Holiday postcards from door2door
A collection of postcards from our international team to celebrate the holidays.
PORTUGAL, Simão, Visual Content Manager
In Portugal, salted cod fish has been an essential part of our diet for centuries. It was what the explorers took with them as they circumnavigated the world, and it’s still what we eat every Christmas Eve. Apparently it first started as an alternative to meat, as Christmas was a period of abstinence from meat, but now I just think we eat it because we love it. This dish is one of the things I have missed most while living in Berlin and it’s nice to share it today with my family.
FRANCE, Anne-Laure, Head of Marketing
My family usually joins my aunt in Provence for Christmas and every year, we are greeted by a table of 13 desserts. These desserts are usually eaten after “le gros souper” but the table then remains decked for three whole days. The table consists of many things that for previous generations would have cost a family fortune. We have mandarins, lots of nuts, nougat and marzipan. In my family, the mandarins always disappear first.
ROMANIA, Ana Maria, Head of Business Development
I’m a newcomer to Berlin and it’s been great discovering the delicacies of this diverse and exciting city. All the same, especially during the holidays, I’m always excited to return home and to our own traditions and to my family. About a week before Christmas, my parents already begin the preparations. My extended family slaughters a pig and begins preparing Christmas dishes. We make our own sausages called carnati afumati and prepare sarmale, the ubiquitous cabbage rolls that is found all over Eastern Europe and that we prepare with pork. Other traditional delicious pork dishes include chisca, stuffed sausage; toba, head cheese and soric, pork skin. After so much preparation, it’s exciting to sit down together for a great big feast.
BRAZIL, Carolina, Talent Scout Brazil and Andressa, Office Admin Brazil
Christmas is a special time to be spent with family in Brazil. In my family we all get together with our grandma to celebrate with a delicious home-cooked meal, followed by five or six kinds of dessert, all served on fancy china (that is only at Christmas!). The most traditional dinner dishes are turkey stuffed with crumbs, ham with wine sauce, potato salad and lots of nuts and candied fruits. At midnight we toast with sparkling wine and open the presents left under the three, while reminiscing on other hilarious family stories.
BRAZILIAN IN GERMANY, Nicolas, Software Developer
My wife and I are Brazilian, and although we would have loved to return home to our family, we were also very excited to spend the holidays getting to know our new city a little better. Something that always amazes me about Berlin is just how international it is. So what better way to celebrate Christmas than at the house of a friend with each of us bringing a local dish from our country. We brought cheese bread and rabanada, a type of Brazilian French toast. The food was delicious, the company was great. Just an amazing time to end 2016!
