Traditional holiday food is both diverse and shared ----

 

For Bay Area people with family roots in Latin America, Christmas is a cherished celebration that is all about being with family and enjoying the most special food of their country or region. Different countries celebrate and feast differently and traditional meals are sometimes influenced by more modern, American preferences. But most Latino families proudly honor the traditional meals of their home country.

Lito Saldaña, chef and owner of Los Moles restaurant in Emeryville said that he really enjoys Christmas. Like the Mexican food at his restaurant, Christmas dinner is designed to relive the tastes and times of a generation ago. “I really like to have a traditional dinner with the food that we used to eat at Christmas in my little town called El Aserradero in Jalisco, Mexico. And of course I am the chef for the special day.”

“The menu this year is going to be tamales Yucatecan style”, adds Saldaña. “The dough is stuffed with pork marinated in achiote sauce, then it is wrapped with a banana leaf and after cooking is served with more achiote sauce and habanero pepper with red onions.”

“We love to drink atole de nuez, which is a drink made with water, milk, cinnamon, piloncillo and lots of fresh nuts. We will have the traditional pozole made with the whole pork head, to make it very tasty and traditional.”

Saldaña says that he every year he makes a surprise dish for the family so they can participate and cook together. “This time I would like to grill a nice rib-eye steak. I really enjoy when the kids come close to the grill and ask questions and help me to cook - it is just like the old times”.

“Christmas is always an excellent time to spend with family and we like to keep the dinner very traditional,” says Lalo Martinez, who is chef and manager of Celia’s Mexican restaurant in Hayward.

“I cook many things from scratch and this time I will make corn tamales, handmade tostadas, and salad for the vegetarians. For people who like beef we will have picadillo and potatoes for the tostadas. Of course we cannot miss the pozole that has to be cooked with the pork head and legs.”

“Also, we will have the ponche made out of fruit, and of course tequila.”

While the majority of Latinos in the Bay Area are from Mexico, there are thousands of people with family roots from many Latin American countries. With the Latin American world being so large, it is a bit surprising how many food dishes are shared across borders and cultures – tamales, menudo, and buñuelos are a few. Following is a brief summary of Christmas dinner in the countries that are most represented by the Bay Area Latino population.

Mexico
Turkey, which is native to Mexico, is most often the main meal, and is stuffed with either ground meat, olives and raisins. Bacalao (dried codfish) is traditionally served as a first course. Because tamales are time consuming to prepare, they are a special holiday food. Pozole soup made with pork or chicken and seasoned with chile and garlic. Menudo is a traditional Mexican Christmas recipe featuring tripe, hominy and spices. For dessert, bunuelos, a light, fried Christmas cookie.

Peru
Families join together for a dinner of roast turkey and white rice seasoned with garlic. Roasted potatoes and uncooked sweetened apple puree are often served as well. The main desert is panettone, which originated in Italy. It is usually accompanied by a cup of thick hot chocolate.

El Salvador
Dinner menus vary as does the times for dinner. Upper and upper middle class families may enjoy a more "Americanized" menu of turkey and ham, while traditional middle class and lower income families may have chicken or even special homemade tamales.

Chile
Following the midnight Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster), the Christmas Eve meal often includes cazuela de ave (chicken cazuela), a chicken soup filled with potatoes, onions and corn on the cob; and pan de pascua, a Christmas bread filled with candied fruit.

Colombia
Traditional Colombian foods for Christmas include: ajiaco (a soup with potatoes), chicken and natilla (a corn based dessert) and buñuelos.