Christmas food bonanza

Are we done with Christmas yet? Not me, I'm still blogging about it.

Christmas is all about food and family, right? I see a lot of family that I don't get much of a chance to see throughout the year, and we all gather round and eat, eat and eat. Here is how my Christmas usually goes...

1. Christmas roast dinner at lunchtime
2. Chinese hot pot in the evening
3. Chinese dim sum lunch on boxing day
4. This year, we added an evening round at a family friend's for even more Christmas dinner, but on Boxing Day

I have to say, the food at Christmas is pretty awesome. I would say that my Mum's is most awesome, but a lot of people say the same, don't they? Feast your eyes on this bad boy. My Mum not only cooks a Turkey roast, she does about 3 or 4 other types of meat roasts along with all the veggies. And they are all awesome.  This year we had:

• Roast meats: Whole turkey, lamb, beef, and pork
• Vegetables: White sweet potato, roast parsnips, potatoes, carrots, asparagus, Brussels sprouts
• Stuffing: Balls wrapped in bacon
• Gravy: Beef gravy, and lemon and orange turkey gravy

For a good few years running, we have then gone over to see family and have a Chinese hot pot in the evening. Basically, a whole load of raw food is put onto the table, ready to cook on a portable gas stove with a metal pot on top. The pots are filled with stock and the various meats and vegetables are put in to cook at the table.

Table set up for a Chinese hot pot

This particular stove has a little plate that goes in the middle where you can fry as well. Here are some satay King prawns in action and you can see the broth bubbling away, infusing the foods being cooked inside it.

Fried satay king prawns

There are also usually a variety of sauces and dips around the table to add some flavour to the foods.

Now, I could talk about normal dessert after a Chinese meal, but I would only mention oranges and tangerines. Good fortune and all that. But instead, I will show you this chocolate cake. No, not just any chocolate cake – Marks and Spencer chocolate cake. They always have beautifully presented desserts for Christmas and this was a lovely, not too heavy, and yummyful chocolate cake. Yes, I know that 'yummyful' is not actually a word.

On Boxing Day, the food fest continues. Usually, we are out for dim sum. I'd now like to take a moment to explain what dim sum actually is and I am encouraged to explain as I have come across "dim sum" on many sample wedding menu's recently (in an attempt to find a wedding venue, not just for the fun of it) and each time I ask what they mean, it's not actually proper dim sum. 

So what is Dim Sum?

Dim sum is a style of Chinese food that is served in small portions. Much of it is steamed or served on small plates. Think of Spanish Tapas, but a Chinese version of it. Lots of small dishes for sharing. It's usually served on a Sunday afternoon and in many Chinese restaurants, they bring round the different types of dim sum in trolleys and then you pick what you want. My family and I often meet our relatives for dim sum and drink tea. This is known as Yum Cha which if directly translated, means 'drink tea'.

I'll talk more about dim sum in another blog post. Firstly, because this is getting far too long. And secondly, I should take pictures to show :)