by Dika from Indonesia

Christmas is a special day for Christians around the world. In Germany the atmosphere of Christmas is more lively compared to the one in Indonesia, like in Dortmund before entering the advent week, some corners of the city have begun to transform and are filled with typical Christmas decorations. The largest natural Christmas tree of the world also began to be built until finally standing perfectly, in the middle of the Christmas market in the City Centre.Christmas is also the day we have been waiting for, when Christmas arrived, precisely on December 24th, 2019. Josephat, Rachel, Carol and I went to Christina’s house to celebrate Christmas with her family and also Carolin and her family. There we had planned to cook together for our dinner, Christina cooked pork with pepper cream sauce, Rachel and her brother cooked Japanese Curry with vegetables, and I cooked an Indonesian cuisine: Cap Cai (stir fried vegetables) and sweet soy sauce chicken.

When dinner starts, everyone who is present there eats by combining every meal at the dinner table, mixed Asian and German cuisine. At first I thought people would eat the food one by one, not by combining it. Even more surprising for me, it turns out that combining these dishes makes the taste even more delicious. The same thing was said by Carolin, that the combination of Asian cuisine and German cuisine, provides a good and tasty combination. Unconsciously through Christmas dinner together, we have established a transcultural Christmas dinner, that creates the conditions for transfer and transition between cultures (in this case about food) and we unwittingly reinventing the new common culture (that is okay to combine the food). We combine two different food cultures, while keep maintaining the value of dinner together to celebrate Christmas.

When talking about transcultural relations, it certainly will not be separated from identity, in this case the identity of Asian cuisine and German cuisine, which is combined and creates a new identity, which can be accepted and enjoyed.