Global Eats

A holiday without its own special culinary trappings would be a dour day indeed. As we approach the winter holidays, our salivary glands start working overtime. Here is a sampling of treats that are synonymous with celebrations both around the world and in Wilmington homes:

Italian Christmas dessert: Struffoli

The ladies of La Gemma bakery are of two minds about what constitutes the quintessential Italian Christmas treat.

Bakery owner Roberta Campani nominates pandoro, a tall, cone-shaped sweet bread that she slices horizontally, rotating each layer, then icing and decorating the whole cake so it looks like a Christmas tree.

Her associate, Patrizia Denton, favors struffoli: small balls of dough, fried and drizzled with glaze, then sprinkled with colorful, edible decorations.

“They’re like tiny little mini doughnuts,” explains Denton, adding that she likes to form the sticky struffoli into a cone shape so the dessert also resembles a Christmas tree.

Italians, too, may be divided about which dessert best captures the Christmas tradition.

After all, struffoli are Neapolitan and beloved in the south of Italy, while Pandoro hails from Verona in the north.

Hanukkah: Potato latkes

Gather a group of Jewish women together and ask them how to prepare potato latkes for Hanukkah, and you’ll have at least as many recipes as women present.

When Ellen Balser, Harriet Eisen (pictured), Charlotte Rosenberg, and Wendy Sidlofsky – members of the Ladies Concordia Society of Wilmington’s Temple of Israel – got together to share latke-making techniques, they good-naturedly argued over the finer points: a garnish of applesauce versus sour cream (or both); flour versus matzo meal for thickening; shredding versus mashing the main ingredient; or even (horrors!) using frozen hash browns.

“You do whatever your mother did,” says Balser.

There are, however, several points of consensus. First, the latke makers agree that squeezing all the liquid from the potatoes and onions is essential to guarantee a good, firm pancake. Second, they emphasize that the pan must be hot. Third, they advise that pancakes hold together better if they are small.

The potato cakes, fried in oil, recall the miracle of the oil during the Maccabean Revolt in the second century B.C. When the Jews, led by the Maccabees, drove Romans out of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, they found that the occupiers had profaned most of the holy oil. One vial only remained, but it proved enough to keep the temple menorah lit for eight days. Click HERE for the recipe.

Karen New Year: Chicken curry

Ay Kay Htoo, a Karen immigrant from Burma who lives in Wilmington, prepares chicken curry for important holidays throughout the Karen calendar. As curry fans know, the seasonings for this dish vary greatly depending on the culture. Ay Kay Htoo uses only onion, turmeric, salt, and chilies to flavor her dish.

According to Ay Kay Htoo’s daughter Eh Mu Tha Paw, their large family will enjoy her mother’s curry on Karen New Year – the date of which in December or January is determined each year by the Buddhist lunar calendar. In addition to eating a festive meal, the Karen celebrate the holiday with dancing, singing, and making speeches.

Like other Karen refugees who moved to Wilmington to transition to life in the United States, Ay Kay Htoo’s family escaped oppression in Burma, where Karen are an ethnic minority, by fleeing to a refugee camp in Thailand. They lived at the camp for 13 years before they were awarded United Nations refugee status and allowed to emigrate.

Since Ay Kay Htoo’s family is Christian, she will likely prepare chicken curry for Christmas as well. Click HERE for the recipe. 

Greek Feast of St. Vasilios: Vasilopeta

For Greeks, Jan. 1 has double significance. Not only is it New Year’s Day, it is also the Feast of St. Vasilios (Basil, in English), one of the most important saints in the Greek Orthodox pantheon.

Many Greeks celebrate with a special cake, vasilopeta, which is baked with a coin inside. When the cake is sliced, the first serving goes to the oldest person in the household, and subsequent slices are passed out in order of age. According to tradition, whoever gets the slice with the coin can expect very good luck in the new year.

“The cake blesses the house and the person with the coin,” says Renée Saffo, whose family – and that of her husband, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo – comes from the Aegean island of Ikaria.

She says her husband has a special connection with the traditional Greek New Year’s cake.

“A couple of years ago, he got the coin in his slice of vasilopeta. It was even more meaningful because Bill’s formal name is Vassilios, so New Year’s Day is his name day. In Greece, you celebrate the day of the saint for whom you are named,” she says.

Bill Saffo says he carries that lucky coin with him all the time.

There are several recipes for vasilopeta, but the one the Saffos enjoy on New Year’s Day is a moist, bread-like cake. Regardless of what recipe you follow, the only ingredient that is absolutely essential is the coin. Click HERE for the recipe.

French Christmas Yule log: Buche de Noël

And finally, reliving my student days in France, I often bake a buche de noël during the Christmas holidays.

Explanations vary as to how the traditional Yule log migrated from the fireplace to the table in 19th century France, but by the middle of the 20th century, many French households celebrated with this cake made to look like a log.

It’s still much in demand at patisseries all over France and has become popular in other countries as well.

You can also make a buche de noël (literally, “Christmas log”) yourself. When I taught French in elementary school, I baked and filled a genoise (sponge cake) and allowed the students to finish decorating it with chocolate frosting (raked with a fork to simulate the bark), sprigs of holly or other greenery, and meringue mushrooms.

The trickiest part of assembling the dessert is rolling the genoise while it is still slightly warm and pliable. Even if it cracks a bit, frosting can disguise the problem – and logs often have small fissures, anyway. Bon appétit! Click HERE for the recipe.

To view more of photographer Andrew Sherman’s work, click here. ashermanphotography.com