Home from Home | Overcooked turkey, rock-hard sprouts – the much maligned traditional UK Christmas lunch will hopefully be better prepared at my family gathering this year
- With a reputation for being bland and unappetising, the traditional UK Christmas lunch is full of components consumed – or for many, suffered – only once a year
- No wonder people hit the sherry as soon as they get up on Christmas Day. Come to think of it, that might also be the problem with the cooking
Christmas comes but once a year. This time, in Hong Kong, there will be plenty of cheer as the city marks the first festive season since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
I loved being in Hong Kong at Christmas. Unlike in Britain, the weather is usually fine and all the shops stay open. The harbourside lights are a joy.
This year, there is an abundance of festive revelry on offer. WinterFest in West Kowloon boasts a Christmas Town, with a colourful 20-metre-tall tree. The shopping malls have been as creative as ever with their wacky themes, from Mount Santa Paws to Merry Spacemas.
Much as I miss the Hong Kong festivities, I am looking forward to a first English Christmas in my own home. My family will be arriving for lunch at our village house.
Two Christmas trees were bought from a nearby park. The church on the green is adorned with an illuminated star that seems to hover in the night sky. The temperature, meanwhile, has plunged to near zero, so a log fire is lit most evenings.
The main event will be lunch. My first Christmas meal in Hong Kong, in 1994, was steak with mashed potato. It was all I could manage in my tiny kitchen with no oven. In later years, we progressed to a turkey, initially ferried hurriedly back to Mui Wo from a bakery in Discovery Bay.
