<p>lergnom, excellent, we’re cool. 
</p>
<p>A friend in the Boston area complained that the supermarket put out matzoh with its Chanukah display. Kind of like putting out candy canes at easter, I suppose. </p>
<p>Since the entire idea of latkes is to fry things in oil, we’ll eat anything fried for dinner. Maybe I should invest in one of those county fair deep fryers, the sort where you dip Milky Way bars or cheesecake or pickles in batter and then deep fry them. mmmmmm.</p>
<p>If you want to fry something in oil, here is a better choice than Twinkies and pickles (and the recipe doesn’t call for bacon either :)):</p>
<p>[Food</a> & wine | Recipe: Butternut Squash and Sage Latkes | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2010456746_web09hanukkah.html?cmpid=2628]Food”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2010456746_web09hanukkah.html?cmpid=2628)</p>
<p>The title of this thread brough back some (not so pleasant) memories of my childhood. Latkes with bacon - yuck, the dreaded Ukrainian-Jewish “fusion cuisine” cooked by my grandfather. His Ukrainian genes made him use bacon in almost every dish he made!</p>
<p>Are any of you familiar with?</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story (9781932416879): Lemony Snicket, Lisa Brown: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Latke-Who-Couldnt-Stop-Screaming/dp/1932416870/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260566682&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Latke-Who-Couldnt-Stop-Screaming/dp/1932416870/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260566682&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>It’s pretty cute.</p>
<p>An old Scottish thing is to deep fry Mars bars, but a lighter form of that you can see in pubs now is to put a Mars bar in two pieces of bread and then press it in one of those sandwich presses. I would prefer this to the sufganiyot.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned using turkey ‘bacon’ instead. Seems to me that a turkey product cannot be kosher if it is made with the intention of imitating a pig product.</p>
<p>
Actually, that’s not a problem at all. There used to be a kosher restaurant in New York named Ratners that served no meat at all. It served only dairy dishes and those things that were neither milk nor meat (like eggs, fish, veggies - things called parve in Yiddish). They made the best “veal” parmigiana! And things like non-dairy creamer are served at meat meals with coffee without concern.</p>
<p>What makes meat kosher is not its intent but what animal it comes from, how it was prepared for eating (there are rules about salting and soaking meat before it can be considered kosher) and how the animal was raised and slaughtered. What makes the dish kosher is that it has only kosher ingredients, no dairy and meat products are mixed, and for many observant Jews, that it was cooked and served with only kosher utensils. (And as I typed that sentence, I realized once again just how complicated the question can be!)</p>
<p>When I was growing up Kosher, we used a product called “Beef Fry.” Basically it was kosher beef that looked like and was cooked like bacon! I remember it was chewy and not that good.</p>
<p>Meanwhile some of the best food out there is traditionally Jewish or kosher. We are not even Jewish, but we love matzoh brei, matzoh ball soup, latkes, ‘Jewish Penicillin’, kosher meats, rye bread, bagels with lachs and a schmear, okay I’m getting hungry just writing this…</p>
<p>Someone on CC gave this hot tip:
[Send</a> a gift of chicken soup delivery with matzo balls - Grandma’s homemade Chicken Soup, Get Well Gifts](<a href=“http://www.grandmaschickensoup.com%5DSend”>http://www.grandmaschickensoup.com)
Which seems like the perfect thing for all those Boston-area students with sniffles and homesickness!</p>
<p>Oh, and I need to mention the best Thanksgiving turkey we ever had – kosher, in Austria, brought by some Jewish friends who knew where to get it!</p>
<p>So bacon, who needs it!</p>
<p>
I love that too, but just for the record, it’s lox! And don’t forget a nice slice of red onion!</p>
<p>Thanks, Chedva, I almost wrote ‘lox’ but all those years in German-language countries made me forget my spelling.</p>
<p>No onion! (dyspepsia).</p>
<p>There is the ‘appearance of impropriety’ I don’t think it is accepted across the board (fake bacon).</p>