Christmas 2009 – 12/25/09

Since before I was born, my family has gathered at my aunt’s place in Alameda for lunch and at my grandmother’s for dinner (a very similar setup to Thanksgiving). This year was no different.

LUNCH

First off, was lunch in Alameda. The food is served buffet-style, and my aunt makes most of the dishes.

There are a number of finger foods served, including egg rolls, meatballs, shrimp toasts, and chicken wing ‘lollipops.’ The latter was one of my favorites, and is a chicken wing and drumette folded up into a lollipop shape and deep fried.

A wide array of dishes are also served. One of the staples is chow mein.

A new side dish this year was a curried rice dish, with cashews, raisins, peas and chicken.

Caesar salad.

Another new dish – quinoa with tangerines and peanuts.

Another classic is fried wontons. I tend to snack on these throughout the day.

Pan-seared shrimp.

A new dish this year was pork belly. My uncle’s creation – it had a very crisp skin and was not overly fatty.

Another dish my uncle made was pork ribs.

Desserts included a cake from Schubert’s Bakery in San Francisco.

And a cake from Sweet Stop in San Francisco.

Homemade apple turnovers.

As a take-home, my cousin baked these treats.

It is always a challenge to find room for dinner after all this food. We end up eating throughout the day, with the main lunching coming around 1230 and desserts coming out at 2-3. Dinner tends to be early, around 6, so there’s a brief window to work up an appetite.

DINNER

For dinner, I brought an extra special bottle of bubbly to celebrate with.

My grandmother made a soup of a chicken and pork base with mushrooms, dates and dried bean curd.

The centerpiece of our meals is always a beef roast. Traditionally, this has been a New York roast, and this year was not an exception.

Another meat option this year was whole roasted squab, which is stuffed with a Chinese sticky rice.

My grandmother makes a huge pot of this sticky rice, and it is served as a side (as well as stuffed in the squab above).

My grandmother also stir fried some fresh crab. The crab was broken down, cracked, and stir fried with ginger, green onion, and some whiskey.

For sides, there were yams,

asparagus,

mashed potatoes,

and gravy.

The dinner table, as shown below, was just totally full of food.

There were a number of desserts available, including the cake below, which is a duplicate cake from the one served at lunch from Sweet Stop. Interior photo below.

St. Honore cake from Victoria Pastry in San Francisco.

A homemade chocolate pie.

This was a pie with an oreo crust, rich fudge filling, and homemade whipped cream. At first glance, it looks like a lot of whipped cream. But it’s very light, and a generous amount really goes well with the rich and dense fudge. Delicious.

This Christmas, as in past years, did not fail to be full of food. For me, Thanksgiving and Christmas (as well as the American Wine & Food Festival) have to be some of the highest caloric intakes of the year.