Noche Buena

This was our 2nd Noche Buena in Maputo and I made a lechon (12 lbs.) and yucca. It had been two years since the last time I made these two dishes, but I looked for the recipes and got cooking. It took about 6 hours to make the infamous pig, but in the end it was worth it and I think everyone else thought it was very tasty as well.

The yucca is a different story. Here in Maputo we have mandioca or cassava. It is the same as yucca, but the only problem that it is NOT the season for it. I should have just scratched it from the menu, but I really wanted to eat it on Christmas Eve...Noche Buena wouldn't be the same without them. After going to a couple of markets we finally found them, but my empregada warned me that they weren't going to cook right. Well, she was right and the yucca dish was a little hard, but the mojito was delicious. I think I will try the same recipe in July (apparently when mandiocas are in season).

After the cooking was done we went to mass with Luka at the newly built Catholic Church. It was a rough time to take Luka to mass...7 pm is usually his bedtime, but we arrived at church and he was very restless and only wanted to sing the songs. As soon as the choir stopped singing he would yell, "One more song please." He also would clap and sing during the readings and the homily. I think I need to find a "singing" service for Luka and then maybe he will pay more attention.

I did manage to get through to him that tomorrow was Baby Jesus' birthday and he sang to him a couple of times today. Now I have to try a separate Santa Claus and Jesus. I think at this point he thinks that Christmas is more about Santa Claus than Jesus.

After mass we went home to prepare Luka for bed. After we had read him a couple of Christmas stories and left cookies for Santa we tucked him into bed and we were off to our Noche Buena dinner at our friend's house.

The photo above is of the spread...check out my lechon and yucca...and here is a photo of us enjoying our Latin celebration. We had food from Mexico, Peru, Cuba and the States.