436353 Wed Aug 29 16:20:37 -0700 2007 4 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 2894457 Yes, already thinking about hanakkah dinner:-) I've recently signed on to help a friend plan a dinner party. I didn't grow up with the holiday, so I only know of the traditional foods from being the "schlep" to a friend's dinner. (hey, any way I can get a great meal...) One thing we were thinking about is doing a European version, and then realized we had absolutely no idea how much hanukkah food varied by country. We've got the latkes covered, and the jelly doughnuts. She's Russian, so the borsht and such, we know. But do the French, German, or Brits have very different hanukkah offereings, or the same? Any ideas? Wed Aug 29 16:20:37 -0700 2007 51804 french roast 1 2894543 The only foods that are specifically traditional for hanukkah are the fried foods: latkes for Ashkenazi Jews and "jelly donuts" and similar sweet fried dough foods for Sephardic Jews. Fried foods are traditional because of the holiday's association with oil (the miracle of the oil lasting eight days). I'm not aware of any other foods that are specific for hanukkah, although there are probably other fried foods (I'd personally add the fried artichokes traditional to Roman Jewish cuisine). Just as a personal tradition, I always like to serve brisket/pot roast with my latkes. Wed Aug 29 16:45:29 -0700 2007 2894457 10159 Ruth Lafler 1 2895641 There's a newsgroup about international Jewish cuisine that used to be active (and may still be active). There's an archive of newgroup posts. (URL below) Lots of recipes for Hanukkah from European countries including France, Greece, Italy, and Turkey (with Istanbul in Europe, I'm counting Turkey). You'll be staggered by the number of latke varieties listed on this web site. Here's the link to the home page: http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/rfcj/ Here's the link to the Hanukkah page: http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/rfcj/category.cgi?category=HANUKKAH Thu Aug 30 05:20:12 -0700 2007 2894457 61567 Indy 67 1 2900268 I agree the big distinction is between Ashkenazi (European) and Sephardic (Spanish and Middle Eastern). However, another distinction is between what to serve with the latkes - dairy or meat? This isn't necessarily Hungarian (my ethnic background) but we always served brisket, cucumber salad with dill and apple sauce (no sour cream, we were kosher at home growing up!) with shortbread cookies in the shapes of dreidels, menorahs (made from margarine - would not do that today). One interesting thing you could do is make different kinds of latkes (i.e. spinach, sweet potato, white potato, zuchinni, etc.) and have a comparison tasting contest. Fri Aug 31 09:46:59 -0700 2007 2894457 15139 Diane in Bexley 2 2900314 See, we always do dairy for the big Hanukah party. Latkes with sour cream; creamed (and pickled) herring; bagels, lox, and cream cheese; lukchen (noodle) kugle; etc. Fri Aug 31 10:00:36 -0700 2007 2900268 120180 tzurriz