The country of Greece is 97% Christian, so it makes sense that Easter is the biggest holiday. The celebratory Easter Sunday meal is truly special- full of tradition, religious symbolism, and of course, incredible food.
Whether your Christian or not, it’s always fun to throw a family dinner that replicates how other countries celebrate holidays around the world, like a Jewish Passover seder orChristmas in Scandinavia. Here are some great recipes to share with friends and family to make your own Easter dinner, Greek style. Don’t forget the Easter egg hunt…
The traditional Greek Easter table consists of roast lamb, appetizers like Saganaki or Spanakopita, a soup called Magiritsa (made with a lamb’s head), red Easter eggs (symbolizing the blood sacrifice of Jesus), a sweet Easter bread called Tsoureki, and Greek butter cookies called Koulourakia. The recipes below represent traditional Greek foods that are served at many Greek tables on Easter. You can replace the lamb’s head soup with orzo and lemon soup, red eggs with multiple colored eggs, and have orange flavored cheesecake or baklava instead of cookies. The juicy roast lamb with crunchy-soft lemon potatoes is the centerpiece, don’t skip it!
Make your own Easter dinner with these wonderful recipes and you’ll be glad you did.
The mighty sesame seed has been an integral part of many important dishes throughout the world for centuries. One of the oldest oilseed crops known, sesame seeds are thought to have been domesticated more than 3,000 years ago.
White sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, and brown sesame seeds. Roasted, crushed, and made in to oils. Sweet or savory dishes…you name it. In the Middle East, the crushed sesame seeds make the creamy tahini that used to make hummus, Israeli halvah, and Tahini sauce for falafel. Roasted sesame oil is an essential component in and over a lot of iconic dishes in Asia. In southern China, black sesame seeds are crushed with rice to make black sesame soup, a staple of dim sum. Roasted sesame seeds are also used to coat “Greek sesame seed bagels” called koulouri, and Italian and Danish bread sticks. They also blend with other seeds to make crunchy seed toppings like Egypt’s dukkah.
Explore this magnificent little seed and its many forms by cooking the dishes that have counted on it to make them famous:
Scandinavians’ take their Christmases very, very seriously. Home cooks begin cooking and baking a month in advance with everything culminating in a massive feast on Christmas eve. The five Scandinavian (or Nordic) countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland all share a harsh climate, long winters, and strong traditions, especially around Christmas foods
My Hungry Traveler got together for Christmas in 2022 with friends and family and cooked up a Scandinavian feast. Here is a guide on how to through a Nordic feast, either for Christmas or any special occasion:
Swedish Christmas Smorgasbord (Julbord) – The typical Swedish Christmas feast includes a variety of dishes, served in a buffet known as julbord. Held on Christmas Eve, these dinners are filled with traditional Swedish dishes, including warm dishes like meatballs in cream gravy, potato-anchovy casserole, salmon, pickled herring, cheese, and cold cuts. Danish rye bread open face sandwiches (smorrebrod), and a few Finnish starters like beetroot salad, creamed salmon soup, and Karelian pies served alongside Scandinavian schnapps, Aquavit, and mulled wine called Glogg. This is the beginnings of a true Scandinavian Christmas feast.
Danish Main Course – After standing around stuffing oneself, it’s time to sit down at the table to a nice warm soup and to begin the serious eating! The two most common types of meat served at a Danish Christmas dinner are pork roast (flæskesteg) and roast duck (andesteg). Sides almost alway include sweet and sour red cabbage and caramelized potatoes. A gravy made from pan drippings and red currant jelly round out the plate.
Scandinavian Christmas Desserts – Baking is a fine art year-round in Scandinavia. But come late November, the serious Christmas baking begins. Danish and Norwegian home cooks bake at least seven different kinds of cookies — a carryover from the 19th century when the number reflected a family’s wealth and status. Scandinavians’ especially love the ritual of gathering around the living room coffee table to enjoy after-dinner coffee and a dazzling array of cookies, cakes, and rice pudding with whipped cream and cherry sauce.
In almost every culture there is a belief that the dead should be honored, be it out of respect or a fear of ghostly retribution. In some cultures, there are holidays set aside specifically to commemorate the dead, which vary from reserved veneration to a killer party. Listed below are some of the major festivals around the world. Scroll down to see the recipes for the essential dishes from four of the major festivals: Mexican (Dia de Los Muertos), the Philippines (Undas), China (Hungry Ghost Festival), and Japan (Obon Festival).
