Cooking up New Year’s traditions

South Coast joins the rest of the globe with culinary customs.

By SALLY CAPPON

Blame it on an overdose of rose petals or too much Tommy Trojan.

Or maybe it goes back to the explosion of people streaming into Southern California after World War II who created a metropolis without a real sense of food commonality.

But quick — what food do you associate with the New Year in Southern California?

(Or any other time of year, for that matter. Sorry, In-N-Out Burger doesn’t count. Or quite possibly it does.)

Other places and cultures herald the New Year with traditional foods.

The Chinese come to mind. While their New Year doesn’t coincide with Jan. 1, the thought is there — a time of festivities and feasting, with traditional dishes, often prominently featuring pork, Emily Hahn writes in “The Cooking of China,’’ published by Time-Life Books. A repast might include sweets, fruit, rice and roast suckling pig, steamed pork dumplings or pork-skin cracklings. Food itself was honored. Lovely customs.

In the Muslim world, the Iranian New Year is met in some areas with a sugar pilaf.

Armenians here may have paklava or dolmas (stuffed grape leaves).

In Santa Barbara’s Greek community, a special treat is St. Basil’s Cake, honoring the New Year’s saint of the day. A coin is placed in the sweet bread and as pieces are cut and served, the person who gets the coin has good fortune in the coming year, said Vivian Pahos.

“My mother always made one,’’ she said, noting the bread is served in area homes as well as at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church.

Parts of food-blessed Italy celebrate New Year’s Eve with pan pepato di cioccolato, a dessert roll flavored with cocoa, honey, almonds and citrus peel.

In other parts of the United States, New Year’s foods are often associated with good luck in the coming year, so perhaps Southern California feels it has good fortune enough if the surf is up and there’s no Sigalert on Sepulveda Pass.

In Milwaukee, the hoped-for bringer of good luck was herring, which we dutifully ate each New Year’s Eve.

Moving to the southern United States, my first New Year’s there, I noticed curious signs in front of restaurants and Holiday Inns in small towns, “We have Peas.’’

Well, I thought, doesn’t everyone?

These aren’t just any peas, but black-eyed peas, a Southern New Year’s tradition often cooked with hog jowls. A fellow swimming mom from northern Alabama used fatback. As a Florida artist friend, noted for her sophisticated canvases, stirred up a pot of the thick red soup one New Year’s Eve, she insisted, “I’m not superstitious. But why take a chance?’’

Years later, a Santa Barbaran with Southern roots echoed her words.

“I’m not superstitious,’’ she said as she readied to prepare Hoppin’ John, a casserole of layers of rice, black-eyed peas, onion and bacon for the New Year. Growing up, “It was a tradition to have black-eyed peas with a little bacon drippings. My father always insisted that we have black-eyed peas.’’

Traditions die hard.

To be absolutely save, I have herring AND black-eyed peas. (Since hog jowls are hard to come by in Santa Barbara, I substitute ham hocks.)

I’m lucky if I don’t get sick.

Oh, yeah, make that a Double-Double with onions.

Please e-mail your favorite recipes or column suggestions to Sally at scappon@scbeacon.com