Pinoy Christmas Food: Queso de Bola
I remember Christmases spent at my grandparents’ place in Bataan. We always had a Christmas Eve dinner, the “Noche Buena”, which my mom and my aunt would prepare for us. It didn’t have to be fancy. We were happy with spaghetti and pork barbecue. The real feast would come the next day, during lunch.
One of the foods that I started to associate with Christmas from an early age is Queso de Bola. It was only later in life that I learned it was also called Edam cheese. It was always Queso de Bola for me. Ball cheese, round cheese, and it had to be round, with a red rind, otherwise it didn’t count.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this statement on Wikipedia, under the entry “Edam (cheese)”:
Together with bibingka and jamón it is one of the foods that complete the traditional Filipino Christmas dinner table.
That sort of validated my Christmas memories, hehe.
Now when I think of it, though, we didn’t really like the cheese all that much. But it had to be present at the table, and grated over spaghetti for that special touch. I know you’re not supposed to eat the red rind at all. But I confess that, as a children, my siblings, cousins and I would sneak little tastes of it. Yeah, we’re curious like that. It tasted like candles. We all grew up fine and dandy, so I guess it didn’t do much harm. ;)
Tags: Pinoy Christmas traditions, Philippine Christmas, Christmas traditions, Queso de Bola, Noche Buena
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