# What is your traditional new years day meal?



## rkunsaw (Dec 27, 2013)

Around here it's  peas, hog jowl, greens and cornbread. I know of some other traditional meals from other areas. Do you have a meal you eat every new years day?


----------



## Diwundrin (Dec 27, 2013)

We used to, back in the day.  It was like a no frills Xmas dinner, a roast meal usually, but that died out when Dad went so it's just like any other day now, whatever's at the front of the fridge.


----------



## Old Hipster (Dec 27, 2013)

I guess it depends on how hung-over I might be or the mister, if we really tied one on we might not feel like cooking or eating much of anything special.

I don't plan on getting completely drunk however, it's not worth it the next day. 

I was thinking of cooking a pot roast on New Years Day.

I know if I did have a hang-over I wouldn't be eating at Larry's house. Hog Jowls !?!


----------



## rkunsaw (Dec 28, 2013)

:lofl:I see,:very_drunk: some people have traditional meals and others have a tradition of getting drunk.


----------



## SifuPhil (Dec 28, 2013)

The locals around here have some weird traditions, like don't eat chicken for New Year's or you'll be scratching for money all year. 

I like to eat pork, because then I'm entitled to be dirty and snort all year.


----------



## That Guy (Dec 28, 2013)

Hair of the dog . . .


----------



## Casper (Dec 28, 2013)

_*Never had a special meal for New Year......Just another day of the year for us.....:hair:*_


----------



## SeaBreeze (Dec 28, 2013)

No special meals for New Years Day here.


----------



## dbeyat45 (Dec 28, 2013)

Nothing special here either ..... if the temperature is like today's, it will be something cold.    

Currently 30.9C (88F) with relative humidity of 60% at our nearest weather station.  Seems hotter.


----------



## That Guy (Dec 29, 2013)

My words . . .


----------



## Ozarkgal (Dec 29, 2013)

In the south it's supposed to be black-eyed peas for luck...can't stand them, can't even stand the way they smell when cooking.  

I bought a ham for Christmas which didn't get cooked because we had a lot of snack leftovers from Christmas eve, so decided to finish that off....Maybe the ham will get done for New Years...or not..lol


----------



## Ozarkgal (Dec 29, 2013)

TWH: 





> I'm from the OH/PA border where we ate three ethnic groups of food, regardless of our ethnicity: Italian, Polish, German because they ALL know how to cook



Me too,TWH..hail from Johnstown from German-Italian stock..the pork ribs and sauerkraut and all that heavy German foods is in my blood, as are the pasta dishes....and boy yeah I still crave that good stuff sometimes and have to have a fix.


----------



## SifuPhil (Dec 29, 2013)

TWHRider said:


> I'm from the OH/PA border where we ate three ethnic groups of food, regardless of our ethnicity:  Italian, Polish, German because they ALL know how to cook



HUZZAH!

Throw in the Irish (they know how to drink!) and you've got me. layful:

Mom's cooking was always German/Polish, so it was heavy, heavy, heavy. Tons of rich sauces and gravies, tons of meat, pretty much tons of everything. Once a week or so she'd break down and make spaghetti for my Italian father, and he forced it down without a fuss, but I know his eyes didn't light up as they did when HIS Mom and Dad made dinner.

Now THAT was Italian, right down to the bottles of Guinea Red on the table!


----------



## Diwundrin (Dec 29, 2013)

I'm forever Googling to find out what the hell you people are eating.  Totally unfamiliar to me, but then I'm still getting over having a Danish pastry served with a bacon 'n eggs breakfast over there. 

 
Oh, and the aghast expressions when we asked for tomato ketchup for the bacon 'n eggs, what the hell else would you put on them?  We were equally aghast that the locals used tomato ketchup on a roast meal!  Gaaasp, sacrilege!  Cultural tastes are funny aren't they?

Our eating habits have changed enormously here over the last few decades due to immigrant influence.  All I can say is thank gawd the Chinese were the first wave as I've never acquired a taste for Sauerkraut or food that hums with garlic.

I'm from Scottish and Irish stock and ate Xmas and NY dinners at the Gran's who were still traumatised by the depression, compounded by the Irish and Scottish famine stories handed down the generations.  It caused some genetic aberration apparently as they ate as they imagined the landed gentry must have back in the day.
 The Scots side slaughtered and roasted anything handy with wings or horns and the Irish side had to have Pork and Potatoes.  There was never anything approaching imagination or innovation involved. It was all done as it had been for centuries and locale and temperatures had no bearing on the menu whatever.  Geeze they were great meals though.  I still choose 'Roast of the Day' at bistros etc over the 'nouveau cuisine' options.


