”! And we took a small taste of the foods that are out there, but let’s talk about some other holidays.
M: Yeah many cultures don’t celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, but they also have traditional foods they consume during their own holiday celebrations.
S: Tankyuan is a Chinese dish often served during Winter Solstice or Lantern Festivals. These are small rice balls filled with sweet or savory ingredients and then served in broth. The Chinese also eat mooncakes filled with sweet pastes like red bean.
M: For the Winter Solstice called Toji, the Japanese will make dishes with kabocha squash which is also known as “Japanese pumpkin”. One of these foods is a Kabocha Soup, a creamy, velvety soup that can also be used as a dipping sauce.
S: That sounds good. For the Vietnamese New Year, called Tet, you can serve Bahn Chung. It's a rice cake made with sticky rice, pork, mung beans, green onions, fish sauce, and salt and pepper. You can also place these foods on family altars to pay tribute to ancestors and provide prayers for the upcoming year.
M: Diwali is India’s biggest holiday of the year. It gets its name from a row of clay lamps that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness or good over evil. It started as a Hindu holiday, but non-Hindus also celebrate this national festival in their own ways.
S: Some of the common foods eaten in India during this time are samosas, which are yummy.
M: Yum!
S: Or aloo bonda. These are fried dough or rice flour wrapped savory fillings. You can get them at most Indian restaurants and I highly recommend them. You can also paneer tikka which is a marinated cheese and veggies and this can be grilled or broiled. All of these go really well with green chutney!
M: For something sweeter try murukku which is a fried dough with spices made in concentric circles.
S: Yeah, I watched them do it on a youtube video.
M: Mmm-hmmm.
S: They basically take the dough and just- on a griddle, they just keep squeezing the dough out in circle, circle, circle until..
M: It sounds pretty.
S: It is, it looks really delicious. If you happen to be in Iran and you’re celebrating the winter solstice you might have a dish called fesenjan. Thi is a chicken stew that's flavored with pomegranates. I- It’s one of my favorite dishes. We used to eat at an Iranian restaurant here in San Antonio and it is what I always ordered. It was so delicious! Tender chicken with a walnut and pomegranate sauce …but the restaurant isn’t open anymore!
M: Aww…
S: We’ve got to find another place to eat fesenjan.
M: Well what about New Year’s? Foods eaten on New Year’s Eve are often there to bring you good luck and health. So let’s talk about some of these dishes.
S: Well in China you might eat a whole cooked fish with uncut noodles, to aid in longevity… The longer the noodles, the longer your life.
M: The day before Chinese New Year, eat jiaozi which are dumplings shaped like gold ingots, which is currency that was used in ancient China. So you do this for financial luck, and of course they must also eat oranges because that’s going to help with prosperity.
S: In the Southern U.S. New Year’s foods are all, like the Chinese, about financial prosperity! You can eat black-eyed peas in any way you want and those are supposed to be really lucky. You could eat collard greens and the green is for money. You could eat cornbread and the gold color symbolizes gold. And you can eat a dish called hoppin’ John. Hoppin’ John usually contains beans or the black eyed peas and rice and sometimes bacon. And the beans in hoppin’ John are supposed to symbolize coins.
M: In Japan, try toshikoshi soba which are buckwheat flour noodles. The soba length symbolizes long life, and buckwheat flour noodles symbolize resiliency. But you must slurp the noodles because if you break them that’s bad luck.
S: Oh, that’s kind of scary. The Spanish eat a grape on each stroke of midnight on New Years symbolizing upcoming calendar month. If one grape is bitter…. watch out during that month the next year!
M: Well ring-shaped cakes are popular during New Year’s often with something baked inside like a coin. You will have good luck for a year if you get the piece with the coin! I’s kind of like “King cakes” that they serve during Mardi Gras.
S: Ring cakes called Kransekage made of marzipan are popular in Denmark and Norway. The marzipan is often wrapped around a bottle of wine or Aquavit, then decorated.
M: Fish is always good too. Fish scales resemble coins and fish swim forward which symbolizes progress.
S: If you happen to be in Germany or Eastern Europe on New Year’s you must eat sauerkraut. The more you eat the bigger your financial luck… that’s a lot of sauerkraut. They also like soft pretzels.
M: I like soft pretzels too. So that’s a very small taste of “Season’s Eatings”! We hope you’ll forgive us for our poor pronunciation of many of these dishes.
S: Yes we do!
M: We tried.
S: We obviously couldn’t cover every country or every dish so we’d love to hear about the special foods you enjoy during your holiday celebrations!
M: Food is such a huge part of culture and heritage. You can learn a lot about cultures by enjoying a meal or snack with someone who celebrates differently than you do. We wish for all of you a happy, healthy, and satisfying time with family and friends.
S: Whatever holiday you celebrate. And have some great food too! Join us next time when we’ll celebrate 2023 as the International Year of Millets, a group of ancient grains!
Both: Happy holidays! Class dismissed.
S: We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can find the show notes and a list of sources on our website, yournutritionprofs.com.
M: Your homework is to follow us at your nutrition profs on Instagram and to listen to our next episode. You can listen on Amazon Prime, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts are found. We’d appreciate it if you’d “like” us, write a review, subscribe, and invite your family and friends to join us too.
S: If you have a nutrition or health question you’d like answered, let us know! We may even do a show about it! Send an email to yournutritionprofs@gmail.com or click on the “Contact Us” page on our website.
M: Thanks to Brian Pittman for creating our artwork. You can find him on instagram @BrianPittman77
Both: See you next time!