Christmas Eve is a big celebration for Hispanic families, even bigger than Christmas Day. So how do families prepare for Nochebuena? NBC6’s Ari Odzer has a look at some of the traditional food that will be served on the table.
Noche Buena literally translates to “the good night,” but it means so much more to the Latin community.
It’s been described as the Super Bowl for Hispanic families, and it absolutely revolves around food, which is why the Palacio de los Jugos stores in Miami were packed Tuesday. It was like Black Friday and the day before Thanksgiving combined, with everyone picking up their Nochebuena platters.
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“I’m picking up a big pan of lechon with rice and plantains and salad and other stuff that we usually eat every year,” said Isaac Campos as he waited in line.
Lechon is the Nochebuena specialty. It’s roast pork, and if the gathering is big enough, it’s traditional to cook an entire pig.
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For some families, Nochebuena is a bigger deal than Christmas Day.
“100%, you don’t normally see all of your family on Christmas Day, so that’s kind of like the day before, at nighttime, you play music, you dance around, some people do white elephant gifts, they open presents at night, and then everybody goes around, does their own thing on Christmas,” said Riley Santamaria as he waited in line to pick up his family’s order.
Of course, in many households, someone is in the kitchen cooking rather than ordering from a restaurant.
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We watched Carlos Frias pull a pork shoulder out of the oven after it had been in there for eight hours.
“Been cooking it low and slow, and it’s time to pull it out of the oven,” Frias said as he, well, pulled the roast out of the oven. “That’s pretty decent, looks good!”
You might say Frias is a world-class foodie. The former Miami Herald writer says he learned to cook by covering the restaurant scene for years. With his daughters home from college, but a modest crowd of nine people coming for dinner, Frias is preparing the shoulder instead of a whole pig.
So how important is food to this holiday?
“Oh, it’s almost like the reason for this holiday,” Frias said. “I take that back, there’s a religious angle to it but showing up to somebody’s house, getting ready for those traditional bites that you expect for Christmas, that’s almost as important as tearing open presents on Christmas morning.”
A time to celebrate, but what a nightmare for anyone on a serious diet.
“Everybody, suspend your diet, fast the day before, make all your amends the day after,” Frias said with a laugh. “Just give in, there’s gonna be pork, way too much saturated fat, but we make amends starting on the 25th.”
You can follow Frias’ food adventures on Instagram.