Mexico- Dia de La Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that’s celebrated on the first two days of November. Its purpose is is to celebrate the lives of deceased relatives when their spirits are believed to return to this world. Although similar to Halloween and All-Saints/All-Souls days in time of year and focus on thy deceased, Dia de los Muertos’ is neither rooted in pagan or Christian beliefs. Its origins go back to an Aztec harvest celebration. While American Halloween sees spirits as as scary and something to be warded off, Day of the Dead is based on receiving the souls of dead relatives with joy and hospitality. It is not meant to be ghoulish, but rather a grand celebration of the deceased. Graves are swept and offerings (Ofrendas) of Pan de Muertos (Bread of Dead), foods the loved in life, marigold flowers, and photos of the deceased. The traditional foods of this joyous occasion always include breads and pastry, sugar skulls, and other foods the deceased favored in life.
Food has always played a big role in Chinese holidays, but during the Hungry Ghost Festival, food takes center stage. Paper money (Joss) is burned at the beginning of the month-long holiday so that the spirits have money to spend while wandering the earth. By the 15th of the month they have mostly run out of money. That’s when the Hungry Ghost Festival occurs. The festival entertains them and provides them with food, supplies, and more money. The festival not only entertains them but wards off the evil intentions of disgruntled spirits by appeasing them with gifts and their favorite foods in life. For the orphaned dead, basic foods like rice, Mantau (steamed buns), fruits (pineapple means good luck), and sweets are left outside of the house. For ancestors, a large meal of their favorites is held on the 15th, the one day they are given a day to visit their living descendants. Their favorite dishes are served and 2-3 empty place settings are set out for them. Paper lanterns are lit and floated away to guide the spirits back to the afterlife. Besides the offerings placed outside the home to appease the wandering souls, the main feast often includes the following foods:
A traditional Buddhist festival, Obon commemorates lost ancestors, whose spirits are believed to come back during Obon to visit living relatives. The Obon festival is not solemn and often involves the Bon Odon dance to welcome the spirits as well asfireworks, games, and feast on traditional foods. It is also one of the few times you can find Japanese street vendors serving up popular Obon foods.
Undas, the cousin of All-Saints Day, is a somber occasion that is balanced by the joy of meeting deceased relatives. Filipino families prepare food and bring it cemeteries to share along with sweeping and cleaning the gravestones. They also have a huge feast with the whole family, relatives, and friends consisting with the special dishes that their loved ones used to enjoy, which are also made to bring to their gravestones.
All Saints Day and All Souls Day (Christians and Catholics)
Considered a national holiday in many countries, All Saints’ Day (November 1st) has roots in early Catholicism as a festival to honor unknown saints and martyrs. The day after this—All Souls’ Day—is a more solemn holiday during which people commemorate the souls that are now in Purgatory. The prayers of the living are said to help speed the burning of minor sins in purgatory and to help sanctify souls for the entrance into Heaven.
Halloween (United States)
October 31, also called All Hallows Eve, has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. People light bonfires, don scary costumes, and visit neighborhood homes to receive “soul cakes” for the promise of praying for the dead. Not offering the visitors a treat would expose them to the tricks of malevolent ghosts. Brought to America during the mass immigration of Irish and Scottish immigrants, who brought All Hallow Eve traditions with them. In America, All Hallows Eve soon became Halloween, soul cakes became candy, and “soul caking” became trick or treating. This major holiday in America is now measured in billions ($6 billion in candy sales, $500 million on pet costumes, etc.), pumpkin carving, and dressing in costumes.
Pchum Ben (Cambodia)
This holiday is celebrated every year in Cambodia between mid-September and mid-October. Officially a 14 day festival, foods are prepared in the early morning to bring to pagodas for Buddhist monks to offer to the souls of the deceased. White is worn (Cambodian color of mourning) to remember ancestors. During the 15 days of Pchum Ben, the line between the living and the dead is thought to be at its thinnest. Cambodians believe that during Pchum Ben, spirits come back in search of living relatives, hoping to atone for sins from their past life.
Gai Jatra (Nepal)
This “festival of the cows” is one of the most popular holidays in Nepal and is held each year in August or September. Families who lost a relative in the last year lead a cow (or a child dressed as a cow, if no cows are around) down the village street in a procession. The cow is one of the most revered animals in Hinduism, and participants believe that the animal will help lead recently deceased family members into the afterlife.
