What will you be doing on Christmas Day? My family celebrates Chanukah, we don’t have a Christmas tree, I’ve never enjoyed eating dry roast turkey and certainly never understood bread sauce.
I don’t have anything against Christmas per se and while I’ve always enjoyed watching Christmas movies, the day itself has just always been a non-event. I envy the Americans, who seem to have it all wrapped up — spending the day eating in Chinese restaurants and watching movies.
“On Christmas day, lines can be found going around the block of some of the more famous Chinese restaurants in New Yorks, China Town” explains Anoushka Mond, who lived in New York for several years before returning to London.
James Tang, managing partner of Chinese restaurant Hwa Yuan on East Broadway, New York, told me Christmas is “our busiest day of the year, more than any night during Chinese New Year.”
There are a few theories to how this phenomenon evolved. “Jews began going to Chinese restaurants in New York in the 1890s,” said Rabbi Joshua Plaut, who is hailed as the unofficial (and perhaps only) expert on the topic having book, A Kosher Christmas.
Stir fried Szechuan turkey will be on Joanna's menu Photo: Joanna Nissim
Rabbi Plaut writes that Jews have pondered what to do on Christmas ever since Christmas was a thing. He theorised that how we felt often reflected their status in society. In Eastern Europe, for example, where we’d been very unassimilated, the festival had the potential for pogroms and violence with inebriated groups going from house to house, so we’d stay at home for safety.
Post French Revolution, Plaut explains that in Western Europe, we became more assimilated and started to make choices about whether to have a Christmas tree or give gifts. According to him, secular Jew and early Zionist Theodor Herzl had a Christmas tree in his salon.
Rabbi Plaut says the Jewish American Christmas tradition of eating Chinese food may have started back near the turn of the 20th century when both Jews and the Chinese began to move to America.
Photo: Joanna Nissim
The two communities, living in proximity on the immigrant-packed Lower East Side, had in common the fact that neither celebrated Christmas. It may have felt natural for the two to come together and the tradition was born. American food writer, Joan Nathan, has written that Chinese cuisine made sense if you were avoiding milk and meat as they don’t tend to mix meat and dairy.
To date, the UK doesn’t share the love affair with Chinese food on Christmas day and so many of Chinatown’s restaurants are closed.
For Londoners, kosher Chinese restaurant Met Su Yan won’t be open on Christmas day but those wanting to do it New York-Style, can head to Kai Feng, in Hendon which will be trading. Although we won’t be seeing queues around the block Big Apple style, the restaurant owner already reports many bookings for the two sittings on the day itself — and there’s a take out service too.
If you fancy making your own Chinese banquet on the big day you’ll find my suggestions here.
