So Are Waffles a Southern Christmas Thing?

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My wife grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. She tells me that her mom’s Christmas breakfast of waffles and bacon and other comfort foods represent some of her most vivid Christmas food tradition in her home. My mother in law grew up in Pinehurst, Georgia and my father in law in Memphis, Tennessee. So are waffles a southern Christmas thing? Many Americans don’t know that waffles come from Dutch foodways (How food culture is linked to a group’s or location’s religions, holidays, gender roles, ethnic identities, economies and history) Long before 1492, the majority of Dutch society generally ate pancakes and waffles prepared in frying pans and waffle irons on iron spider legged stands placed over hot coals. From the Netherlands waffle culture spread to other parts of Europe like Belgium where they changed and altered to satisfy local taste and desires. After 1492, the Dutch West India Company shipped these kitchen tools to settlers in the Caribbean and the New Netherlands (New York). From New York pancake and waffle culinary culture most likely spread to other North American colonies visa vise sailors based in the port of New York who traveled on merchant ships to Baltimore, Charleston, Mobil, and New Orleans and introduced waffle irons to the folks who ran boarding houses and inns. As you can see from the photo, waffles, particularly Belgium waffles may have started out as working class comfort food, but it has come in some instances haute cuisine. But for my Christmas breakfast, there is little better than a simple piping hot Belgium waffle eaten with melted butter and hot maple syrup with chunks of strawberries or blueberries in it.