Question:
Traditional Hannukah dinner foods?
fleshmannequin
2008-11-18 11:56:34 UTC
(Sorry if I spelled it wrong) OK so my family is Jewish (I don't go to church though, so I'm not exactly an expert on Jewish customs) and I want to make a Hannukah dinner/celebration...I've made stuff for passover before but I don't know what kind of foods are tradition for Hannukah, can you give me some ideas on some relatively simple Jewish foods for Hannukah? And games to play , etc. etc. THanks! :D
Seven answers:
Mr. J
2008-11-21 04:49:20 UTC
Latkes (potato pancakes, I'm sure you've heard of them before), chocolate coins (gelt) and sufganiot (jelly donuts, tasty but VERY oily).
2008-11-18 12:52:36 UTC
Clearly, you aren't an expert on the fact that Jewish people don't go to church, either.



Latkes. Sufganiyot. Pretty much anything that can be fried in olive oil. Other than that, there really are no rules.



Latkes, traditionally, are potato pancakes. I like the kind that are shredded, rather than pulverized. You shred in some onion, drain the water, mix in matzah meal, eggs, salt and pepper, a little chive if you like, for color, and fry in olive oil. I generally use about a pint for a couple of pounds of potatoes. The recipes always say less, yet it seems to take much more. You can probably find all sorts of recipes online. Traditionally made with potatoes, but many people have devised more modern recipes, involving carrots, yams, zucchini, or other vegetables. Again, you can find recipes online.



Serve with applesauce and sour cream. Our shul has developed a tradition of trying to see who can come up with the weirdest combination of other toppings...peanut butter, jelly, fluff, and chocolate syrup have figured into our recent celebrations.



Sufganiyot are traditional Hannukah (btw, no really wrong spelling...it's transliterated, so if it sounds right, you're okay) donuts that are available in Israel, but difficult to get anywhere else. (at least that I know of, maybe highly concentrated neighborhoods, like in New York city, etc.)



The idea is to fry something in oil, preferably olive oil, to celebrate the pure oil that lasted for eight days.



And chocolate coins (gelt). And Hannukah cookies (sugar cookies in the shapes of dreidles and menorahs, etc.)



For an actual meal, you can go any direction that flips your switch. I would suggest staying kosher, even if only in the idea of having a bird, rather than pork chops, you know?
susan
2008-11-18 12:51:51 UTC
Hanukkah (you can spell it a bunch of ways) is usually celebrated with fried foods, because of the oil that was found to light the lamps. Fried Latkas are very traditional. If you've never made them you can buy a mix. If you want to make them from scratch, they are basically potato pancakes. Also, donuts, since they are a fried dessert. That combined with any kind of roast or chicken is fine. And of course draedel games.
missbeans
2008-11-18 13:01:32 UTC
Yeah, there really are no rules, other than the tradition of cooking things in oil. Latkes are often served with applesauce and/or sour cream, and donuts are served with jelly. There is another food tradition for Hanukkah: dairy products! This is in honor of Judith, a Maccabee woman who destroyed the Syrian general Holofernes and his men by feeding them lots of salty cheese which caused them to drink so much wine that they passed out...Judith then collected their heads. Pretty hardcore, eh? In any case, cheesy foods would be appropriate. I usually make a cheesecake for dessert.
The Sage
2008-11-18 17:35:28 UTC
The traditional foods are potato pancakes and donuts because they are fried in oil and the miracle was with oil. There is also a tradition to eat dairy because of the miracle with Yehudis (Judah's sister), which happened with dairy.

Go to aish.com, simpletoremember.com or ohr.edu for free lectures, mp3's and videos about Hannukah and its observance.
becs
2008-11-21 15:02:56 UTC
latkes. [lot-kuhs] = potato pancakes.

kugel. [kooh-gull] = noodle casserole.

donuts.

just a lot of fried foods.
Jocelyn
2008-11-18 13:45:24 UTC
Latkas!!!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...