You’ve seen the images: An elderly man wearing a sagging 2012 sash over his thin frame shuffles toward his exit, where the exuberant 2013 babe awaits his entrance. But, the old man pauses in his journey to dispense a few last edible nuggets of wisdom…

In many cultures, the New Year is seen as a new beginning, a fresh start to be carefully ushered in so as to ensure good fortune in the coming months.  And what better, more fundamental way to do this than through food? Here is a short list of foods traditionally eaten on the New Year to bring good luck in the coming months:

Fish
For the Chinese, a whole steamed fish symbolizes a long and healthy life. Oysters and prawns are lucky, too!
The Polish serve pickled herring at midnight.
The Italians use dried salt cod in a variety of holiday dishes.
The Germans simply must have carp, which is usually eaten in a stew. They also take the fish thing one step further, and stash a few carp scales into their wallets to keep from running out of money in the coming year.

Legumes
Some believe that feasting on beans, peas and lentils will bring money in the coming year, as their small, round shape is reminiscent of coins in some cultures.  And when beans are cooked, they swell and grow larger, which symbolizes increasing wealth.
A popular Southern New Year’s dish is Hoppin’ John, a spicy combination of black-eyed peas and rice.
In Brazil, the traditional first meal of the New Year is lentil soup.
Northern Italians like to eat green lentils and pork sausage at midnight. 

Greens
In one of the more obvious comparisons, the leaves of greens are thought to resemble paper money and thus bring financial success.
The American South has long served sautéed collard greens, and the Danes like kale sweetened with cinnamon and sugar.
In countries that celebrate the Persian New Year, fresh herbs are used in rice dishes and oven-baked omelets.
For Germans, cabbage in the form of sauerkraut is a New Year’s staple. 

Noodles/Dumplings
In Asia, eating long noodles is said to give you long life. But, you cannot break the noodles when you are eating them or it won’t come true.
To the Chinese, dumplings resemble the gold ingots that were once the country’s currency, symbolizing an auspicious New Year. But this tradition has a downside: If you count the dumplings made for yourself, it will lead to scarcity in the New Year. Also, any bad feelings between family members must be resolved before the dumplings are cooked or evil spirits will steal them.

Pork
The high fat content in pork is considered a sign of wealth and prosperity.
The Germans eat roasted pork and plenty of sausages.
In Sweden, they like pork trotters.
And suckling pig is the favorite in Portugal, Hungary, Austria, and Russia.

Fruit
In Spain, the first stroke of midnight means everyone begins eating grapes in time with the local clock tower’s chimes. The trick is to to swallow all twelve before the last chime, and your year will be prosperous. This custom is also popular in Portugal, Cuba, Venezuela, and several other countries.
In Turkey and other Mediterranean countries, pomegranate symbolizes abundance and fertility.
In China, the words for “orange” and “tangerine” sound very close to  “wealth” and “luck” in the Chinese language. No New Year celebration is without them.

Ring-shaped Cakes
Ring-shaped cakes and other baked goods symbolize the completion of year and its never-ending cycle.
The Dutch serve a puffy, apple- and raisin-filled fritter called oliebollen.
The Greeks prefer vasilopita, anise-flavored cake with a coin hidden inside.
The Mexican tradition features rosca de reyes, a sweet, dried fruit-studded bread studded.

We hope your 2013 is happy, healthy, and filled with delicious things to eat!

Last week, Zingerman’s Mail Order Managing Partner Mo Frechette sent us this relevant meditation on the mail order business during the holiday season:

The 3 Stages of Mail Order Holiday Grief

1. Hiring grief: will we get enough people?

2. Order grief: will we get enough sales?

3. Shipping grief: will we ship them all out the door on time?

The third stage has arrived. You can tell it’s in effect when someone says something like ‘Thank God it’s Tuesday. It was Monday for three whole days.

We’re now quickly rolling through the signposts of the last phase of holiday grief. The deadline for shipping a box to arrive with UPS ground shipping has passed. The deadline for 2-day shipping is gone. The deadline for overnight packages looms. Then there’s overnight with Saturday delivery on Friday, select zip codes only, sorry!

This year Christmas falls on a Tuesday, the absolute worst day of the week for folks sending mail orders, especially those of us in the food business. Perishable foods don’t like to travel over the weekend. It means the last day for most folks to ship for Christmas is today, Thursday, for delivery on Friday, five full days before Christmas. Bah humbug!

