Several Christmases ago, I was staying with my friend Anna and her family in Northern Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. I remember wandering around awestruck in the storybook alpine town of Tai di Cadore and, not so fondly, a harrowing three-hour trek up the side of a mountain that in its heyday was a black diamond ski slope.

And then there was Christmas Eve dinner.

Instead of roast turkey or baked ham, the holiday centerpiece was baccalà alla Vicentina, a garlicky dish of salt cod simmered in a moat of milk and grated Parmigiano for hours over a low flame. This dish kept with Italian tradition of eating no meat on Christmas Eve in celebration of the birth of baby Jesus. Instead they have elaborate spreads of cold shellfish cocktails and hot fish dishes. The bounty inspired me to track down local equivalents – and other international traditions as well.

Dominic Mercurio, owner of Monterey’s Café Fina (372-5200) and Domenico’s (372-3655) on the Wharf, is the grandson of Sicilian immigrants. To this day his extended family celebrates Christmas the Sicilian way with an array of seafood dishes.

On Christmas Eve, a gaggle of between 12 and 20 of Mercurio’s relatives gather at his mom, Josephina’s, house. Cooking starts at around 1pm and the whole family gets involved.

Crab is boiled then chilled; then its meat is tossed with olive oil and red wine vinegar – only the best available, insists Mercurio – and lots of fresh garlic and chopped parsley. Or the crab could be thrown into a robust cioppino (see recipe, this page).

The holiday feast table also groans under the weight of octopus salad, scampi and prawn cocktail made with jumbo prawns, broiled calamari, salt cod fritters and pan-fried oysters.

Of course, Christmas cookies are requisite. “My mom and daughter start baking cookies on the 23rd [of December] – sesame cookies, cuccidati [fig paste cookies] and cannoli are automatic.”

Claudia Moritz, chef-owner of Stammtisch Restaurant (1204 Echo Ave. Ste. C, Seaside, 899-3070), admits it varies from household to household, but goose is a popular traditional German Christmas dish and can be stuffed with apples, prunes or even liver paté. At her house, the bird is served with cabbage and dumplings. She says she might also serve filet mignon, and if she can find them, white asparagus.

Christmas and the chilly weather also mean glühwein, a mulled wine spiced with cinnamon, cloves and citrus sold at the Kristkindlmarkt, an outdoor Christmas market popular in Germany (see recipe, this page). “At the market you can buy chestnuts and drink glühwein,” she smiles, reminiscing. “Ah… the smell from the roasted chestnuts.”

Most of the decorating and cooking doesn’t start until Christmas Eve (even the Christmas tree doesn’t go up till then) but you have to start baking in November, Moritz says, as German-style cookies need time to soften. Zimsterne, cinnamon star cookies, are stored in airtight tins for at least a month and will get more chewy as time passes. Gingerbread is also stored over time with apples in metal boxes “to give [the bread] moisture.”

Across a different ocean, Hawaiians often gather on the beach to celebrate Christmas with a luau where kalua pig, a whole pig roasted in an underground oven called an imu, takes center stage.

Building an imu is a production in itself. The night before the luau, the men in the family dig a 2 – to 4-feet-deep pit and fill it with kindling and stones. Once the stones are white hot, the pig, and oftentimes turkey, is wrapped in ti or banana leaves and buried overnight. The next morning, fragrant, fall-off-the-bone tender meat is served.

Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s at Spanish Bay uses a kamado, a traditional Japanese egg-shaped grill, to simulate this effect. Using wood chips to impart the smoky flavor, Yamaguchi cooks his turkey over a very low heat for 4 to 5 hours. “I put water in the bottom of the pan so there’s steam incorporated and the moisture keeps the turkey tender and moist.”

Alongside the kalua-style turkey, Yamaguchi makes a family favorite, ahi tuna poke, raw fish tossed with sea salt and lumi (fresh seaweed), and shiitake stuffing.

After the Christmas luau ends? Those lucky Hawaiians take a dip in the ocean.

Items served during Mercurio’s Christmas celebration like cioppino and scampi are also served at CAFÉ FINA, 47 Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey, 372-5200. STAMMTISCH RESTAURANT, 1204 Echo Ave. Ste. C, Seaside, 899-3070, will serve a roasted goose dinner Dec. 23 and 24. On Christmas day, ROY’S AT SPANISH BAY, 2700 17-Mile Drive, Pebble Beach, 647-7500, is serving a Hawaiian-fusion menu including potato leek soup with kalua pork, blackened ahi tuna, a host of sushi rolls and more.

Café Fina Crab Cioppino

1 large onion, chopped

5 large garlic cloves, minced

1 cup red wine

3 cups clam juice

Two 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes in puree

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

4 cups water

6 Dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned and cracked

Pepper to taste

2 pinches saffron

In a large pot, cook onions in olive oil for 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until brown. Add wine, clam juice, tomatoes, sugar, half the parsley and half the basil.

Add crab and water and simmer, covered for 5 minutes. Add saffron. Season with pepper and garnish with remaining herbs.

Glühwein

1 750 ml bottle light red wine (zinfandel, merlot, burgundy)

1/2 cup sugar, or to taste

2 cinnamon sticks

8 whole cloves

1 orange, sliced

Simmer wine in a large pot over low heat. Add sugar and spices and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the orange slices and heat thoroughly, but do not boil.