Most people associate Christmas with stars, stockings, trees and presents; but there’s another aspect of the festival that’s as popular as these traditional trappings – the Christmas lunch. Over the years, this elaborate meal has become an integral part of the holiday.
Christmas lunches can extend over many courses, and include a wide variety of delicacies: roasted turkey, chestnuts, potato salad, pumpkin pie, plum cake, cookies and gingerbread being some of the most common.
Metrolife caught up with a few Bangaloreans to find out what delicious indulgences they are treating themselves to as a part of their Christmas lunch.
Manu Joseph, a business management student, says that his Christmas is always celebrated with his family in Kerala. Because of this, his Christmas lunch is often spiced up with some local cuisine.
“I always associate Christmas with different meats. The ones that we have most commonly at home are chicken and beef. My mother always prepares a homemade chicken curry, and we also have some rice and traditional dishes like appam as sides,” he explains.
No Christmas lunch, however, is complete without dessert. “There’s always a cake, normally one with plum in it. Otherwise, we might have a pudding — like a caramel pudding,” says Manu, adding, “it’s mainly a time when my whole family tries to get together.”
Manu isn’t the only Bangalorean who believes that a Christmas lunch is best with local cuisine. Beena, an advocate, agrees that her perfect Christmas lunch would be complete only with dishes from her hometown in Kerala. “The food cooked by Malayali Christians is really good. Generally, my favourite dish is appam, which is eaten along with a stew prepared in coconut milk. Even foreigners who come to our state during the festival like to eat this,” she says.
She too enjoys eating meat dishes during the festival. “We generally have chicken and mutton-based dishes, like chicken stew cooked in coconut milk. We sometimes have biryani as well. For dessert, we prefer to have homemade cake. This is made in an old-fashioned manner, not like the modern products one gets in bakeries these days. I don’t know how it’s done, but the recipe is followed by many grandmothers in Kerala, and it’s very good. Homemade dishes always taste better,” she explains.
Anjali, a student, says that her family always has some sort of lunch get-together during Christmas.
“I always celebrate Christmas in Bangalore, although my hometown is Chennai.
One time that really stands out in my mind is about two years back. We had all gone to my aunt’s house to celebrate the festival. She had a stuffed turkey prepared, along with some other dishes like potato salad and biscuits,” she says, adding, “the highlight of the meal was really the dessert. She had a gingerbread house, complete with an iced roof and candies all over it. All of us had a lot of fun breaking it apart and eating the pieces.”