Chuseok (Korea)
Often compared to American Thanksgiving, Chuseok is Korea’s largest national holiday, and is celebrated throughout both North and South Korea. Marked with dancing, games and food, Chuseok is also a time for Koreans to honor their ancestors. The holiday is celebrated sometime in September or October. Traditionally, the celebration coincides with the fall harvest. During the three-day festival, the living give thanks to the dead for their part in providing bountiful crops. Families celebrate Chuseok by sharing the harvest with others, so the holiday is food-centric, with food prepared from the harvest and traditional Korean rice cakes are eaten. Koreans also visit and clean the graves of their ancestors.
Bread for the Dead (Switzerland, Austria, Ecuador)
In Switzerland (Bones of the Dead or Swiss Dry Bone) cookies are treats that are shaped as a pile of bones and are intended to offer to dead ancestors. In Austria, grandchildren are given “Allerheiligenstriezel,” a braided yeast bread, to commemorate the women who cut off their braided hair as a sign of mourning. In Ecuador (Guaguas de Pan) is a small bread shaped in the form of a baby and decorated with piped icing.
Famadihana (Madagascar)
Also called “Turning of the Bones,” this celebration is based on the belief that the spirit of the dead can’t fully go to the land of the ancestors until the body is completely decomposed, bodies are dug up every 7 years to be rewrapped in silk and carried around the tomb to live music before being buried again.
Qingming Festival (China)
Ancestor Day is a Chinese national holiday celebrated in April where families pay their respect by visiting the tombs of their ancestors and sweeping them clean.
Pitru Paksha (India)
This two week tradition is when offerings of food and prayers are made to all the deceased. If the proper rituals and offerings are accepted by ancestors, wealth, health, and salvation are bestowed.
Hosting a memorable dinner party is about more than just serving up a few select dishes. At the core, it’s about delighting your guests in a full sensory experience- transporting them to another place by virtue of sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch.
If you really want to make a memorable experience, introduce your guests to the cuisine and customs of another culture. Spanish traditions lend themselves perfectly to a dinner party; meals in Spain are as much about spending quality time with friends and family as they are about enjoying delicious foods. By serving up a tapas-style dinner, you’ll delight your guests with a variety of delectable small plates and cheese board leading into a magnificent paella main course and then finishing with luscious desserts to create an intimate, comfortable setting where everyone can linger at the table long after the meal has ended.
The brininess of olives, the earthy aroma of cured meats, and the complex pairings of robust wines—these flavors, combined with fresh ingredients and vibrant conversation, are the essence of what makes a Spanish meal so special. For Spaniards, how they eat is just as important as what they eat.
And while no dinner party would be complete without lively conversation, the Spanish have elevated socializing into an art form. It’s not uncommon for meals to last several hours, with anything under two being quite rare. The custom even has a name, sobremesa, which means “over the table”. Sipping wine or coffee long after the plates have been cleared is what defines a typical Spanish dinner—and no recreation would be complete without it.
MHT is excited to present how a host can create the type of dinner party experience you’d encounter in the heart of Spain:
Greet your guests with a glass of Fino Sherry and then move to a glass of Spain’s champagne, Cava. No Spanish meal is complete without a thoughtful wine pairing. Complement your feast with a glass of full-bodied red, which is perfect alongside the savory flavors of meats and cheeses.
For a taste of all that Spanish wine has to offer, try serving wines that blend of grapes from across Spain, especially from the regions of Priorat and Rioja. Sangria is wine mixed with fruit that is all Spanish and perfect for pairing with paella.
Spanish wines also provide the perfect base for a dinner cocktail. Mix a light and refreshing tinto de verano by blending a Spanish red with lemon soda and serving over ice.
Tapas
One thing that makes meals so unique in Spain is the variety of the menu, and there’s no easier way to taste a bunch of dishes than through a creative and robust tapas menu. Greet guests with a platter of imported jamón ibérico, lomo, cecina, anchovy-stuffed Manzanilla green olives, Manchego cheese, and marcona almonds. Add a few slices of a crusty baguette, olive oil, which is used as an accompaniment in almost every traditional Spanish dish, along with a little remoulade and romesco sauce.
Complement the cold foods with a course of small plates of delicious warm tapas. There are literally 100s of tapas recipes to choose from, both cold and hot. And, of course, keep the wine flowing.
Paella is the principal dish of a Spanish feast. While it’s normally cooked in a wide, shallow pan over an open flame, you can improvise with whatever pot or pan you have on hand—just be sure to use a medium grain rice (like Bomba from Valencia) and fresh seafood and vegetables. A side of Cataluña’s spinach with pine nuts and raisins is a perfect complement to the complex flavors as paella.
If any of your guests are vegetarian, a second vegetarian paella with a spicy garlic sauce is perfect. Another excellent option is a Spanish potato and onion casserole, tortilla Espanola, which is typically served as a tapas but fits perfectly as a vegetarian entrée.
