Livin' the Latke Life

I realize I've blogged about latkes a LOTTT lately, but what can I say? I've had latkes five times in the past seven days. Tuesday was Latkes & Vodkas; Wednesday was my office's Chanukah party (at which I was gifted 5 lbs. of hideous stationary in a White Elephant exchange) and Thursday was my friend Joanna's Christmukkah shindig.

And tonight? Tonight was Chef Spike's Latke Mania at a local synagogue, where Spike Mendelsohn, a former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" (which is only my favorite show), taught an audience of a couple hundred how to make everyone's favorite Chanukah treats.


Joining Spike in the makeshift kitchen - on the bima, no less! - was his mom, which was cute & uber-Jewish, although she talked muuuch more than he did. Together, they showed us how to make regular (but gourmet!) latkes & applesauce plus sweet potato & zucchini latkes (um, separately, not together, because that would be sick). The first bummer? I don't have a kitchen in my teensy-weensy studio apartment, so I won't be whipping up a batch of my own potato pancakes anytime soon.

But the biggest bummer was that at night's end, the only latke that ended up in my stomach was a little half-dollar-sized shenanigan that just served to tease my palette -- even cold, it was a delight, & the homemade applesauce was swoon-worthy. The fried rice I consumed later in the evening came in at a very sad second place compared to what could've been, had the Latke Mania folks allowed each audience member more than a mere half a latke. Very, very disappointing.