December

National Bouillabaisse Day

December 14th National Bouillabaisse Day

The National Bouillabaisse Day is celebrated every 14th of December each year. This day gives recognition to Bouillabaisse – everyone’s favorite seafood dish. If you have the time to celebrate this event, you must not miss it. Hence, prepare a pot for this stew and serve some delicious Bouillabaisse in a bowl or dish.

About the National Bouillabaisse DayNational Bouillabaisse Day

During the National Bouillabaisse Day, people conduct various activities that let them achieve the objectives or purposes of the celebration. For one, people try to make their own Bouillabaisse at home. Other people prefer to buy some delicious Bouillabaisse in a restaurant or any food shop that offers it. People also shout out on social media how they are participating in the celebration of the event.

National Bouillabaisse Day History

There seems to be disparity among food historians as to where Bouillabaisse originated. Some claim that the seafood-based dish originated in France, specifically in the port city of Marseille. The dish was made using ingredients like saffron, bony rockfish, orange zest, and fennel seed.

Other food historians claim that the Bouillabaisse originated in ancient Greece with the fishermen as inventers. They wanted to make a meal ready once they reach the port. During the 1600s, the recipe for making Bouillabaisse was modified when tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and celery were added.

With limited knowledge about the origins of Bouillabaisse, even less is known about the history of the National Bouillabaisse Day. We don’t know when, where, and how it began. We also don’t have a clue as to who founded it. But still, we can make a good guess as to why such event was established in the first place. Perhaps a person or a group of people thought that Bouillabaisse is much loved by the people. They must have then thought that it deserves a spot in the list of food holidays celebrated every year.

Dates

As mentioned earlier, the National Bouillabaisse Day is celebrated every 14th of December each year. This means that the dates of celebration for this event are as follows:National Bouillabaisse Day

  • Monday, December 14,
  • Tuesday, December 14,
  • Wednesday, December 14, 2022
  • Thursday, December 14, 2023
  • Saturday, December 14, 2024
  • Sunday, December 14, 2025

Celebration Ideas and Activities

The following are the best things to do to make your celebration of the National Bouillabaisse Day as best as it can be:

Make Some Bouillabaisse

Without a doubt, the best thing to do for your celebration of this day is to make some Bouillabaisse. You can follow the steps below:

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 large peeled and sliced onion
  • 2 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic
  • 1 small bulb of thinly sliced fennel
  • 1 large pinch of saffron (must have been soaked in 2 tablespoons of orange juice for 10 minutes)
  • 1 strip of orange zest
  • 14 ounces of whole peeled tomatoes
  • 6 cups of seafood stock
  • Seafood can include one or more of the following: tilapia, cod, halibut, snapper, clams or mussel, large shrimp
  • 1 bunch of chopped parsley

Instructions:

  1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and fennel. Sauté’ for 5 to 10 minutes until brown.
  2. Ass saffron, tomatoes, orange zest, and stock.
  3. Bring to boil for 20 minutes. Cook until the vegetables become tender.
  4. Reduce heat to medium then add the fish (no shellfish yet). Cook for 2 minutes.
  5. Add the shellfish – clams, mussel, and shrimps. Simmer until the shells start to open.
  6. Add any crabmeat if you have.
  7. Cook until all the shells open fully and the shrimps turn color pink.
  8. Serve in a pot. Sprinkle with parsley and crusty bread.
  9. Serve and enjoy!

Dine in a French Restaurant

If you don’t have the time to make your own Bouillabaisse at home, you can celebrate the event by dining in a restaurant, most likely a French one, which offers delicious Bouillabaisse. You can make the celebration even better by inviting your family and friends with you.

Go to France!

If you can afford, you can go to France to celebrate the event. There, you will be able to find tons of restaurants that serve delicious and authentic Bouillabaisse. You can plan your trip ahead and include the 14th of December in your travel dates.

Celebrate on Social Media

You can also take your celebration of this day on social media. You can, for instance, use the hashtag #NationalBouillabaisseDay to let your friends and followers know that you are also participating in the celebration of this day. Let them know that such a celebration takes place every year and also how happy you are enjoying your day.

Quotes

  • I am painting with the same enthusiasm as a Marseillaise eats bouillabaisse … I am painting big sunflowers. — Vincent Van Gogh
  • Communities of tract houses, plopped on a grid, represent a way of throwing historical forms around like bouillabaisse. — Robert A. M. Stern
  • Bouillabaisse is only good because cooked by the French, who, if they cared to try, could produce an excellent and nutritious substitute out of cigar stumps and empty matchboxes. — Norman Douglas
  • At that comfortable tavern on Pontchartrain we had a bouillabaisse than which a better was never eaten at Marseilles; and not the least headache in the morning, I give you my word; on the contrary, you only wake with a sweet refreshing thirst for claret and water. — William Makepeace Thackeray
  • The Christian tradition was passed on to me as a great rich mixture, a bouillabaisse of human imagination and wonder brewed from the richness of individual lives. — Mary Catherine Bateson
  • I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers. — Vincent Van Gogh
  • Bouillabaisse, this golden soup, this incomparable golden soup which embodies and concentrates all the aromas of our shores and which permeates, like an ecstasy, the stomachs of astonished gastronomes. Bouillabaisse is one of those classic dishes whose glory has encircled the world, and the miracle consists of this: there are as many bouillabaisses as there are good chefs or cordon bleus. Each brings to his own version his special touch. — Curnonsky
  • I’ve been on a team that won the world championship of barbecue. But barbecue’s interesting, because it’s one of these cult foods like chili, or bouillabaisse. Various parts of the world will have a cult food that people get enormously attached to – there’s tremendous traditions; there’s secrecy. — Nathan Myhrvold
  • Nobody makes bouillabaisse from scratch. It’s all a bunch of malarkey. Even the restaurants buy a commercial-grade product. I had a very famous chef tell me that. — Sandra Lee
  • All the charming and beautiful things, from the Song of Songs, to bouillabaisse, and from the nine Beethoven symphonies to the Martini cocktail, have been given to humanity by men who, when the hour came, turned from tap water to something with color in it, and more in it than mere oxygen and hydrogen. — H.L. Mencken
  • This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is – A sort of soup or broth, or brew, Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes, That Greenwich never could outdo; Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffron, Soles, onions, garlic, roach, and dace; All these you eat at Terre’s tavern, In that one dish of Bouillabaisse. — William Makepeace Thackeray

 

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