Christmas Day Lunch/Dinner

[Hants_red]

I've always been tempted to ditch the turkey and just have pigs in blanket as the meat portion.

 

[Billy The Fish]

Much as I like turkey we ditched it a few years ago in favour of something else extra special for the one-off Christmas day dinner. The fillet steak we had last year was unforgettably delicious and I don't remember any turkey dinner coming close.

That's what we do and we're very happy with it and don't feel any loss by departing with tradition. I hope you all have a great Christmas whatever you're doing topped off with an amazing dinner/lunch.

And a City win on Boxing Day wouldn't go amiss either !

 

[STURTZ]

Bit of controversy regarding the resting time for your turkey/goose. Gordon Ramsey reckons the bird should rest as long as you cook it, i.e. up to three hours!

"Resting" always seems a bit of an oxymoron to me. Ahh, he's had a tough time in the searing temperatures of the oven, let the poor person have a bit of me time before it gets carved up and devoured!

 

[Swanaldo]

Just had the best meal of the year - The Christmas Leftover Veggie Lasagne.

 

[Jason H]

We massively broke with tradition this year in having turkey, in the past we've usually had something like beef or, like one year, a very disappointing lobster dish.

When I was a kid we'd have a meat fondue, which led to my sister nearly getting our family into trouble by writing in her news book at school that her favourite present was Sellotape (it was, over and above all the decent presents she got) and she had to cook her own Christmas dinner.

 

[IndoMike]

Had our 5-star Xmas "all you can eat" buffet from a wide range of British, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Indian foods. The turkey was a bit rubbery and there were no roast potatoes, which you can imagine peed me off a bit and almost led to a strop. When I asked if there was any stuffing they said "not yet" (?). So it wasn't so much as a Xmas buffet. However, overall there was plenty to satisfy this customer's appetite - great salads, Spanish tapas, oysters, prawns, salmon and other seafoods, delicious desserts and on and on. I was suitably bloated and in need of a snooze afterwards. Definitely a guilty pleasure.

 

[Alistair20000]

Xmas luncheon/dinner without roasties is just wrong

 

[IndoMike]

Xmas luncheon/dinner without roasties is just wrong

To be honest, Alistair, in a country with 85% Muslim population and tropical climate there isn't much of a Xmas atmosphere, although the shopping malls (and there are literally a hundred or more huge malls) do make an attempt with trees, choirs, skating rinks and other Xmas paraphernalia. In Jakarta, with few parks and nice places to walk, malls are the place to go. You would be surprised at the wealth on display. Nobody starves in Indonesia but there is a huge wealth gap, but it's also true that there is a growing, young middle class and all the hitec you could imagine. The country is gradually becoming more stable and getting its act together, although there are occasional hiccups. The future is definitely Asia. Young, dynamic, entrepreneurial, driven.
I'll give you a funny example of working class entrepreneurship. Several years ago the Government made a 3-1 rule (3 passengers per car) for all cars entering the city centre. The very next day the roads on the outskirts were lined with people offering their services as a passenger for a small fee to make up the minimum number.