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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

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The Food Chain: An alternative Christmas

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An alternative Christmas

16/12/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, An alternative Christmas

Japan's love affair with fried chicken and the story of a very Chinese Jewish Christmas

Japan's love affair with festive fried chicken and the story of a very Chinese Jewish Christmas.

What dish says Christmas to you - roast turkey, goat? Carp perhaps? What about fried chicken?  

In Japan nothing says ‘festive family food’ more than a bucket of KFC fried chicken. And if you’re Jewish and from the US, a Christmas meal will almost certainly mean a trip to Chinatown.  

Ruth Alexander unearths the origin stories of these two unlikely, but incredibly popular, - alternative Christmas food traditions, and finds out how food can help give you a sense of belonging, even if celebrating Christmas isn’t for you. 

(Picture: Bucket of fried chicken and bowl of Chinese food. Credit: Getty/BBC) 

If you would like to get in touch with the show please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk 

Contributors: 

Nina Li Coomes, writer based in Chicago, USA 

Rabbi Joshua Plaut, author ‘A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Kosher’. 

Producers: Sarah Stolarz and Simon Tulett

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