Before dinner draws to a close, delight your guests with something sweet. A refreshing Valencia orange sorbet is the perfectly clean ending to cut through the decadence of your meal if you can find some. A classic flan or a sweet flourless almond cake are especially nice and traditional.
Crucially, don’t overlook the most important element of a Spanish meal: sobremesa, the custom of lingering at the table well after a meal has finished to hang out with family and friends, chatting and enjoying each other’s company.
Barbecue is more than a meal- It’s an event. People gather for good barbecue, whether invited or not. Barbecue is an event that gathers people around a fire. Like the fires of prehistory, this is the setting to eat, drink and tell stories.
Smoking has been used as a way of preserving and flavoring food for thousands of years. Soon after the discovery of fire, man found that meats and fish exposed to smoke lasted much longer before spoiling. In many cuisines around the world, smoking meats and fish became a yearly ritual, especially in autumn, to provide protein over the winter when hunting became less fruitful. The annual celebrations that surrounded these events morphed over time to become an excuse for family and friends to gather. The introduction of refrigeration and spices over the last 500 years has helped make smoking meats a ritualistic culinary art form that celebrates community rather than just a method of preservation and survival.
Three different countries have taken BBQ to whole other level that has become, in many ways, part of their national identities. Experience the amazing recipes and stories that have made each of these countries approach to BBQ do special.
AMERICAN BARBECUE
Almost every state and region in the United States has its own style of barbecue, each with its own cuts of meat based on what were readily available. Using a backyard grill at home is a wonderful American tradition utilized as a way for family and friends to gather for an afternoon to eat hot dogs and hamburgers. A true American barbecue is usually a day-long event that celebrates the smoked foods and cooking rituals.
The word braaivleis is Afrikaans for “smoked meat”. The word braai is Afrikaans for “barbecue” or “grill”, and is a social custom in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
In South America, asado is a technique for cooking cuts of meat, usually consisting of beef alongside various other meats, which are cooked on a grill (parrilla) or open fire. It is considered the traditional meal of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and southern Brazil. The asado is a very traditional way of cooking that typically requires the great skills of an asador. The gathering of family and friends is critical to a successful asado.
With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, my Hungry Traveler is thinking about feasting BIG TIME. Events like these are perfect for gathering with friends and family for a celebratory meal. They offer a great reason to eat, drink, and, watch commercials (if that is why you’re tuning in). Use this upcoming game day party as an opportunity to mix it up with your party food options….
My Hungry Traveler has put together game day menu suggestions for you with party foods from America, Europe, and Asia. You can make some-or-all of each region’s menu, or have fun doing a mashup from them all. The key is to make as much as you can in advance so you can spend time with your guests instead of cooking in the kitchen. Buying vs. cooking from scratch some of the “lesser” sides, such as potato and corn chips, will make things easier as well. Let the games begin!
Pregame
Pregame is all about spending time chatting with each other before the game begins. The food should be casual so guests can all talk with each other while munching. Put everything out at once just before guests arrive.
Americas
Europe
Asia
Potato chips (buy) with onion soup dip (buy)
Danish sesame seed twists
Chinese candied walnuts
Tex-Mex shrimp quesadillas
Swedish shrimp toasts
Singapore shrimp sate
Corn chips (buy) with salsa
Portuguese olive dip with vegetables
Chinese fried wonton chips with sweet & sour dip (buy)
First Halfis a great time for munching on appetizers while yelling at the TV (if that’s your thing). The Olympics have a short viewing duration each night, so it’s best to serve dishes from either the First Half or Halftime menus, or combine them to create a single “food event”. The Super Bowl is a much longer event, so MHT recommends serving the First Half dishes and the Halftime dishes separately.
Halftime – As if the munching and small dishes of incredible food early in the evening isn’t enough, Super Bowl halftime is a time to take it up a level. This orchestrated break is the perfect time to put out a full meal hot foods and sides that have been prepared in advance. The key here to serving so many items at once is to keep warm foods warm through the first half of the game in heated vessels such as crockpots and your oven on low, and to remove cold dishes from the refrigerator right before serving. Plates can be assembled by your guests at a buffet-style table and brought back to their seats in time to catch all the halftime festivities.
Second Half – Once all the serious eating is over, leaving out sweets for folks to eat at their leisure is a great way to finish the culinary games. Decaffeinated or regular coffee is a nice digestive accompaniment to end this major feasting event. Who won? Who knows! All we know is that your event will be a dining event your guests won’t forget.
