- Ah I feel like if I had a spirit food,
it might be this dish.
(playful music)
- Hello.
As we approach the end of 2020,
I thought it would be fitting to do a new year's Eve video.
So I asked all of you, what are some of your traditions
and what are some of the foods that you eat
where you live on new year's Eve.
We're gonna look at dishes from Portugal,
Netherlands,
Slovakia,
Bulgaria,
and the Philippines.
The dishes are very interesting and very diverse.
So I hope that you all enjoy a little look
at what everyone will be eating
and doing at new year's Eve around the world this year.
(whimsical music)
- Hi, my name is Eco Sophie
and I live in Velp in the Netherlands.
And for new year's Eve Dutch people eat Oliebollen.
Oliebollen literally translates to oil balls.
So they're pretty much deep fried balls of dough.
The main ingredients are flour, yeasts, milk, sugar
and optional raisins.
Although some people do use beer instead of yeast.
I've never made them myself
my mom always makes them.
I'd say most half families in Holland will do this
on new year's Eve.
Have a nice, warm Oliebollen
while standing outside watching fireworks in the cold.
They're in mainly on new year's Eve
but you can find them earlier in the year
at special Oliebollen (foreign language)
which are stands, which you can find outside
of supermarkets or shopping centers.
And they're nice to enjoy over a cup
of tea just on a cold day, but their best on new year's Eve.
(whimsical music)
I like the tradition
because it reminds me of when I was younger
and my mom would bake them in the morning
and we'd just be sat inside,
waiting for her to bring us the first Oliebollen in
And you'd basically spent all day eating Oliebollen.
Yeah. It just reminds me of those days.
And they're just a perfect snack for cold weather.
(quirky music)
- Oh my gosh.
Yes.
There are six on this plate.
(laughing)
(quirky music)
These are so light and fluffy.
Am I a professional donut maker?
(quirky music)
- Oh yeah I like it when Eco was like,
Oh yeah, you just eat them all day.
I could definitely be eating these all day
(coughing)
Powdered sugar.
(coughing)
Down the wrong tube.
(coughing)
keep eating donuts though.
So I like that they're not that sweet,
there's a little bit of the saltiness coming in
but most of the sweetness is just
from the powdered sugar and cinnamon on top.
And for me that makes a donut so much more enjoyable.
Those overly sweet sugared ones are just,
they're not my taste, but these are.
Traditions are nice you know,
I wish I had a tradition like this in my family.
My mom has never made me donuts.
Mom, if you're watching.
(quirky music)
I'm about to say something that might shock all of you.
I really liked this.
(laughing)
(whimsical music)
- Hi! My name is Maria,
and I live in Slovakia.
Our typical new year's eve dish
is Kapustnica!
It is a very hearty soup,
and I think every country in Europe
has a variation of it.
Sometimes Kapustnica can be a part of
wedding or Christmas Menu.
Main ingredients are
sauerkraut,
meat
different kinds of meat products.
And sometimes dried mushrooms.
It tastes
Salty and sour,
but every family has a different recipe.
(quirky music)
Kapustnica is a perfect new year's Eve dish
because it's really rich
and it fills you up for the whole night.
And it also
prevents you
from getting a hangover.
In the past when a typical Slovak people
used to work in the fields,
they needed something easily accessible
and special to satisfy their hunger.
They believed that a sauerkraut is a really
healthy meal in the winter.
Kapustnica is my comfort food
and because of its specific scent
it always reminds me of Christmas time.
This tradition always brings back the memories
of me and my family spending the holidays together.
(quirky music)
(bright music)
- Look how cute.
(laughing)
Ouch! Its hot.
I am a huge fan of sauerkraut,
like you could put sauerkraut
in anything and I would lap it up.
It just smells so good.
(bright music)
Wow!
It like embodies winter.
It's like, this is like winter in a dish to me,
I mean, I've never had it before, but the flavors of it
how it warms you like the smoky ham and the mushrooms.
I mean,
it is,
it is good.
Does anyone else have
like that one food that it doesn't matter what it is?
