“The Language of Baklava” is a story that hit very close to home with me. Being 100% Italian, food is one of the biggest and most important parts of any of our family gatherings.
The biggest memories I have formed with food come once every year. Each year, it is also a little bit different than the year before. On Christmas Eve, my family cooks more than I have ever seen any other family cook. The Seven Fish tradition of Italian families is what I would consider one of the most common holiday meals for people. Even if a family is not Italian, it seems like several people latch on to this Christmas tradition.
Each year, about fifteen of my closest family members come over to my house to eat homemade pasta made with a baccala (fish) sauce in addition to six other types of fish. The other fish include shrimp, smelts, oysters, scallops, crab, lobster, and some years even more. The preparation for this day includes several trips to Pittsburgh’s “strip district,” where the freshest fish in the city is located. Every single year for as long as I can remember, my mom, grandma, great aunt, and my sisters and I make the fifteen minute commute into the city.
In the strip district, the fish market there is called Wholey’s. They have almost any kind of fish imaginable, and near the holidays, it is always crowded.
In addition to going to Wholey’s, it is pretty much a requirement that we make a stop at Pennsylvania Macaroni – one of Pittsburgh’s most famous Italian food stores. While I could write an entire blog about an experience at Pennyslvania Macaroni, I will save that for another day.
A few days later is my favorite day of the entire year – Christmas Eve. It is the only day of the year that I willingly get up before 9:00AM to help my family cook the most delicious meal I have ever had.
The room is filled with smells of fish. I understand that some people are not the biggest fans of fish, but I truly think it is impossible to dislike the meal that my we (mostly my mom) make.
The entire house is filled with smells of garlic-y scampi, fried oysters, homemade spaghetti sauce, and salty baccala, along with dozens of other mouth-watering aromas.
We have certain appetizers and desserts that are also included in our Christmas Eve tradition. Each year, platters of olives, cheeses, prosciutto, and lupini beans are lined up on the island in our kitchen. For those who have never had lupini beans, they really taste like nothing. My family douses them in salt to give them some sort of flavor. Eating them is more of a tradition than actually enjoying their taste.
This post is truly only grazing my family’s tradition of Christmas Eve. In fact, I guarantee every one of my blogs could be about something different with our tradition. After all, having 21 Christmas Eves with a big Italian family is bound to create a few memories.
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