Tastes of December

Brianna Cheng & Bella reeves

The brilliant glow of lights inside the house illuminates the cold, dark street outside. A faint chatter emanates from the glowing house, punctuated by bursts of loud laughter. The partygoers are warm and sheltered from the cold night outside. The smells of delicious home-cooked dishes emerge from the mahogany table surrounded by friends and family members. Winter has many diverse celebrations; let’s see what each family celebrates.

Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice Festival is celebrated across Asia around Dec. 21. Since it is celebrated on the shortest day of the year, its origins can be traced back to the philosophy of yin and yang; yin is dark, female energy and yang is positive, male energy. The festival is seen as a release of yang energy that causes the days to get longer and warmer. Traditional celebrations differ depending on the country, but in China, traditional dishes are generally split by north and south: in the north, people eat dumplings, and in the south, they eat glutinous rice balls. “There is a saying among the folks that ‘you will be one year older after eating glutinous rice balls.’ The glutinous rice ball, called tāngyuán in Chinese, is made with glutinous rice flour and sugar. ‘Yuan’ sounds like ‘reunion’ and ‘accomplishment,’” Herrick Chui explained. Chui immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong a few decades ago but still tries to maintain traditional customs and reminisces on his childhood memories of the holiday.

“The Winter Solstice is also considered a sort of New Years’ as well, although the celebration is smaller. All the family members get together, eat the tang yuan, and take the day off since it’s a proper holiday. Since here we don’t have a special day off as a holiday, we make do with the time that is available. I just call and remind them that today is the winter festival; you can make some tangyuan yourself, or go buy some from the store, since having some is better than none!” Chui said.

Great Uncle’s tang yuan

Ingredients:

Glutinous rice flour Water Brown sugar

Make a mountain of glutinous rice flour, and mix in water little by little until a soft dough is formed

Form the dough into small balls, around 1-1½ in. in diameter.

Put water into a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil; drop dough balls into the water and boil until they float to the top of the water (do not overcrowd the pot, depending on size, about 10 balls per batch.)

Change out the water.

Boil water in pot, add brown sugar to desired sweetness, add cooked dough balls back to sugar water and heat until warm. Serve about 6-7 dough balls per bowl with sugar soup.

Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia is a traditional Scandinavian holiday, held in honor of St. Lucy as a symbol of light. In the early morning of Dec. 13, families wake up to the sound of carols sung by neighborhood parades. At the head of the procession is a woman dressed as St. Lucy, in a white gown with a wreath of candles on her head. Trailing her are a flock of children, dressed in white gowns and holding candles. After the parade, families enjoy mulled wine (or nonalcoholic alternatives), gingersnaps, and lussekatter for breakfast. Lussekatter are the s-shaped saffron buns specially made for Lucia; according to NPR, they are traditionally eaten due to the specialty of expensive saffron and their bright yellow color as a symbol for light.

“A lot of Swedish holidays have roots before Sweden became Christian. The songs that we sing don’t have much to do about celebrating the saint, it’s more of a celebration about things getting brighter again. It’s very dark in winter in Sweden (the sun rises at 9 a.m. and sets at 3 p.m.) so it’s like celebrating change and life coming back after the darkest day,” Helena Landin said.

Landin immigrated from Sweden but still maintains her cultural traditions in the Bay Area. “I really love the Bay Area since there will always be people bringing and teaching their specific culture. I can bring in saffron buns to school or to work, and spread the joy,” Landin said.

Lussekatter

Ingredients:

(adapted from Swedishfood.com) ½ tsp saffron threads ½ tsp salt ½ tsp vodka Handful of raisins 1¼ milk 1 egg, lightly beaten 4+ cups of bread flour ½ tsp cardamom (optional; non-traditional) 7 tbsp caster sugar 1½ fast action dried yeast (1 packet) 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and softened

Grind saffron threads with salt in mortar and pestle until evenly mixed; pour vodka over mixture and let steep for at least 30 min.

Steep raisins in hot water until required.

Heat milk until lightly steaming, between 95-105 F

Sift flour into stand-mixer bowl, and mix in sugar, yeast, and optional cardamom.

