Tags
Borracho beans, Bunuelos, Caldo, Christmas, Family, Family traditions, Fruit cake, Ginger beer, Holidays, Merengue, Mexican holiday, Panettone, Parang, Pastelles, Peruvian holiday, Pisco Sour, Ponche de creme, Pozole, Riunite, Salsa, Salvadorian holiday, Sangria, Sorrel, Tamales, Tortillas, Traditions, Trinidad holiday, vintage commercial
This Thanksgiving while hanging with the familia, I was hit with the sudden flash-back to the 80’s. My uncle pulled out a bottle of Riunite wine and offered to pop it (or maybe it’s unscrew…not sure) open. To me this bottle was richer in flavor than any other fancy Malbec or Merlot we could have tried. And by flavor, I mean it held a hint of an earlier time when my parents, aunts and uncles were larger than life and we just went along for the ride. I recalled a Spanish version of this commercial campaign ending in something like “Riunite-te-te”- a bit different than this one. My memory may have lapsed some but the tradition of busting out the Riunite bottle for a special occasion must have stuck with Tio.
For the most part when it comes to a Latin Christmas, the tamale (in all its various styles) is usually on the table amongst some form of rice dish and sweet goodies. But there are also those quirky things that randomly appear year over year that become tradition naturally. Lasting traditions are ushered by pop culture, music, location, influential personalities and of course outstanding food!
DyC asked a few people the question:
When you reunite (or shall we say Riunite) with family this holiday season, what will you see on or near your table?
My mom and dad always say ‘pansa llena, corazón contento’. So bring on the pozole, menudo, asado de puerco and can’t forget tamales and buñuelos!
Nothing like coming in out of the cold and rolling up a fresh hot tortilla to sop up your caldo or borracho beans…I can smell it now.
This year we’re having chiles rellenos for Christmas dinner. We start off by greeting everyone, telling them how much we missed each other… drinking a little wine or sangria…[catching-up] … again drinking some more wine or sangria …when suddenly someone puts on music and everyone begins to dance or sing. I love the nostalgia! You can’t help but smile, dance and drink every holiday.
We have panettone (I never liked it as a kid but I would still have to eat it >_<) and of course there is always salsa- merengue dancing and drinks galore!
And as an honorary Latina from Trinidad (hey- it’s just above Venezuela!), we threw this one in the mix. We were surprised they had something very similar to the tamale called pastelles and music tinged with Spanish called Parang!
For drinks we have sorrel, ginger beer and ponche de creme. For food, pastelles, ham and black (fruit) cake are very traditional. All this just really brings me back childhood memories of family gatherings. Pastelles and Parang!