----------



## SifuPhil (Dec 29, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> I'm forever Googling to find out what the hell you people are eating.



That's only fair, since I'm sure I'm not the only one here Googling such phrases as "a fair dinkum". :rofl: 

Ketchup was one of those love/hate substances in our home while I was growing up. My brother David loved it and would put it on literally everything - ice cream, sauerkraut, watermelon - but my Mother would raise the roof if any of us dared put it on her carefully-crafted roasts or meatloafs.

I was even yelled at for putting it on hotdogs, instead of mustard, which I despised.


----------



## Diwundrin (Dec 29, 2013)

SifuPhil said:


> HUZZAH!
> 
> Throw in the Irish (they know how to drink!) and you've got me. layful:
> 
> ...



There was a drop of German in us too but the genes and recipes never made it down through the family, except Mum had an obsession to cook cabbage a lot which sent me running out of the house. 



There was continuous 'domestic' next door over food however. They were Italians but he was a blue-eyed blonde  from up near the Austrian border. (She'd whisper that a 'Nazi' must have caught his mother whenever she was cranky with him.

) She was from the South, and they didn't like each other's food all that much.  Her's smelled a lot better than whenever he cracked the sh*ts and ordered her out so he could cook his own. 

 She'd come over to our house until he ate it and the smells settled down.  He loved that aniseed stuff and she hated it.  It was hilarious and every other day there'd be rapid fire of loud Italian followed by a pot or pan flying out of the kitchen into the yard.  


We were invited to dinner there and they were invited to our place and neither ever did that again.  Ours was too bland for them and theirs made our eyeball's pop so we settled for chatting only after that.

I bet the 'Guinea Red' was a big improvement on Rino's home made Grappa.  That stuff would burn oil out of concrete, it was about on a par with his cooking.


----------



## SifuPhil (Dec 30, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> There was continuous 'domestic' next door over food however. They were Italians but he was a blue-eyed blonde  from up near the Austrian border. (She'd whisper that a 'Nazi' must have caught his mother whenever she was cranky with him.
> 
> ) She was from the South, and they didn't like each other's food all that much.



Yeah, that's Italian! Even when they whisper it sounds like a fight between drunk Marines. 

I'm northern Italian as well - light-skinned, fair-haired and not as much body hair as the Sicilians. :rofl:



> He loved that aniseed stuff and she hated it.  It was hilarious and every other day there'd be rapid fire of loud Italian followed by a pot or pan flying out of the kitchen into the yard.



Oh, how I miss those days! That hot Latin blood is SO much more interesting than the boring cold-nation's bloods.



> I bet the 'Guinea Red' was a big improvement on Rino's home made Grappa.  That stuff would burn oil out of concrete, it was about on a par with his cooking.



Never had Grappa, but was forced to try the dandelion wine on occasion. Not real great ... I guess it's an acquired taste.


----------



## Katybug (Dec 30, 2013)

rkunsaw said:


> :lofl:I see,:very_drunk: some people have traditional meals and others have a tradition of getting drunk.



:lofl:  For many years I did both!  Now, just as with OH, payback is too much hell the next day.  New Year's Day for me has always meant having something green representing $$, and I'm afraid to go against superstition.  It could be lettuce if you preferred, I guess, but in the south it means turnip or collard greens.

 Honest to gawd I don't know what hog jowls are.  I remember my mom referred to always having them, but if I ate them as a kid she disguised it well.  I buy fresh & already prepared collard greens (from a Mom & Pop's place, as they smell too bad cooking from scratch and too much preparation.)   For over a decade a few neighbors here in the building gather & bring in a pork roast or pulled pork, homemade sweet/sour slaw, some type of potatoes, a salad and desserts.  And, of course, we continue with the hair of the dog that bit us the night before....to a much, much lesser degree.


----------



## Katybug (Dec 30, 2013)

dbeyat45 said:


> Nothing special here either ..... if the temperature is like today's, it will be something cold.
> 
> Currently 30.9C (88F) with relative humidity of 60% at our nearest weather station.  Seems hotter.



