Hippocratic Oats

O holy night

December 24, 2009 at 10:41 pm 1 comment

Merry Christmas eve everyone! Tonight we had the traditional Polish Wigilia dinner at the Fryc house with Mom, Dad, Jeff, Grandma Fryc, Uncle Tom, and I. What’s Wigilia you ask? I’ll let wikipedia tell you:

“Wigilia (pronounced: vee-GHEE-lee-uh) is the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland, held on December 24. The term is also often extended to the whole day of the Christmas Eve, extending further into the midnight Mass held at Roman Catholic churches all over Poland and large Polish comunities worldwide at midnight preceding the Christmas Day.”

Jeff having a beer before dinner.

Grandma Fryc relaxing in the living room.

First we exchanged opaltek. According to wikipedia:

“Family members begin the celebration with a prayer and breaking of the Christmas wafer (opłatek – symbolizing the bread eaten daily — our day-to-day common life) and wishing each other good fortune in the upcoming new year. (After the prayer, usually done by the man of the house, the opłatek is broken and pieces are given to everyone attending the table. From there, everyone breaks off a piece of their opłatek, and shares it with everyone else, wishing luck and joy in the upcoming year, for Christ has been born. This wish is usually finalized by a kiss on the cheek.)”

Some of the details on one of the wafers.

Mom and Jeff.

Jeff and I. Turns out, its hard to break off the oplatek and and take a picture.

The best part of the the night (besides presents) is always the food! Dad did an amazing job and made the entire meal. I don’t think Poland is known for it’s fantastic cuisine, but you would be surprised. I’m a big fan of all the traditional dishes served on Christmas eve.

The first course was a mushroom soup.

The mushroom soup is always my second favorite part of dinner…

…because the pierogi is always my favorite! None of that Mrs. T’s fake stuff. Only homemade pockets of awesome are served on Christmas eve

Serving fish is also part of Wigilia dinner (no meat because of Catholic tradition). Dad made Pacific cod. I’m not a huge fish lover, but this actually tasted pretty good.

Kapusta (or cabbage).

Potatoes served with onions. YUM.

My full plate. Let’s just say I was a very full Sarah afterwards.

For dessert, I had a slice of babka bread (sweet yeast cake).

  

   

After a lovely carbolicious meal, I am so full I can barely move! Time to watch a movie with mom

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Family, Food.