Fix dough hook to stand-mixer and on the lowest setting, slowly add milk, saffron-salt-vodka mixture, and half of the beaten egg (reserve the other half for glazing).

Once all the wet ingredients have been added, increase the speed slightly and slowly add the butter, a cube at a time, waiting for each cube to be mixed in before adding the next. If the mixture looks too wet, add a few tablespoons of flour.

Continue to knead at current speed until it forms a soft dough that is tacky but doesn’t stick to the bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Knock down the dough and tip out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 16 pieces, roughly 70 grams each.

Roll out each piece out to about a foot long, and curl into s-shapes. Place each piece onto a lined baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic and rest for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Brush buns with beaten egg and add a raisin to the center of each coil.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown

Transfer to a wire rack, cover with a cloth and leave to cool slightly; serve the buns warm.

Orthodox Christmas

Beyond the traditional American Christmas, there are other ethnic cultures that celebrate Christmas as well. Junior Sylvia Khouri celebrates Christmas in the Palestinian Orthodox tradition.

“We set up a tree at my grandma’s house; usually the whole family meets up there. We dress up for the church sermon, and afterwards we go to the church basement. A bunch of families gather, and there’s a ton of food. The wives cook a huge buffet of Arabic food. Before we eat, everyone will gather with the priest, and have a little prayer. When we eat, there will usually be music and people will dance dabke while others eat. After the church service, we’ll go back to my grandma’s house and spend time together as a family,” Khouri said.

The dabke is a traditional Middle Eastern dance, performed at special celebrations. There are many variations of the dance, based on the event and region, but they all have elements of line or circle dancing, bringing everyone together to share in the festivities. The food is also an integral part of the celebrations. Khouri’s favorite dishes are kousa mahshi, a stuffed squash dish, and warak diwali, rice and meat stuffed in grape leaves. For dessert, her family traditionally makes knafeh nabulsi, one of the most famous variations of knafeh.

“Knafeh, which is like a flaky dough with cheese, similar to baklava. The way my grandma makes it isn’t very pretty, but it’s really tasty. She sprinkles this orange dough onto a greased pan, puts some cheese in the middle and puts more dough on top. The dough is flaky, it kind of looks like those veggie straw chips. On top, she puts pistachio powder, and throws it in the oven; the cheese melts and it’s so good!” Khouri said.

To Khouri, Christmas is an especially memorable time to gather with family.

“The religious meaning of Christmas has kind of faded with the youth, for us it’s mostly about connecting with family and our heritage. My grandparents always end up sharing stories about when they immigrated to America, and my dad and uncles will jump in. It’s always fun to listen in, because we’ll ask ‘tell us the story about the goat!’ and everyone will be laughing. It’s just a good way to hear about the stories of our family and how they got here; one year, we found a family tree that went really far back, and we found the origin of why our family is Christian! It’s such a weird story but it’s really cool since we get to connect with our culture and family,” Khouri said. Hanukkah

Hanukkah is the eight-day Jewish celebration which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The legend states that Jews had risen up against their oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt; within two years, they had successfully driven the Syrians out of Jerusalem. The celebration is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. Lighting the hanukkiah, eating traditional foods, and playing games are all done to celebrate Hanukkah.

When the Syrians ransacked Jerusalem, they only left a day’s worth of oil to light the menorah, but the miracle of Hanukkah is that the oil lasted eight days. To celebrate the miracle of oil, most traditional Hanukkah foods are cooked in it. A staple in this feast is latkes, fried potato pancakes, which are commonly paired with either applesauce or sour cream; another popular dish is the jelly-filled donut sufganiyot.

As Hanukkah brings families together, Jessica Klein, a senior at Carlmont, expands on her personal significance with the Hanukkah celebration: “I don’t celebrate holidays for any particular religion, it’s more of feeling like a part of the culture. My ancestors had to put up with a lot of persecution for me to celebrate Jewish holidays,” said Klein.

In her sophomore year, Klein spent a year abroad in Israel exploring and understanding her Jewish community. Although Hanukkah is acknowledged as a religious holiday, many nonJewish communities recognize it as a gift-giving celebration instead.