Owners of new cafe and bar, The Globe, on Hollywood Road will be having an extra merry Christmas with the continual ring of their cash register and jingle of coins. In the week or so since it opened, The Globe has been humming from breakfast until well into the night. Located at the bottom of the Mid-Levels escalator, it is the closest thing to a neighbourhood watering hole in that part of Central, with a wood-and-maps interior and no pretensions at Lan Kwai Fong chic. The 'have map will travel' atmosphere is being soaked up by office workers, Mid-Levels residents and late night revellers who stop by on their way home for one more drink. Manager John Jackson has also kept the wall space free for exhibitions of travel pictures by amateur photographers or artists. Tel: 2543-1941 for details. Novel Noel Two restaurants sit right at the top of the Christmas novelty tree this year. Cafe Deco at the Peak Galleria puts the festive spirit into naan bread to open its Christmas Eve menu. The naan, served with Champagne, is topped with coconut, finely chopped ginger and honey. The $800 set menu gets all traditional later on, featuring turkey with caramelised chestnuts, giblet gravy and cranberry relish. Poppyseed ice parfait with marinated figs and kumquats is served for dessert. (Tel: 2849-5111). California, meanwhile, lays on a Cuban Christmas worthy of Fidel himself. Karin Joffe's turkey ($148) is served spicy, with black beans, rice and chorizo sausage stuffing, gravy and candied squash. The roast pork ($145) is filled with apricots and prunes and served in a dark rum sauce with sauteed bananas. In the spirit Few can beat the Pousada de Sao Tiago for Christmas atmosphere this season. The hotel will make most of its own chapel, with Midnight Mass at 11.30pm after a buffet dinner on the terrace. Carols by candelight begin at 8pm. The $300-per-person buffet includes turkey, goose, ham and roast leg of lamb, as well as Portuguese specialities such as stewed duck with potatoes and braised pork knuckles with red beans. Biased cut Cooking the turkey may be a family affair. But when it comes to carving, the ranks are overwhelming male. A study in the United States has found that 72 per cent of turkey carvers are male. It's father who wields the knife 59 per cent of the time, and grandfather takes over 21 per cent of the time. Not everyone thinks they do a sterling job. More than half (56 per cent) of the respondents said their family carver would benefit from some training.
