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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Sour Cream or Apple Sauce, That is the Question

Sour cream or apple sauce, that is the question:

Whether ’tis to eat our latkes milchigs* or fleishigs**.

For with applesauce they are parve*** and we may enjoy them

And it matters not what we have alongside,

Then we may have pizza or steak with our latkes,

Although we may not have both of them together.

But when we choose sour cream,

Our die is cast,

Latkes become milchigs,

And we may enjoy steak with them no more.

This question is existential,

And yet it is rarely asked.

We go through the remainder of the year,

Never asking how we will eat our latkes,

For many of us the die is cast by heritage

How to eat our latkes being a tradition spanning generations.

Whether we eat sour cream or apple sauce,

That question was answered by our great-grandparents’ great-grandparents.

We just carry on the traditions,

How best we can,

And we hope to pass those traditions on to future generations.

Tonight, and for the next eight days,

We face that question.

We shall light candles,

We shall sing songs,

We shall spin our dreidels,

We shall eat our gelt,

We shall gorge ourselves on our latkes.

The only question is:

Shall we have sour cream or apple sauce while we do so?

* milchigs = dairy

** fleishigs = meat

*** parve = neither meat nor diary, fish and eggs are also parve

To everyone celebrating along with me, Happy Hanukkah.  To those not celebrating, hope you enjoyed some Jewish-themed humor completely ripping off Shakespeare’s most famous line and learned a little something while you’re at it.  Personally, I’ll be having my latkes tomorrow night, and I’ll be following family tradition and having them with sour cream.  So, it’ll be no steak, or any other meat, with my latkes while I’m enjoying them.  


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9 comments

  4. hubiestubert

    I am Buddhist, and I like making latkes. Because who DOESN’T love potato pancakes?  

    Communists and Trade Unionists, with no soul, no taste, no life beyond thirsting for the wealth of the nation to distribute in equal portions while draining the lifeblood of a nation, that’s who.  I also hear, that people who don’t like potato pancakes have difficulty becoming aroused by their lack of oil, salt, and starch in their diets, and yet have proclivities that border on bad taste. And small dogs. They hate potatoes, and they hate dogs, cats, and those odd little fish that goggle right up to the side of the tank and peer into your soul.

    Yeah, they’re jerks…

  5. AaronInSanDiego

    We just had our one night of Hanukkah with the whole family at my mom’s house. Both sour cream and applesauce. She also made a nice salmon loaf with a Greek style egg-lemon sauce. And my dad made burmuelos (Sephardic deep-fried doughnuts) some with honey, some with powdered sugar. Lots of presents, mostly for my 6-year-old niece, my parents’ only grandchild.

  7. Strummerson

    as a died in the wool Litvak (lituanian/latvian/non-hassidic/anti-mystical/kabbalah is at best crap and at worst witchcraft or insanity/rationalist) I also err on the sour side, vs. the sweet.  So it’s sour cream for me.  

    But the real question (and wars have been fought) is minced or shredded.  I’ll take the latter every time…

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