Italians do Christmas feasting arguably better than anyone else. Whole days are dedicated to multi-course banquets, with dozens of family members working together to create traditional dishes to celebrate this most important holiday in Italy. The dishes are often decided by the availability of local bounties of a particular region. Many of the most intricate and time-consuming dishes that each region is known for are prepared for especially for Christmas. Emilia-Romagna is considered one of the richest regions in the world for producing gastronomic products, so much so that it has earned the nickname of “Food Valley”. The fame of Emilia-Romagna is due to two gastronomic pearls: Parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano, which have become famous Internationally. Here are other items produced in the region:
Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
Prosciutto Ham from Parma
Mortadella of Bologna
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese from Parma and Reggio
Grana Padano cheese from Piacenza
Tortellini of Bologna
Tagliatelle egg pasta of Bologna
Zuppa Inglese of Emilia Romagna
Lambrusco sparkling wines from Emilia Romagna
The Christmas dinner menu below showcases many of the foods that this food-crazy region is so famous for, as well as a few banquet dishes from Bologna’s renaissance past.
Italian Christmas Banquette in Emilia Romagna
Antipasto
Salumi (Mortadella, Prosciutto de Parma, Coppa and Pacetta Piacentina)
Fromaggio (Gran Padano, Fossa, Parmigiano Reggiano flakes with drops of Balsamic Modena)
Verdura (Marinated Mushrooms and Red Peppers in Olive Oil, Giardiniera – pickled vegetables)
Bagna Cauda w/ Crudo (warm anchovy dip with crudites)
Salad of Tart Greens with Prosciutto and Warm Balsamic Dressing
Pane Focaccia (flatbread or “pizza bianca”)
Regional Wines:Dry Lambrusco, Sauvignon Blanc di Parma, or a light Barolo
Primi
Tortellini en Brodo (meat-filled pasta in broth)
Regional Wines: Piedmonts’ dry red Freisa d’Asti or “La Monella,” or fruity white Arneis
Secondi
Cappone Natalizio (Christmas Capon)
Pasticcio di Tortellini con Crema di Cannella (renaissance tortellini pie with ragu and custard)
Tagliatelle con Arance e Mandorle (Tagliatelle pasta with caramelized orange and almonds)
Fagiolini alla Bolognese (green beans with mortadella)
Panzanella (bread salad)
Regional Wines: Aged red Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone or Classico
Dolce
Torta Barozzi (rich chocolate cake)
Zuppa Inglese (Italian trifle)
Café Expresso
Regional Wines: Nocino (walnut liquor) or Black muscat-based Elysium dessert wine
It means “a braai is not a barbecue”. Braai (bray), is a South African cultural institution. Like the Argentinean asada, American backyard cookout, or Korean gogigui, it is built on community than just an outdoor cookout.
What makes braai so special is that it is all about bringing good friends and family together around a shared celebration. There is always some excuse for holding a braai, whether it’s to celebrate a wedding, birth or death, or just because. Everyone brings meats and sides to share, called “Bring & Braai”, it’s basically the same idea as the North American Potluck.
Meats include beef boerewors and pork sausages, kebabs, chicken and steak with fish and other seafood added on the coasts. Must-have sides include pap (cornmeal porridge), Mieliepap terts (corn-bacon & mushroom pie), garlic bread or braaibroodjies (grilled cheese, tomato and chutney sandwiches), and, of course, chakalaka.
To understand how important braai is to the nation, consider this; it even has its own national holiday dedicated to it on the 24th of September called National Braai Day.
It all started by the Voortrekkers (Afrikaans for “pioneers”), disgruntled Afrikaner farmers descended from the original settlers working for the Dutch East India Company. Unhappy with many aspects of British colonial rule, they migrated east from the then-British occupied Cape Colony off the coast of South Africa in the 1830-40s. They travelled with ox-drawn wagons and horses, which meant they had to pack light. To survive, the nomad farmers had to hunt, shoot, and roast meat on open fires in the open air, and so the culture of braaing (derived from the Dutch word for roast, “braden”) was born. The Bantu peoples who lived in these parts of South Africa at the time had also developed an appreciation for grilled meat. Where cattle were mainly used for the production of milk, they preferred to roast mutton, goat, or game. Another important protein supply were grilled insects such as caterpillars, locusts, and termites. Today, standing around a fire and preparing grilled meat (no insects) is a unifying tradition of South African enjoyed by people across different ethnic backgrounds. Even when you invite friends over for beers, a braai is likely to break out. A basic braai menu might look like this:
