Time Nick Message 06:26 chris merry xmas nicomo 06:26 nicomo hi Chris 06:26 nicomo merry xmas to you and your family too 06:27 chris thank you 06:29 nicomo I was wondering : what's a summer xmas like? 06:30 chris often people have a barbeque for xmas 06:30 chris and there is lots of salads :) 06:30 chris but we usually still have turkey 06:31 chris another nz tradition is fresh cherries for christmas 06:32 chris and lots of berries 06:32 nicomo I like the fresh cherries part :-) 06:32 nicomo sounds like my kind of xmas 06:32 chris and usually today, (boxing day) people have a picnic 06:32 chris and eat all the leftovers 06:32 nicomo why is it call boxing day? 06:34 chris Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class, most especially to household servants and other service personnel. 06:35 nicomo ok. Actually in France we don't usually have turkey: that's considered "american" (don't know why) 06:36 chris ahh, how about ham? 06:37 nicomo we have : oysters + "foie gras" + main dish (can be many things) + cheese + a cake called "buche" (log), which is a chocolate and cream cake in the shape of a log 06:37 chris ohh sounds good to me :) 06:37 nicomo and wine, of course : white, rather dry with the oysters 06:38 nicomo white, rather sugary with the foie gras 06:38 nicomo red with dish 06:38 nicomo red with the cheese 06:38 nicomo and champagne with the cake 06:38 chris yum1 06:38 chris ! even 06:38 nicomo and then you generally just want to lie down 06:39 chris hehe yes 06:40 chris we had some reisling with dessert, but mostly beer with the mains 06:41 nicomo Reisling is good 06:42 chris often we have a methode tradationelle (cant usually afford real champagne :)) 06:43 nicomo wel, my mother lives in Reims, which is the town were most Champagne companys are, right in the middle of the Champagne area : that helps a lot 06:46 chris that would help 06:53 chris we have some good sauvignon blanc in this area 07:08 nicomo often considering they can't learn anything from anyone about food and drink, the french tend to be late in opening up the stuff from the rest of the world, but we're beginning to see australiaa, south african, american, etc. wines here now. And good ones too. 07:10 chris its often the opposite here 07:11 chris people tend to assume if its nz made it wont be as good as overseas 07:11 chris but some of our wines, and olive oils, and beers are world class 07:13 chris a new french cafe has opened in the suburb i live in, im hoping to try it tomorrow :) 07:13 chris when i was in france for the kohacon, i think i had creme brulee every night 07:13 chris :)