Jew-licious: The Food Tales of Mandy Peskin

 

            As many people know, last night marked the first night of the Jewish holiday, Chanukkah, or in twenty first century terms, Thanksgivvukah. For all of my awesome followers, here is a neat piece of trivia about me. Chanukkah has never been my particularly favorite holiday, but I do admit, I have always loved the food.

 Every year, Jewish families across the world indulge in the mouth-watering food entitled, latkes, which are incomplete without the delightful topping, applesauce. As I bite into my latkes with applesauce, flavors burst in my mouth. The crunchy outside and dry inside of fried potato complemented the moist and fruity flavors brought along by the applesauce. The latke's pleasant grains of potato melted the moment they met my tongue. Boy, if you guys have never had latkes and applesauce, I highly recommend you do so ASAP!

            While I was eating my mother's homemade latkes, I began pondering on the question, "How on earth did scrumptious latkes get onto my plate?!" After I ate, I spent a good hour at my computer researching the history of the individual ingredients that make up my beloved latke dish. I made some astonishing discoveries.

            The first ingredient I researched was, of course, potatoes. Surprisingly enough, potatoes were the only ingredient in my latke dish that traveled from the new to old world along the Colombian exchange. Cool fact for all of my fellow foodies out there: conquistadors discovered potatoes while they were in Europe, and brought these starchy foods back to their homes! The olive oil and applesauce all traveled from the Europe to the Americas along the Colombian exchange.

After I finished my research, I traveled the long and dangerous trip, filled with the nose-pleasing smells of oil, back to my kitchen to sit at my empty table. While I was at my table, I decided to give myself another serving of my favorite latkes, after all, Thanksgivvukah only comes once in a lifetime, right?

Finally, I was on my last bite. As I put the remains of the once-whole potato pancake into my mouth, I realized that if it were not for the Colombian exchange, there would be no latkes! Or, if there were latkes, they would only be eaten by Americans, and they would not be eaten with applesauce! Now that I am thinking about it, almost all of the yummy foods here in America are made up of some kind of ingredient transacted in the Colombian Exchange! So, long story short, the next time you look at all of the delicious foods on your plate, think about how they really got there. The results might just surprise you!

            And with that, Peskin out! Hope you tune in next to read about my experience tackling the southern classic, chicken and waffles!