On a lighter note, on this last night of Chanukah I suddenly realized I had NOT had any real sufganiot. That is, I did have a part of a large fried doughnut, oozing with chocolate and caramel......BUT it wasn't truly a sufganiyah - a jelly doughnut - the Israeli/sephardic Chanukah specialty.
I have a confession to make...I am really a latke person.
It is probably the only ashkenazi tradition I prefer over sephardic ones, but the truth is, I didn't have any latkes this year either. I don't know what happened to me in the food department. I was enjoying so much the various candle lightings with friends all over Israel, from Peta Tikvah, to Maale Adumin, and here in Jerusalem, that somehow the food just slipped by...until today when I realized I needed to have at least ONE sufganiyah.
Some friends of mine own a wonderful coffee shop, and they did an amazing business this year with their sufganiot....order after order after order passing from the hot oil cooker, to being decorated with flair, to countless boxes filled with the warm and fragrant jelly doughnuts, then carted off to hungry children and adults alike for their Chanukah fun.
So when I inquired this morning about their sufganiot I was not surprised to discover they had RUN OUT!!.. Not to worry, though, more were coming for this last day of Chanukah. After being assured the sufganiot would be fried there in the shop kitchen (and not a store-bought replacement for these last few hours -which I would totally understand!), I promised I would be back later in the day to have my one jelly doughnut, "in the spirit of the holiday!"
Well, I guess I waited too long, for when I arrived at the coffee shop to partake of my treat, I found one of my friends draining the cookers, and literally standing in a lake of oil which was spreading out over the floor of the shop's kitchen.... omg, it was a balygan. It looked like a disaster.
But then.... that meant...oh,oh...LO (NO) SUFGANIOT!!
Seeing the mess of cleaning up that oil....(I did offer to help!).....I appreciated even more how hard my friends had worked to provide such scrumptious treats for their customers....and I had missed out! For goodness sake, I had 8 days to claim one sufganiyah for the holiday!!
Oh well...except now I really missed the taste of that jelly doughnut....already longing for it for next year. Sigh....next time I will plan to have the first ones out of the cooker.....and...a latke or two with sour cream and applesauce...
Next year...still in Jerusalem!
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