17/12- Food- A Little Trip Down Forever Lane

Contemporary

Zihán wanders through the streets of the marketplace, staring at the flashing lights, holding her best friend's hand. They look for the píngguǒ. Apples: the peace fruit. Zihán is one of the few who celebrate Christmas, though not so much from a religious point of view. In China, Christmas is more of an addition to the New Year, and not much of a celebration.

It's a great time to sell stuff, though, as her Uncle does in their local area. There are hundreds of people, and tens of stalls with the special apples. But her Uncle's are the best, because they have special designs on them.

"There! There!" Her friend calls, and the pair turn to the right.

Beautiful. The apples are wrapped in plastic bags, with gold ribbons and gold lettering, saying stuff like 'Merry Christmas' and 'All the best'.

"Here. I saved it especially for you." Zihán's Uncle pulls out two apples from beneath the table, one of them with a 'Santa' playing the saxophone, and the other has a moustache.

"Thank you!" Zihán takes them, placing the coins in his hand, which he tries to fight against. But she wins!

She passes one to her best friend.

"Are you giving it to Yuxuan?" Her friend asks.

"Yes. Our first píngguǒ."

They're a sign of romance, as in China, Christmas is like a second Valentine's Day. How exciting it was to share a píngguǒ!

*

Hudson ran down the stairs, hearing Dad coming in through the door with many bags in hand.

"Which is the Pavlova bag?" The others will (probably) be gift bags. Which you can't look at until Christmas.

This year, they not only had to buy the fruits, but also the meringue base, instead of making it, because there would be no time with the trip to visit their family in Australia.

"None of them are for you to look in." Dad chuckles, placing the bags on the counter.

"Why??? I want to help!"

"Maybe next year, buddy. All I really have to do is chop up the fruits and put the cream on."

"Did you get the kiwi?" Hudson asks, crawling onto the high chair.

"Of course. I know it's your favourite. Even got you one to eat whilst you wait. Catch!"

Hudson grabs it in midair, almost falling off his chair. He looks at his Dad's progress carefully, assessing it. "Can I get a taste of the pavlova?"

"Not yet!"

*

Alma and her husband Emil are hosting Julefrokost this year. In Denmark, Christmas is not celebrated as a dinner, but as a whole-day buffet, where the goal is to make your guests too sleepy to move. Not everyone does it

They start with the breakfast with coffee cake, apple cake and the star of their show: their carefully-crafted ableskivers. Little pancake balls sprinkled in powdered sugar and utterly scrumptious.

Only one portion is left by the time Aksel and Ida arrive, and that's only because Alma saved some. Most of those were eaten before they got there anyway. They're always hours late to Julefrokost, even the ones they host.

The rest of the day is filled with fish, rugbod, meatballs, rice puddings and lots of alcohol!

*

Every Polish family has a different version of the twelve dishes of Christmas, but there are always twelve to recognise Jesus' apostles.

Everyone in the Dabrowski family likes a different part of the Wigilia (Christmas Eve) meal.

Sara likes to dress up the most. Not only the great food, but the occasion to look good before God, and just have a fun time.

Adam likes the barszcz z uszkami. A beetroot soup, with little onion-and-mushroom-filled dumplings. The barszcz likes to stain the tablecloth, so it's always a challenge not to make a mess!

Alicja likes the piernik: Polish gingerbread. From the city of Torun to her mouth, she loves the sweet cake, which is always present, and half of all she'll eat during Wigilia. Sometimes it even has marzipan or chocolate, allowing bonus sweet points.

Tomas likes Kompot. Like tea, but cold, and not at all like tea. It's more like juice. Peach, strawberry, apple, cherry, you name it! All delicious and perfect to sip alongside your meal.

Mira likes everything, but especially the sernik. And not just because she makes it most of the time! It's that right amount of sweet, and so unbelievably creamy, because there is a special recipe amongst the family. But Polish cheesecake is different, anyway.

Janna likes the fish. Especially Karp. But she also loves a side of sauerkraut.

Irena's absolute favourite is pierogi. Most people love pierogi. If you'd ask a Polish person something to try from their culture, it'd be pierogi: you can put any filling, from potato to mushroom! And all are delicious.

On January sixth, Latin American cultures eat Roscon de Reyes. It's bread topped with fruit and candy, but many call it the Three Kings' Day cake. Felicita found it an odd tradition because she never truly understood the meaning behind it. She always just nodded and ate the candy off the top because she found it tasted weird with the bread.

But one year, she walked downstairs, and there it stood on the table. From what she was aware of, no weird spell had been cast on her. But the Roscon smelled... good?

The King's ring must have been freshly baked by dad (surprisingly, since neither parent knew how to bake too well), and Felicita really, really wanted to sink her teeth into it.

But she had to wait for the slices to be cut, meaning she had to wait for her sister to drive over, so they could all eat it together.

When Felicita's sister arrived, they all sat down as Mum cut the ring. Everyone got a slice, and it was already halfway to Felicita's mouth as the last was being cut. Come on....

Her mouth was hit with an odd sensation. Delicious, delicious bread mixed perfectly with sweet fruit. But as she chewed, something hard hit her teeth.

In disgust, she pulled whatever it was from her mouth (also disgustingly) and saw it was the baby Jesus figurine.

It was her first time getting it, because she never ate more than the sweets off the Roscon. "I'm the King!" she shouted.

"And I'm buying next year's." Her sister rolled her eyes. "How did you get it on your first year of eating it?"

"Luck! Luck! Luck!" she chanted.

Thank you for reading. I hope you got a little Christmas joy from this story. Here, for anyone who wants it, is the maintenance.

If you enjoyed this story, please, please, please (I can add a cherry if necessary) like, comment, rate and share. It really helps me out and allows others to see these (hopefully decent) stories. Thank you, and Merry Christmas.