Weird Christmas Meals from Around the World

Weird Christmas Meals from Around the World

Christmas traditions may look familiar: twinkling lights, warm cocoa with marshmallows, festive tables, but around the world holiday traditions and meals might take some unexpected turns. You can expect anything from dishes that surprise your palate to meals rooted in centuries old customs. These foods show how diverse and delightful Christmas celebrations can be. Here are some of the strangest, and wonderfully weird Christmas meals cooked or eaten around the world. Some are delicious and some are questionable.

Fermented Birds in Seal Skin (Kiviak) in Greenland

If you are a fan of intense arctic flavor, Kiviak might be the right fit for you!

Kiviak is a traditional Inuit delicacy from Greenland, and honestly, it is the most unusual Christmas food I have ever heard of! It is made by fermenting for months dozens of whole seabirds with feathers, beaks, and literally everything, and stuffing them into a seal skin. Then the seal skin is sealed lightly, covered with grease to keep air out, and buried under the rocks. It is purely traditional natural fermentation. The natural enzymes and bacteria inside the birds break down the meat softening it and giving it a strong fermented flavor.

When it is ready at Christmas, the seal skin is opened, and the fermented birds are eaten raw. Kiviak is the traditional winter survival food, especially when the winter months are cold, dark and hunting is very limited.

To the Inuit it is a valued cultural dish passed down through many generations.

Fried Christmas Caterpillars in South Africa

Fried caterpillars are high in protein, iron and healthy fats. They are a Christmas delicacy for luck in the new year. They are prepared from mopane worms, which are caterpillars from Emperor Moth found in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. They are harvested by hand, and their intestines are squeezed out, then boiled in salt water. Then, they are sun-dried or fried until crispy. They have nutty, smoky flavor and remind me of beef jerky. They are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Lutefisk (Gelatin Fish) in Norway

Lutefisk in Norway is one of the most iconic and unusual holiday dishes. Lutefisk is a dried cod fish soaked in lye and then soaked in water for several days until it becomes gelatinous

and wobbly like jelly. Then the lye is removed, the fish is baked and served with melted butter, peas and potatoes.

It is beloved Christmas tradition in Norway. It looks like something from the chemistry lab, but people love it!

Tavuk Göğsü in Turkey

A Christmas meal would be nothing if not for dessert. And this one won the prize for the weirdest Christmas dessert: Tavuk Göğsü. It is a beloved Ottoman dessert made with shredded chicken breast cooked into sweet milk pudding (milk, sugar, rice flour). The chicken becomes so soft you cannot feel it – but knowing it is there is the strangest part! The chicken is sliced into blocks and sprinkled with cinnamon. Sometimes it is caramelized on top.

Merry Christmas, Dear Akademos Students!

Vocabulary

Twinkling – shine with a light that is intermittent or sparkling (mrugające)

palate – the roof of the mouth (podniebienie)

seal – any numerous marine carnivores of the suborder Pinnipedia (foka)

grease – oil or fat used in cooking (tłuszcz)

passed down – teach something to a younger generation (przekazane)

caterpillars – the larva of a butterfly or moth, having segmented wormlike body with three pairs of true legs and several pairs of appendages similar to legs (gąsiennica)

harvest – gather, pick (zbierać)

wobbly – tending to move unsteady from side to side (trząść się jak galareta)

shred – tear something (pociąć na w paski, poszarpać na kawałki)

sprinkle – scatter or pour small particles of a substance over (posypywać)