You know, you're going to like the dish
because it has that ingredient.
Like that's how I feel about sauerkraut.
I found this little pot at a thrift store
and I got it for 50 cents.
I just love that!
I liked how Maria said that the scent of this dish
reminds her of this time of year,
and it's such a nice sentiment
and idea
that you smell something cooking and it just brings
back this flood of memories
in a good way, you know?
Its nice.
Oh my God! I love this too.
So far, this is a good one
this is a good episode.
I'm happy.
(quirky music)
(bright music)
- Hi, my name is Borislava
and I'm from Sofia Bulgaria.
A country in Southeast Europe.
In new year's Eve,
we usually eat Banitsa with fortunes.
Banitsa is one of the most traditional dishes in Bulgaria.
It's prepared with phyllo pastry,
eggs
cheese
and yogurt.
Banitsa is savory
but also crunchy
and a little soft in the inside.
We eat it all through the year,
but the one that we eat
for New year's Eve is a little special
coz we put fortunes or lucks inside of it
in the past those fortunes were actually
Dog wood tree branch.
Nowadays, most people just put paper inside.
It's a meal that really bonds people together.
It's also very fun.
It could be layered kind of like a cake
or it could be rolled to look like a snail sort of.
When I was a kid, my mom was sometimes putting coins inside
and my dad would secretly dig in to find
in which piece exactly is the coin and give it
to me because I would get super overly excited
that I got the coin.
So I will be very rich and happy and lucky this year.
So this sort of memories is the reason why I like this dish.
(bright music)
- I'm so excited to try this.
Oh my gosh.
I love feta cheese.
(quirky music)
(mumbles)
I think this might be one
of the best thing that I've ever had.
Wow!
(quirky music)
The feta cheese and the egg and the yogurt have
cooked together and it's like,
kind of custardy in the middle,
but it's like salty,
and then you have the honey on top
so it's sweet.
And the phyllo
is so flaky
(mumbles)
(laughing)
Making this was a journey.
I'm definitely not a baker.
I was so nervous,
I was like watching the oven
I kept peeking in.
I'm watching like the dough cook
and...
Oh! What is my fortune?
(quirky music)
You will get to 500,000 subscribers in 2021.
Oh my God! Who could have written this for me?
(laughing)
We have fun!
(quirky music)
I like how you ended up
with these little kind of like (indistinct) style bites.
It has like Spanakopita vibes,
but I like this more.
Definitely not mad
that there's an entire pie left
in my kitchen for me to be eating for the rest of the week.
That's awesome!
(bright music)
- Hi, my name is Erica.
I live in London,
but I grew up in the Philippines.
In the Philippines
its common to have rice cakes for new year.
One of them is Palitaw.
(bright music)
Palitaw are sweet and chewy rice cakes
shaped like small patties.
It's super easy to make Palitaw.
It's three main ingredients are
glutinous rice flour, water and sugar.
It's then coated, in sesame seeds,
grated coconut and more sugar.
The name Palitaw comes from the word
(foreign word)
which means to float or to appear.
Making them is quite fascinating.
You cook the rice patties in boiling water
and you'll know it's ready when it floats to the surface.
It's signature, earthy nutty and the sweet taste comes
from the grated coconut and Sesame seeds.
Meanwhile, it's chewiness will sort of remind you
of Japanese (indistinct)
(quirky music)
In my country,
sticky rice cakes like Palitaw
are traditionally eaten during the new year.
It's commonly believed
that good fortune will stick to you throughout the year,
and it can even bind your family closer together.
It brings back so many good memories
and I think food is one great way
to relive past moments.
(bright music)
- I'm very excited to taste this one.
I wanted to sneak a bite,
but I was like, no
I'm going to do it on camera.
Oh my gosh.
Whoa. Wow.
It's good.
I can't believe I made a sticky rice cake.
I feel very impressed
(laughing)
making this was a bit
of an uphill battle.
I actually struggled a lot.
I think it was hard for me
to get the dough consistency right.
