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Latkes In The Time Of Cholera


Fresser

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez never taught at the University of Chicago, but that wouldn't stop the mad satirists and incessant noshers from tweaking his book title.

Sardonic wit and sour cream are the order of the day at the U of C's annual Latke Hamentaschen Symposium. From the Amazon.com compendium:

This great latke-hamantash debate, occurring every year for the past six decades, brings Nobel laureates, university presidents, and notable scholars together to debate whether the potato pancake or the triangular Purim pastry is in fact the worthier food.

Read all about it here: The Great Latke Hamentaschen Debate.

So tawlk (and nosh) amongs yourselves.

There are two sides to every story and one side to a Möbius band.

borschtbelt.blogspot.com

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Is this symposium funded by a grant from Archer Daniels Midland?

For some of the language is clearly derived from corn.

Sounds like a real hoot. When are you submitting for the poster session?

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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Is this symposium funded by a grant from Archer Daniels Midland?

For some of the language is clearly derived from corn.

Given that maize is the cash crop of the Midwest, does this surprise you?

In fact, at the 1999 Symposium, professor of neonatology William Meadow stated,

"Remember Fats Domino? It can be revealed here tonight that to avoid anti-Semitic prejucide in the R&B industry he had his name changed; it used to be Shmaltz Domino."

There are two sides to every story and one side to a Möbius band.

borschtbelt.blogspot.com

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Is this symposium funded by a grant from Archer Daniels Midland?

For some of the language is clearly derived from corn.

Given that maize is the cash crop of the Midwest, does this surprise you?

Actually, maize and blue is the cash crop here in Michigan. (clicky)

Isn't it great to be a Michigan Wolverine?

It is for University President Mary Sue Coleman.

She receives the highest salary of any president of a public university, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education released yesterday.

Coleman will make $724,604 during the 2005-06 academic year in pay and benefits, the survey said.

-------------------------------

That looks like an amusing book. I just checked our library system's online catalogue to see if was on a shelf somewhere. Alas, it wasn't, but I did discover these other gems:

Latkes and hamentashen (CD) -- "Holiday treats for all ages" / songs by Jackie Cytrynbaum, sung by Fran Avni.

Laughing latkes, by M. B. Goffstein

The latke who couldn't stop screaming: a Christmas story, by Lemony Snicket

-------------------

Latkes are funnier than hamentaschen. (Remember the sitcom "Taxi?" Andy Kaufman's character was named Latka Gravas, not Hamentaschen Gravas.) However, it wasn't the Maccabees' supply of spuds that lasted for eight days, so latkes have no symbolic connection to the story of Chanukah other than being fried in oil. We could just as easily have wound up with falafel or corn dogs (kosher, of course).

Hamentaschen, on the other hand, are more directly symbolic of the story of Pesach. However, they're less tasty, imho -- basically a poor substitute for a good Danish or chocolate babka.

----------------

The debate continues....

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Latkes are funnier than hamentaschen. (Remember the sitcom "Taxi?" Andy Kaufman's character was named Latka Gravas, not Hamentaschen Gravas.)

The debate continues....

Hence the origin of the prudish (prunish?) enmity...

Latka's nemesis at the garage was Alex "Rugelach" Rieger, played by Judd Hirsch. In real-life, Hirsch could not stand Kaufman. Unbeknownst to him, Hirsch was merely channeling the hamentaschen's jealousy for the latke, and, by transference, for the Latka.

There are two sides to every story and one side to a Möbius band.

borschtbelt.blogspot.com

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Can a shiksa girly (from a decidedly Jewish neighborhood) weigh in?

I'll trade 13 lbs of Christmas cookies for a good plate of latkes any day... That might be the first thing I make, when the holiday shell-shock wears off.

Edited by Lilija (log)
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Nothing really to add to the discussion, but methinks this "latke" thing may take on the import and attention of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."

We've already cried them and fried them---what's next? Lord of the Latkes? Swan Latke? Lucia di Latkemoor?

This is what happens to idle minds when you've done all the Christmas preparations already. I should know better.

edited cause my italics didn't take.

Edited by racheld (log)
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We've already cried them and fried them---what's next?  Lord of the Latkes?  Swan Latke?  Lucia di Latkemoor?

edited cause my italics didn't take.

The Skin of Our Knuckles, in which an family pursues a never-ending quest for a latke that's perfect in every way, only to be plagued by one kitchen disaster after another.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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:laugh:  :laugh:

Perfect in every way---isn't that by the same guy who wrote "Our Tzimmes"--the one about strolling the cemetery, looking for prune cake?

:laugh::laugh: back at you!

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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:cool:

And you know, of course, that an early draft of that famous and thought-provoking British choral work of the last century was titled A Child of Our Tzimmes, yes?

No? Ah well. It was a good try.

Let me state, for the record, that (even with, or maybe because of, my U of C-founded capacity to equivocate) I like both latkes and hamantaschen. My question, however, subdivides the conflict:

Sour cream, or applesauce?

In equal immoderation, of course. Discuss.

:biggrin:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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I like sour cream AND apple sauce, not at the same time, just there at the edge of my plate, to dip in alternately. My most favorite way, though, seems to be an old Polish thing is sprinkled with salt and a bit of granulated sugar. It's crunchy, and it's goood.

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