Now for the crazy numbers: We’ve been packing orders at a rate of one every 9 seconds 24/7 for the last 10 days. Nine per second means 400 boxes per hour. Back in 1992, the first year I did a mail order Christmas, we shipped 113 boxes on the biggest day. (It almost broke me.) This year it was 12,000, the week will total over 30,000 boxes. To put it in perspective, that’s equal to what we shipped in June, July and August combined.

You might have noticed I didn’t mention much about grief. That’s because we kind of skipped the grief part of the third stage this year. Outside of our order release computer refusing to work the night shift (it crashed in the evening, and started back to work each morning), most everything hummed along. We’re hand-wrapping bread, cutting cheese to order, and making every gift one-at-a-time.

Friday afternoon it will go ghost quiet, a holiday cliff we cross every year and whose predictability does not make it feel any less eerie. The phones will go quiet. The boxes will be gone. The food will be absent. The shelves will be empty. Most of the crew will have left. Until then we hum with the sound of a hundred people gathering food and stacking boxes into an endless stream of fifty-foot UPS trailers.

It’s Christmas Eve now, and the shipping deadlines have all passed. The holiday crew has gone and incoming orders have dropped off to a trickle. The hum in the Mail Order warehouse has become a whisper.

Still, a few dedicated staffers remain. They’ll continue to box and ship the few last-minute orders until the time comes to call it a season and go home. Some will return the day after Christmas to handle the new orders in the system, because Zingerman’s Mail Order never truly stops. But, the business will mostly settle back into its more moderate pace.  Until the fall, when the cycle begins anew…

Still have some last-minute eating and shopping to do?
Zingerman’s will be open for (most of) the Holidays!

Zingerman’s Deli
Christmas Eve: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse
Christmas Eve: 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 9 a.m.-10 p.m.

Zingerman’s Bakehouse
Christmas Eve: 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Zingerman’s Coffee Company
Christmas Eve: 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 7 a.m.-6 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

Zingerman’s Creamery
Christmas Eve: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

 Zingerman’s wishes you a joyous and peaceful Holiday Season!

Oops.
Forgot your boss? Need one more gift for your 5-year-old who just started reading chapter books?
Join us at the ZingTrain offices on your lunch break this Friday, December 21, 12:30-1:30p.

Ari will be here, signing his books. There are several to choose from – he’s written books about Bacon, Food, Customer Service and Business. The Lapsed Anarchist series is a holiday favorite this year – Part 1 and 2 at the special price of $50 (regularly $59.90). And we have more Holiday Book Deals here.
We’ll also have Delicious Treats, Warming Beverages, and extremely talented ZingTrain gift-wrappers!   

RSVP if you can, but  please join us even if you don’t.

And while you’re at Zingerman’s Southside, visit our other businesses:

• 29 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Coffee Company, with expert baristas and the last couple of weeks of the Holiday Blend, which makes a great gift.
• 61 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Creamery. Who doesn’t want Gelato and Cheese for the holidays?
• 99 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Bakehouse. Stollen! Need I say more? Okay, I will. Pannettone. Holiday Cookies. Cranberry Pecan Bread … and Yes! outrageously good candy from the Zingerman’s Candy Company!

It’s Thursday afternoon at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse and the front-of-house staff is preparing for the weekly menu changeover. At about 3 p.m., they gather in one of the dining rooms, closed (for the moment) to the public by a long, dark curtain. Inside, Roadhouse Head Chef Kieron Hales will give a preview of the new dishes coming to the menu, followed immediately by a tasting. The new menu goes live at 5 p.m.

First, however, they discuss business. The Roadhouse staff begin by reviewing “the numbers,” the measurements used to follow the overall performance of the restaurant. Everything is tracked. From sales, to the number of dinners served, to customer compliments, complaints, and suggestions. The tone is informal and all staff are encouraged to participate is what is essentially a conversation, rather than a presentation. If something is tracking below plan, everyone is welcome to offer suggestions on how to improve it. This input is treated seriously by Zingerman’s leadership, and can often lead to procedural or policy changes if the result means a better outcome.

After the numbers, Roadhouse server Sharon stands up to review best practices for good service at Zingerman’s. A handout circulates, and Sharon walks everyone through three pages of surprisingly specific and nuanced service tips. The emphasis is on ensuring that Roadhouse guests have the best possible experience, known in-house as the “Zingerman’s Experience,” and many of the serving staff share their own suggestions.

