Old Traditions With A New Twist

Happy New Year! One year ago today, my husband and I were moving the last of our belongings from our tiny apartment into our lovely new home. We felt it was only appropriate to host New Year's Eve for our friends and mark the occasion of being settled. It won't be a big blowout, a small crowd of about 8 friends, which is personable & comfy.  We like our gatherings to reflect our tastes. We both love learning about other cultures and we also like the old blended with the new (such as Victorian homes with modern interiors). And I also like to keep things healthy. There's nothing worse than leaving a holiday party feeling overstuffed and bloated.

We decided to reflect all three of these things in our dinner menu.  Our food choices are taken from how they celebrate New Year's Eve form around the world.  So here's some of things we'll be eating and the symbolism behind each.

In China & Japan they have a number of food traditions. The one we chose was eating noodles. My husband loves Soba, which are buckwheat noodles from Japan. In these countries, long noodes symbolize longevity, so I made a cold sesame noodle salad.  Its super easy to make:

- Cook, rinse and drain 1 package of organic buckwheat noodles

-in a bowl combine 10 teaspoons tamari soy sauce, 4 teaspoons of rice vinegar, 4 teaspoons of sesame oil and about 2 tablespoons of honey. Whisk the liquid all together.

-add some chopped scallions and toasted sesame seeds to the noodles and toss with the dressing.

In England, and many parts of Europe dishes featuring lots of leafy greens are popular. Greens such as collards, kale and cabage are said to represent money & wealth. My husband and most of our friends don't share my love of Kale, so instead I feaured cabbage by making an Asian slaw with a miso ginger dessing. It also goes nicely with the noodle salad.

In Turkey, pomegranites are traditonally eaten. Their red color is seen to symbolize a healthy heart and fertilityas well. I don't know much about Turkish recipes so I incorporated the pomegranite seeds into waldorf salad.  Egglpant dishes and hummus are also popular in this part of the world, as well as in Egypt and Lebanon. I'm serving up some eggplant tapenade and the hummus with pita chips. The way I see it, feeding my friends lots of fruit and veg is a good way to start the new year! 

Next stop in our culinary world tour is Italy. I diverted the wisdom of Mario Batai & my favorite of his restarants, Babbo, on this one. This dish is one of the most traditional dishes to eat at "Cenone", the Italian traditional New Year's Eve supper. Here is a link to the recipe : http://www.altacucinasociety.com/recipes_detail.asp?id=100

When you eat the lentils within an hour before midnight, they are said to symbolize the wealh you will acquire in th coming year. The sausage is a special one from Modena that is difficult to find. I was able to purchase some on amazon after no luck at any of the ocal butcher shops.

Sticking with the sausage theme, pork is a lucky food throughout most of the world, unlike chicken which is apparently bad luck on his fesive night. In the Netherlands they enjoy little pigs made out of marzipan. Germany has sausages and sauerkraut. I thought this would be easy and got a nice variety of handcrafted german sausages from Wegmans. The sauerkraut is my grandmother's recipe. Her father was an immigrant from Poland and her mother one from Hungary, so she knows her pickled vegetables. Not to mention, she doesn't consider it a proper holiday celebration unless theres sauerkraut and some type of pork. 

Also paying tribute to my cultural heritage, my grandfather on my father's side of the family is Greek. Normally on new year's eve you would enjoy a St. Basil's cake.  I'm sill watching my gluten intake, and settled on making Spanikopita instead, with some special gluten free phyllo, of course.

In Spain and Portugal it is tradition to eat twelve grapes at midnight, one at each of the twelve "bongs" of the clock. Each chime represents a month of the year. This way you will have good luck for each of the twelve months in the coming year. I'll be serving these with our Champagne toast.

True Champagne comes from the region of Champagne France and is often made from Chardonnay grapes. My father's mother came over on theboat from France when she was a girl, so in our home drinking true champagne was a must.  If its not from this region, you are technically drnking sparkling wine. Most sparkling wines sold this time of year can be pretty awful. This is the one time of year most people try champagne unfortunately so it get a bad rap. An alternative that many people enjoy is a sparkling dessert wine from Italy, called Prosecco. It is sweet and light so most people will drink this happily.

Here are a fewgood toasts that I especially liked:

Be at war with your voices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
~Benjamin Franklin

For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. ~ T.S. Eliot


The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt


However you celebrate tonight,I hope you do so safely. I wish each and every one of you a happy and HEALTHY 2013, full of good cheer.