SYMBOLISM OF FOOD EATEN FOR NEW YEAR

If you're thinking you might want lobster for dinner on New Year's Day, maybe you'd better think twice. Eating lobster on New Year's, apparently, is bad luck. Why? Because lobsters can crawl backwards. "That is a symbol of going back to where you've been, instead of forward to where you're going," said Beth Kozemchak, a chef/instructor at the Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School in York who teaches a class on foods that bring luck. "It's the same with chickens because when they scratch, they scratch backwards," she said. "That's looking at the past instead of looking forward to the future." New Year's Day has always been associated with lucky, and sometimes unlucky, foods. Eat a "lucky food" -- say, black-eyed peas -- and 2012 is sure to bring you happiness and prosperity, or so the tradition goes. And this tradition crosses cultural boundaries, though it may be expressed in different ways. Leafy greens, for example, are considered lucky because of their resemblance to money. Some Southerners add collards to their black-eyed peas at the new year, while in Germany, people eat cabbage in the form of sauerkraut. Danes prefer kale served with sugar and cinnamon, but Italians throw it into a stew with their lucky beans and sausage. Here's a sampling of lucky foods from around the world and what they symbolize: PORK: Pork is another food that's considered lucky in a lot of cultures. "Pigs, they smell the ground and they move forward," Kozemchak said. "It's the movement of the pig when it's alive that makes it lucky." Suckling pig is a popular New Year's food in Cuba, Hungary, Portugal and Austria. "A lot of countries do a suckling pig, a whole pig," Kozemchak said. "The Germans (prefer) sausage, but it's the same theory." Kozemchak said the fattiness of the pork is also a symbol of richness. Austrians make small pigs out of marzipan to put on the table with their suckling pig. "When we lived in Germany, that was a big thing," Kozemchak said. "Those are symbols of good luck, and everybody has those at the beginning of the New Year." Pork, of course, can be combined with some other lucky foods, perhaps for double the good fortune. It's a wonderful flavoring in a pot of greens or peas.

The suckling pig is the symbol for good luck for the new year. It's served on a table decorated with tiny edible pigs. CAKES: New Year's cakes are popular all over the world, whether they are traditional cakes or doughnut-like pastries. The cakes often have some kind of trinket baked into them. The person who receives the slice with the hidden surprise will have good luck in the coming year. Kozemchak will be making a Greek cake for her class that contains a coin. The father of the family cuts the cake, and the first slice is set aside for St. Basil, the patron saint of the poor and unfortunate. The rest of the slices are served according to age, starting with the oldest person at the table. GRAPES: In Spain, its popular to eat a dozen grapes at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, one for each chime of the clock. The tradition dates from the turn of the 20th century, when there was a surplus of grapes and growers thought of this as a clever way to rid their vineyards of the surplus. Today, lots of Spanish-speaking nations carry on the tradition, including Cuba, Mexico and several South American countries. "The theory is that each grape represents a month of the coming year, and so if by chance you eat one grape that might be kind of sour, that might not be your best month of the year," TRADITIONALLY, THIS IS SERVED FOR CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR IN CROATIA:
Dalmatian Pot Roast

5 lbs. beef top round 10 oz. smoked bacon 20. oz onion 8 oz. parsley root 5. oz carrots 2

4 cloves garlic 10 oz. peeled tomato 10 oz. fresh celery 8 prunes 3 quarts dry red wine 2 tsp. mustard 10 oz. olive oil bay leaf, rosemary, thyme salt and pepper to taste Pre-preparation: Wash and drain meat. Cut bacon into match-like sticks. Chop onion and garlic. Cut vegetables into small strips. Pierce beef with sharp knife and place garlic into and around meat. Place beef into large pan, cover with wine. Add chopped onion, thyme, bay leaf, rosemary, pepper, and cubed celery to meat. Cover pan and refrigerate for 12 hours. Preparation: Heat oil and place beef (only) into pan with oil. Brown meat briskly and remove from pan. Add contents from marinade into oil and fry briskly. Add browned meat, peeled tomatoes, prunes, and remaining items into pan. Mix and cook for 2-3 hours from a higher to lower temperature during cooking time. Remove meat and slice. Strain juice from pan and use as sauce. Traditional Meals Christmas Eve: cod fishbianco and brudetto bakalarbijeli i brudet smelts and salted sardines girice i slane srdele Christmas Dinner: stuffed cabbage sarma turkey with Zagorje noodles purica s mlincima suckling pig odojak Dalmatian pot roast pasticada walnut roll orahnjaca poppy seed roll makovnjaca fritters fritule assorted Croatian cookies dried figs with walnuts suhe smokve s orasima grappa loza