The first one I made was
a monster!
I like it, I don't know what I was doing,
It was so big
It looked like a tongue.
(laughing)
Even though I put my best foot forward
and show, you know, very kind of neat
and it looks like I made each dish perfectly
my first try.
It's not true.
If you do want to try and make this
you do have to use glutinous rice flour.
You can't just use normal rice flour cause
the normal one will not give you the sticky rice cake.
(bright music)
The Sesame and sugar on top is also really good.
The unsweetened coconut gives you a yummy
coconut flavor and the sugar helps brighten it
but it's not like a saccharin dish, you know.
I do hope that good luck will stick to me.
This tastes amazing, but more so I just can't believe
that I made this one myself.
This feels, I feel very accomplished.
(quirky music)
(bright music)
- Hi Beryl.
Hi, rest of the world.
My name is Gee.
I live in Lagos Portugal,
that's way down in the South.
In Portugal,
there's no one official
or traditional dish for New year's Eve
but one dish that can go
with anything for any occasion
and thus New year's is Acorda.
The main ingredients are quite simple,
Sourdough bread
or rustic kind of bread that has gone stale
and cilantro,
garlic and
olive oil, salt and pepper
that's it, it tastes earthy
from the garlic and funky from the garlic
but it tastes quite fresh from the cilantro as well.
And then you can poach an egg on it
when the egg yolk mixes into the whole thing
I dunno, it just tastes like home
tastes like heaven, it's awesome.
(laughing)
And it just goes well with everything
and it's, something that everybody can agree to.
It's a very traditional dish for us.
It's all about what Portuguese cuisine is all about.
Its simplicity.
Since I can remember
(laughing)
that I can eat stuff.
I eat Acorda.
It's a warm dish for the belly also for the heart.
It's really nice.
(bright music)
- The final dish that I'm trying is Acorda from Portugal
and it smells garlicky
and delicious.
My God, I poached this egg perfectly.
I don't know
can you see?
(bright music)
Oh my God.
Ooh, that garlic she's kicking in there.
This is kind of reminiscent of what you put with Escargot
how it's like butter and garlic,
and I guess maybe its cilantro,
I dunno.
It's true about New year's Eve
that a lot of times people are like,
Oh it's a night for extravagant foods
and this is quite a simple dish, but man, it's delicious.
Gee said something that I actually want to bring up
that in Portugal
he said they don't have that one dish for New year's
and you know, for this series
and I've read it in comments people are like,
Oh, I don't have this and I live in that country.
It's not about that.
Like, this is also a series
about people and the things that make them feel good
the things that they like and the idea
that this is a family tradition of his
I think that that's also worth sharing just as much
as a national dish might be worth sharing
because the whole point of this is to understand one another
and understand one another's foods.
And some of those foods are just personal loves and likes.
And that's, that's cool with me.
When I posted that I was going to do this video,
a lot of you shared your New year's Eve traditions with me.
And so I wanted to finish this video
by sharing mine with you.
That one of my traditions is that,
you know we all go around
and we talk about something that we're looking forward to
in the New year.
So I did that with everybody who did this video with me
and I will start,
this past year obviously has been very crazy.
And something that I'm looking forward to
for next year is seeing people again.
I miss people.
I do.
I really do.
- I think 2020 has been particularly hard for everyone,
but it has taught us a valuable lesson
that you can't control everything in life.
- For next year I hope we got a vaccine
and people can travel and see their relatives again.
- And we get to experience
that simple human relationships again, to bond again
to be spending time with friends again.
That's one thing that I really hope for 2021
- My wish is that
we start finding the hidden powers
within us
and between us so that we can keep growing
in love and in freedom
instead of fear and control.
- I think it is possible that
if people don't try to be more responsible
and not blame others for the situation we are in
that we will make the world
the place we know and love again.
- I wanted to jump back in quickly and just say a big
thank you to all of you who have been supportive
and been a part of my videos this year in 2020.
And I am very excited to keep doing this in 2021.
So I will see you all
- In the new year.
(bright quirky music)