Christmas 2017: What's cooking in kitchens of expatriates in India

Argentina

Consul General of Argentina, Alejandro Zothner Meyer (having Swiss and Austrian roots) and wife Maria-Marta (who has North Italian roots) are old India lovers, previously posted in Delhi. They have fond memories of their sons Tomas, Jose Maria and Juan Lucas helping dress the Christmas tree. " Wherever we are, it's important for us to put together the Nativity scene from the first week of December till 6th January. On the midnight of 24th, we open gifts we've put under the Christmas tree."

Their typical Christmas dishes are European, although Argentina is in the Southern Hemisphere, where Christmas is in summer. Maria-Marta is a foodie. She likes to cook and decorate the house. "I love colourful tasty starters. Green salad with blue cheese and walnuts, also Waldorf salad and pineapple/melon with Spanish ham. For the main dish, I often prepare a sweet-sour rack of pork with prunes, honey and mustard. Sometimes instead of pork we have tenderloin. Of course, rich food goes with good wines. The most known Argentinian wine is Malbec, but we also have other good grapes like Shiraz and Cabernet-Sauvignon in red wines. Some people prefer white, Rosé or sparkling wines. Children take soft drinks or juices. To end the meal, you have ice creams with fruits, stollen and crepes with "dulce de leche, our typical lovely dessert." Aclamaciones!

Australia

Meet the amiable and affectionate couple, Tony Huber, Consul General of Australia, and his wife Kate Hall. December is hot down under, but the party is always on in Canberra, their hometown. Over to Tony: "The dishes our family eats over the Christmas period in Australia reflect that we live in a modern multicultural society, where British and European traditions are interspersed with culinary influences of our migrant communities. We tend towards fresh, organic (from the farm) produce including ham, specialty free-range chicken, vegetables, salad ingredients, fruits with home-made condiments, Christmas pudding and custard. Salads tend to be important as they are served cold. In recent years, we've been kick starting our Christmas celebrations with a drink before eating – chilled champagne is a favourite, with water close at hand.

The traditional fare of heated foods in our Christmas lunch and dinner main course is balanced with the inclusion of fresh seafood, usually prawn and oyster. Gravlax salmon has also been a perennial favourite." Kate adds, "We tend to continue with the Christmas tree tradition, improvised to take account of the unique settings we live in (such as India and Australia) where there may not be access to a tree that fits the ideal. This year, we have a potted palm tree, which is already decorated with Christmas adornments." And best of all, daughter Miriam is visiting for the feasting. Cheers!

France

Yves Perrin, Consul General of France, and his wife Caroline Perrin Deflandre have spent almost three years in Mumbai. Intrepid bikers, they have avidly explored far off corners of India! Caroline says, "At Christmas, as you can imagine, foie gras occupies the main place in our meal. We also serve chapon, a castrated cockerel stuffed with foie gras and chestnuts. Then there's a large cheese platter – with the golden mount Vacherin du Haut-Doubs AOP (Appellation Origin Control), the Morbier AOP, Saint Nectaire Farmer AOP, tomme de Savoie fermière, and some goat cheese like Selles-sur-Cher AOP, valençay AOP, Pouligny St Pierre AOP – accompanied by a green salad and bread." And can any celebration be without the famed bubbly? Yves and Caroline love their champagne, especially Ruinart, which has lots of bubbles but does not give you a headache the next morning. Of course, we have Bordeaux and Burgundy fine wines too. Caroline continues, "For dessert I usually bake a cake in the shape of a log with chestnuts and chocolate served with custard."

This year, their daughter Anne-Victoire and son Marc-Emmanuel have already arrived to celebrate Christmas in Mumbai. A traditional Christmas tree will be loaded with lots of goodies, and carols will be sung in French. Sante.

Germany

Christmas Eve is the most memorable day in the lives of German Consul General, Juergen Morhard and his wife Petra. That's when he proposed to her at a Japanese temple in 1985.

Although their last posting was in Sri Lanka and now it's Mumbai, the hot weather does not dampen the cheer. As in Germany, they will eat sausages with potato salad, roasted goose or duck with potato dumplings and red cabbage, breaded carp with potato salad and cucumber salad, raclette and fondues.

Petra says, "The most popular meal on Christmas Eve for many Germans is sausages and potato salad. It holds a special meaning: this simple meal reminds us of the poverty of Mary and Joseph when Jesus was born."

Sons Marius and Julian arrive for Christmas and so Petra is busy preparing "the big feast for Christmas Day: Christmas goose, normally had at lunch. The preparation is time consuming – the goose is filled with apples, onion and chestnuts, seasoned with sweet marjoram, and served with red cabbage and homemade potato dumpling in a delicious gravy." Sweetness follows: Gingerbread, homemade cookies and stollen (a cake made of dried fruits, butter, and marzipan). And there's always a variety of cookies to choose from! Prost!

Hungary

Norbert Rèvai-Bere, the consul General of Hungary, is a history buff and an expert rock n' roll dancer. His wife Anita teaches yoga and is a caring mom to three daughters – Hanna Tabita, Aisa Rahel and Sara Zamira. Christmas celebrations start nearly three weeks early, on 6th December, St Nicholas Day, which is dedicated to a similar figure – Santa Claus. Hungarian children traditionally place a boot on their windowsill waiting for Mikulás to come by and fill it up with treats. Norbert explains, "An essential feast is fisherman's soup or halászlé (made of sweet water fish) for which my hometown, Szeged is particularly famous. The Szeged halászlé from the river Tisza is the best, besides the Baja halászlé of the river Danube or Lake Balaton. It is a main course soup-dish just like the famous Hungarian gulyás (goulash). For Christmas however, fisherman's soup is a must. For Christmas Day lunch and also on 26th December, we usually eat stuffed cabbage rolls/toltottkaposzta (originally pork-based, however modern day Hungarian cuisine uses turkey as an alternative) that tastes really delicious with Hungarian sour cream on top." Desserts? From Xmas Eve till New Year's Eve, it's the yummy dios es makos beigli (walnut and poppy seed Christmas roll). Egészségére!

South Africa

Consul General of South Africa, Maropene Ramokgopa is a single mother with three vivacious children: daughters Lesedi, Zania and son Xhantilomzi, who live with her in Mumbai. Over to Maropene: "On Christmas Eve, we usually have braai (barbeque) for lunch. Beef short ribs, wors (sausage) and chicken wings grilled on open flame. Garlic bread, pap (cooked ground corn) and roaster bread (made of wheat flour and prepared on the same open-flame barbeque stand, used to roast the meat). Chakalaka (baked beans, carrots, red chillies, onions and green pepper warm salad) and potato salad. Dessert is malva pudding with a choice of custard and vanilla ice cream." On Christmas Day, Maropene dishes out roasted lamb, roasted potatoes, coleslaw and Greek salad. Different types of wines, and non-alcoholic ginger beer brewed the previous day. Dessert is usually trifle pudding.

All of Maropene's family attends a church service. And no matter what the weather, they always follow the Christmas tree tradition. They also decorate the roof top with different lights, from 16th December onwards. Proost!

Vinod Advani actively participates in girl child empowerment. He travels, sings, dances and believes one should do good without reason.