Hanukkah

My co-worker, Z told me that one of the traditional Hanukkah foods is jelly donuts. In fact, all of the donut shops take orders for jelly and custard donuts around this time. Today, Noam brought some in to work and we indulged. Sure enough, he did not place an early order and so only half of the dozen were jelly and custard donuts. They had run out. The others were chocolate and sprinkles. I suspect kosher foods may not have much to do with donuts but the latter don't quite cut the mustard. Pretty cool custom. Just to be respectful, I had two fried pieces of sweet heaven. Apparently it has to do with the sacredness of oils and I believe there's a story about the oil so anything fried in oil is part of the Holiday. Z told me when she lived in Israel, during the Holidays, lots of street vendors would be selling jelly donuts. That's right! Just outside your door, a cart, where they fry the donut in front of you and fill it with jelly. You get to eat the hot treat right there. Pretty awesome. Also, they have several nights of gift giving. Pretty good for the economy.