Dbey, you must stop bragging!!!!hwell:


----------



## Katybug (Dec 30, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> I'm forever Googling to find out what the hell you people are eating.  Totally unfamiliar to me, but then I'm still getting over having a Danish pastry served with a bacon 'n eggs breakfast over there.
> 
> 
> Oh, and the aghast expressions when we asked for tomato ketchup for the bacon 'n eggs, what the hell else would you put on them?  We were equally aghast that the locals used tomato ketchup on a roast meal!  Gaaasp, sacrilege!  Cultural tastes are funny aren't they?
> ...



HA!  Same here, Di, I GOOGLE a lot of what you eat, but my Sydney friend has helped over the years.  I won't be able to spell it, but that Vegemite that she speaks of often doesn't have an oz of appeal to me....must be an acquired taste.  Tell me again what's in it, if you don't mind.  The brain isn't working this morning.  I just remember....NOT FOR ME! 

Ketchup on eggs w/bacon is the only way I've ever eaten it, very common here, but I can remember when it wasn't.  Rumor was when tons of northerners moved here, they started the trend -- but not on a roast meal, ever!!

My maternal g'mother came over from France as a young teenager.  I'm mixed with Scotch/Irish on my dad & maternal grandpa's side.  Mom said the French dishes her mother prepared were hated by Grandpa, so she began southern style cooking, more Irish if you're speaking of pork and potatoes.  

I love Sauerkraut, but prefer it with chopped Oscar Meyer franks.  Never had Kielbasa growing up, but it has become extremely popular in the south.....the Yankees again!  LOL  When I was in Germany for a couple months decades ago, I didn't taste one thing I wanted a 2nd bite of.  It was all new to me and I wasn't very adventuresome in my tastes then.  I loved the country, but hated the food!

And I'm with you, French or not, in preferring "roast of the day" over the nouveau cuisine.


----------



## Old Hipster (Dec 30, 2013)

Our New Year's Eve dinner is going to be pizza. And we will most likey try to stay up until atleast 10 o'clock!

I think the last time we actually celebrated with other people was 1999/2000.


----------



## Katybug (Dec 30, 2013)

Old Hipster said:


> Our New Year's Eve dinner is going to be pizza. And we will most likey try to stay up until atleast 10 o'clock!
> 
> I think the last time we actually celebrated with other people was 1999/2000.



HA!  You should see us old farts who get together here in the building trying to stay up 'til midnight....especially after wine. Glad no one brings cameras.  It would not be a pretty picture.


----------



## Diwundrin (Dec 30, 2013)

I'm rarely asleep before 2am anyway, midnight is just snack time to me, no biggie. 

 I'll wander out and watch the local fireworks displays.  The pub puts up a few, and some local community org. blows up a few more down on the beach for the tourists. The little town down the coast across the bay does a show and I can see the highest ones from Woolgoolga from here so plenty of whizz, bangs and blinkin' lights to entertain me.  Presuming the weather holds.  Then I'll watch the recorded Sydney ones.  Pyrotechnic central around here.  



> Ketchup on eggs w/bacon is the only way I've ever eaten it, very common  here, but I can remember when it wasn't.  Rumor was when tons of  northerners moved here, they started the trend -- but not on a roast  meal, ever!!



On reflection it was in Vancouver that the ketchup reaction occurred, maybe it's a Canadian thing?
But the majority of our group were from the US,  most  from the northern and mid-western states. None of them would brave the Chinese  dives in Gas Town for a dinner out either, they don't know what they missed. It was fantastic food in those dives. LOL

Yes Katy, one must be born to Vegemite.  It must be administered in very mild doses to crusts to be chewed when teething and then gradually increased in intensity on toast until adulthood. By then it is totally addictive and we tend to go troppo when travelling abroad without it.  
You would be amazed how many Australians pack a little jar of it for emergencies.  Even though we may not eat it much at all at home, when travelling it becomes an intolerable craving.  Might be a homesick thing or something.  I have no idea, and no desire to learn, what it's made of.  It is just an accepted fact of life here like spiders snakes and droughts.  

It could be worse though, saw a doco recently of Innuits collecting birds and stuffing them whole into bags. They ram them in tight as they can, seal the bag then bury it until winter.  The bag is opened to reveal an unimaginable mass of decomposed  bodies bones and feathers.
The stench  alone must pose a biohazard.  But there they were, pulling strands of rotting bird guts out and feeding them gently to babes in arms to chew on.   Now THAT would have to be an acquired taste to beat them all!


----------



## That Guy (Dec 31, 2013)

Old Hipster said:


> most likey try to stay up until atleast 10 o'clock!



Happy New Year.  Wheeeee.....!!!


----------

