Australian Christmas feasts: the Kwong clan’s Christmas
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Version 0 of 1. Christmas Day never fails to remind me how incredibly fortunate and blessed I am: more than 70 members of our extended family gather for an enormous all-day-and-night feast. Whoever has the biggest place, with the biggest outdoor area, the biggest swimming pool and the biggest DVD player gets the gig! My mother has 10 brothers and sisters, and they all have children and grandchildren of their own, so for us Christmas Day is not just about the food, it’s also very much about celebrating our growing family and welcoming any new additions. There must be about 35 youngsters now, ranging from newborns through to young adults in their early 20s. The celebrations take place around a table literally groaning with food. Mum sends me a text about a week before the big day: “Kylie, can you please bring your Billy Kwong XO, homemade chilli sauce, Goong Goong’s pickles and some white-cooked chickens?” I do as I am told, and usually take a lot more food, as I just cannot help myself – I am never happier than when I am feeding my family. On Christmas morning, after collecting the sauces, pickles and chooks from Billy Kwong, I swing past Tai Wong BBQ in Campbell Street, in Sydney’s Chinatown, to buy several kilograms of luscious, sticky Chinese BBQ pork, some roast ducks and a handful of freshly steamed sticky rice parcels. By this time, my car is filled to the brim with outrageous amounts of fresh food; the waft of Chinese five-spice permeates the air. Also packed are mixing bowls and trays from the restaurant, my trusty Chinese cleaver, wooden chopping boards and my stripy Maggie Beer apron, all in readiness for the full day of cooking that lies ahead. The feast directly reflects my incredible Australian–Chinese family in all its diversity. Alongside Mum’s comforting red-braise of pork belly, potato and Chinese mushrooms, and the delicious pork wontons my Uncle Jimmy and his daughter, Bianca, fill and boil to order, sit bowls of Aunty June’s refreshing, very Aussie coleslaw and a platter of her pineapple-studded glazed leg ham. My cousin Phil brings locally caught prawns with homemade mayo and a bottle of Heinz tomato sauce, Aunty Sue always insists on roast turkey, stuffed and served with cranberry sauce, and Aunty Connie’s roast pumpkin wedges always go down well. Meanwhile, Uncle Lionel methodically chops up all the meat and poultry: Aunty Jane’s poached soy-sauce chickens; succulent Chinese roast duck (with all of us fighting over the neck, wing tips and backbones!); a small mountain of caramelised BBQ pork; steamed lup cheong sausage (which we simply mix with coriander and sesame oil); and cousin Linna’s killer roast pork belly (even though all the crackling is usually “inhaled” before the dish makes it to the table…). Cousin Lesley prepares several very generous vegetarian salads, slicing, dicing and bantering all at once, and my eldest brother Paul makes an enormous salad of fresh, organic herbs and greens from Eveleigh Market, Lebanese cucumbers and the ripest, juiciest tomatoes. We all love Paul’s famous vinaigrette, which he makes from garlic, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, honey, salt flakes and soy sauce. For the more traditional eaters among our tribe, Aunty Connie steams some choy sum and jasmine rice, and Uncle Lionel, after all that chopping, sets about making the biggest bowl of ginger and shallot dipping sauce you’ve ever seen, to go with the white-cooked chicken. As if this weren’t enough food, for dessert Mum usually makes several of her renowned “Pauline Kwong pavlovas”, each meticulously decorated with sliced strawberries, kiwi fruit, banana and berries. The “littlies” love to help in the kitchen; preparing, cooking and serving is no chore to our family – it’s just who we are and what we do. “The sooner we teach the young ones, the quicker they’ll be able to help us,” says Mum. I always look forward to my incredibly wonderful Christmas Day, and have never missed one in my 44 years. On this day, we all come together as one big, united and loving clan to celebrate our mutual obsession with good food, our undying love and compassion for each other, and the total joy and delight the children in our family continue to bring us. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |