Chanukah #7
This is a useless bit of history trivia rather than a recipe. A horror writer friend is descending on the poor innocent folks of Fiji in the near future. We talked about taro chips being the standard there rather than potato and she demonstrated her capacity to order a helping of them. This reminded me that our ordinary potato was not an instant favourite in Europe when it was first brought over from the Americas. Sweet potato made it into recipes and was much enjoyed, but the common spud took over a hundred years longer to tempt people’s palates.
This is maybe the one time of the year when hot chips or wedges with sour cream or anything fried and potato has absolutely no temptation for me. Something must tempt me, but I feel sick at the thought of fried food. Too much Chanukah, but also too much heat.
If the miracle of the olive oil had happened during summer, then maybe we would be eating nicely dressed salads to celebrate, or maybe a good wedge of bread dipped in salt then high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Just you wait. In 48 hours you will also be entirely tired of your favourite foods and be thankful that we have so few chances to indulge so very extremely in a year.
Which reminds me, I have one more entry to give for this festival and I promised you the Pork Pie that killed Uncle Bob. It would be a bit evil to do that, wouldn’t it? It would be even more evil if I did it tonight, in the odd interval between Chanukah and Christmas. Think of all the different ways in which it would be evil. Not deep fried. Pork. Untested by me (because it’s pork). A favourite recipe of the family whence it came, despite the sad demise of Uncle Bob. A warning in fact, in all sorts of ways. And no-one to ask me if I’ve been good or bad this year and to reward me with gifts for conscious virtue, since I’m Jewish.
Watch this space and see if I fall to temptation.
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:00 pm
fried potato they are so yum
December 27th, 2006 at 6:32 am
They are. Very, very addictive!