Our Christmas foods are admired from afar, but for many it is a case of looking not touching. An Emirati woman once told me how, as a child, she had enjoyed Christmas pudding, but then her mother had stopped ordering them from Harrods when she discovered that the British treats contain alcohol. “We loved plum pudding, and mince pies; we must have had so much brandy,” she said.It is no surprise that such things as mincemeat, fruit cake and plum pudding have a fan base in the Middle East when dried and candied fruits, nuts, spices and sugar play a part in their own cooking. My acquaintance was sad at the loss of her childhood favourites, but said that since Fortnum & Mason and Harrods now make alcohol-free plum puddings, she ordered them for her own family. In sympathy, I tr