Latke v.s. Hamentaschen Debate

Every year, the University of Chicago has this crazy tradition of hosting a debate on which food is more better, latkes or hamentaschen. The rules of the debate state the debate must include non-Jews, and that all of the debaters must have a doctorate degree and must debate from their area of study. Since the founding of the debates 67 years ago, many colleges have had their own, smaller latke vs hamentaschen debates, including the one at Mt. Holyoke, which happened not too long ago, on February 27th.

To give some background, latkes are potato pancakes served on Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights. It celebrates the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd century BCE, when Jews regained control of the Holy Temple. Oil is very important to the holiday, and it signifies the idea that the kosher oil that was meant to only burn for one day in temple burned for eight days before more oil could be found. Foods that are fried in oil make for the perfect (and unhealthy) holiday meals.

Although many people add many different things to their latkes (flour, eggs, etc.), my family makes our latkes very plain and simple.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Salt (to taste)
• Oil

Directions:

1. Peel and hand-grate the potatoes
2. Add salt
3. Wait 15 minutes for the potatoes to release starch and get juicy
4. In the meantime, warm up a frying pan
5. Add oil to the frying pan and let the oil warm up for a little bit
6. Shape your latke into round, flat pancakes
7. Fry your latke. 
8. Enjoy hot and sizzling with sour cream, applesauce or neither! 

I haven't made these in forever, so this picture is from onegreenplanet.com

Hamentaschen, one the other hand, are for a completely different holiday. They are typically made and served on Purim, a celebration of the deliverance of Persian Jews from Haman's plan to exterminate them. Hamentaschen are actually the edible representation of Haman's ears!

My family doesn't have any one hamentaschen recipe, so when I made them for my Jewish Civilization class least week, I decided to try out something new on my own. First, I tried to make them with sugar cookie dough, which turned out to be a complete disaster (as they all fell apart! :O). Then, I set to finding a recipe online. I ended up finding a pretty good recipe at http://theshiksa.com/2012/03/01/buttery-hamantaschen/.

My hamentaschen and cookie basket. 

As far as the debate goes, I'll let you decide for yourself which one is better!  Have a wonderful week!