Next, a document detailing and expansion of the Kids’ Menu is passed around, and a couple of the managers lead the discussion. As the changes are relatively minor, the staff moves on to announcements, then to a Zzang Bar chocolate tasting. Many of the staff had not yet sampled the Zingerman’s confections, and the Roadhouse management wants servers to be able to speak directly to the flavor and quality of the food, so… “If I must, I must,” says a server as she pops a slice of candy in her mouth. “Awesome,” is the conclusion.

Finally, it’s the main event. Chef Kieron has been bringing in large plates of food for the past few minutes, and now he stands in front of a table filled with steaming plates. The room is filled with delicious aromas, and he has everyone’s full attention. A photocopy of the updated menu moves around the room. Kieron begins by describing the additions to menu, how they’re made, the ingredients, and what can or cannot be substituted or eliminated from the dish. He goes further, reviewing last-minute substitutions, gluten-free items, and fielding random queries from the serving staff.

As he talks, he quizzes staff about the food to make sure they feel confident in talking about the dishes with guests. When he’s satisfied the staff understand the new menu, he describes the food on the table before him, then tells everyone to dig in. Clearly, this is an anticipated moment and the staff quickly moves in.

I sample the Beef Bourguinon Short Ribs, a traditional favorite made with beef from Cornman Farms. The meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender, and filled with such flavor that it seems a shame to eat too quickly. The mashed local potatoes are thick and delicious, a perfect accompaniment to the beef.  I try a bite of the Garlic Roasted Chicken next. The skin is crispy, the meat inside tender, juicy, and delicious. Finally, it’s the Southwestern Tsimmes, a spicy take on a traditional Hanukkah favorite. Made with sweet potatoes, heirloom carrots, apricots, New Mexico green chiles, and chipotle chiles. The peppers both contrast and accent the sweetness of the dish, and my mouth is full of delicious flavors.

After the tasting the group quickly breaks up and everyone begins preparing for evening service. Some stay behind, efficiently cleaning and setting the tables, removing all traces of the meeting. The curtain is drawn open, and the restaurant managers walk through with a critical eye toward getting the room ready for the night seating that is now just minutes away.

I catch up with Kieron to ask a couple of questions about his inspiration, and he is gracious enough to share the books he used as source material for several of the new meals. There is more I want to ask, but it’s after 5 p.m. and the dinner rush is upon us. He disappears in to the kitchen. All around me, the restaurant is kicking into high gear, the staff moving quickly and smoothly. Showtime.

SMELL IT!
As much as 70-80% of what we perceive as taste comes from our sense of smell. Most of us here at Zingerman’s are familiar with this idea, as Ari’s been telling us for years to “smell it” as a key step in identifying great food. Here’s a fun exercise we do frequently in Zingerman’s Coffee Company classes to get people thinking about what they are smelling:

Give everyone a slice of orange and have them hold their nose closed and while they bite or chew the orange. Then, reminding them to keep holding their nose, ask them what they taste. Finally, ask them to let go of their nose. I’m not going to tell you what happens next, but I encourage you to try it and let us know. Oranges work well for this exercise, but you can also use anchovies!

COFFEE AND FOOD PAIRINGS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Not sure what coffee to bring someone for the holidays? We teach a coffee and food pairing class for the public where you can try all kinds of ideas and combinations. You can also give the class to someone as a nice holiday gift!

Here are a couple of good pairings to get you started. As Steve and I are fond of saying, “there are no absolutes in coffee.” These are pairings that we’ve tried and we’d love for you to share some of your favorites.

Holiday Blend and Cranberry Walnut Pie
These two were made for each other, as they both have a nice balance of bitter, sweetness, and tart fruit. We were originally thinking of Hungarian tortes when we created the Holiday Blend this year, but I tried this pairing as an afterthought last week. I kept alternating between a forkful of pie and a sip of the coffee. Granted, I’ve been known to do this with most pies, but this particular combination was special. The Holiday Blend accentuates the flavors of the pie while moderating its sweetness. Very nice!

Sumatra and Zingerman’s Wowza Dark Chocolate Bar
Our high-grown Sumatran coffee is one of the darkest we roast. It’s flavor is earthy, wild, and dark. So how do you tame something like this? You get a good dark chocolate. I especially like it with a Wowza Bar from the Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory. (Thank you Charlie!) In general, dark chocolate works well with dark roast coffees, but WOW! This just pops!

Want to learn more about brewing coffee?
Take our Brewing Methods Class at the Zingerman’s Coffee Company. Sunday, December 16, 1-3pm.
Details here.