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Cooking and eating for Christmas
12/26/09
Cooking and eating for Christmas
As we all recover from yesterdays immence food intake, I started thinking about all the preparation that came in with the christmas cooking. Now I am one of the lucky few people who get to eat 2 christmas dinners :) (one for my mom's side and one for my dad's side of the family) and over the years it has become apparent that there are two different preparation methods for each and also 2 similar... but different menus for each as well.
To be honest I have always thought of my dad's side of the family as the more ... uptown, kingstonian family. Christmas dinners with them have always been quiet and personal. When we prepare for that family dinner we pick a house, all the chefs call and plan the menu beforehand, and then as each prepares their specialty we converge at that house, set the table, eat, drink, be merry, talk a little and leave. The typical menu for that dinner is normally Ham (of course), baked chicken, ackee and saltfish, vegetables and etc. Now people may think this sounds boring (especially in comparison to mom's side... i'll get into that in a second), but to be hoenst its quite fun, its more personal, and people tend to make lots of jokes (political and not) at each other and meeting up with relatives we havent seen in a while definitely adds to the fun.
My mom's side of the family is the more... rural/country side which involves much more people and also a much different atmosphere. First of all, quiet and personal... definitely not. With this family dinner literally everybody and their mothers are present (english translation to the patois saying). Here the menu is also a bit more ad-hoc, and random. Instead all the chefs gather in the kitchin and just automatically begin to cook whatever comes to their minds... Ok its a bit more organized than that (just a bit), but the kitchen from morning to evening is literally a haven of activity and people running around and lots of noise and laughter as people eat and catch up. Dinner is eaten wherever in the yard you happen to find a seat and nobody will think anything wierd if u sit in the grass
Its this contrasting dinners that adds another interesting aspect to the season in my opinion that cannot be ignored and that I think all families should go through. Too much of one or the other doesn't add to the fun and excitement that christmas dinner really should entail.
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