Category: hanukkah
Flaming Tea: The Wildest Hanukkah Tradition
December 10, 2018
You know about latkes (even, if you’ve been keeping up with Poppy and Prune, obscure varieties like chestnut and brain). You know about sufganiyot and its predecessors, from awwame to zvingous. But have you ever heard of the flaming tea ceremony? No? Me either, until a few years ago when I was leafing through Phyllis […]
Luqmat: A Little Fritter With A Long History
December 4, 2018
Luqmat. Bumuelos. Sfenj. ʿAwwamé. Lokma. Zvingous. So many names for one deep-fried dough ball. How did these little-yeasted fritters—whatever you want to call them—spread all across the Mediterranean? And how did they become the preeminent Ḥanukka treat of the Sephardi world, from Morocco to Turkey? This Hanukkah, I covered the world of Sephardi fritters (and […]
Lazy Latkes: The Poppy and Prune Guide
November 26, 2018
Hanukkah is one week away! But let’s say you’re not in the mood to lovingly recreate three historic latke varieties from scratch this year—what’s a Jewish foodie to do? Don’t worry. I got you. The fact that I did lovingly recreate three historical latke varieties last week notwithstanding, I’m actually a pretty lazy cook myself […]
Latkes Before Potato: Taste-testing Cheese, Buckwheat, and Chestnut Pancakes
November 19, 2018
Nothing says “Hanukkah tradition” better than a crispy potato latke, right? WRONG! Even though potato latkes have come to dominate the Hanukkah food scene here in the US in the twenty-first century, they’re actually a relative newcomer to the Jewish culinary repertoire. The potato, a native of South America, didn’t even arrive in Europe until […]
Greek Mac and Cheese
April 16, 2018
What could be more perfect for Shavuot than a Jewish take on mac and cheese? This Greek dish, hailing from the Jewish community of Komotini in Thrace, is a delicious variation on a beloved crowd-pleasing classic—and it’s relatively simple to prepare.