Why I should never spend Hanukkah alone in Israel:
1. Because its sad and I miss people. Especially a particular person.
2. Because as of 8 pm yesterday, I'd eaten 3 sufganiyot, and they were all I'd eaten all day. Mmmmm...sufganiyot, definitely the best thing about being here in the winter. (maybe this one wasn't actually a bad thing)
3. Because when I try to make latkes, I realize I need a potato grater. But I don't know the word for that in Hebrew, so I buy what looks like one. But after spending half an hour to grate a quarter of a potato, realize that it must not be one, and end up using a peeler to get the rest of the potato and onion into little strips. Which aren't actually little enough at all, and since I also forget to buy egg or bread crumbs or any other unifying agent, my would-be latkes disintegrate in the oil (which incidentally starts spitting little burning bits of itself all over the place and is both painful and scary), and end up being more like the oiliest hash browns you could ever imagine. Which I then try to eat but realize that I forgot to get sour cream or applesauce, and that all i have to put on my oil-potatoes, is ketchup. But my ketchup is spiked with tabasco sauce because I seem to have not been paying attention when I bought it. And so I eat a highly unsatisfying dinner of a shredded, deep-fried potato with mouth burning ketchup.
The end.
2. Because as of 8 pm yesterday, I'd eaten 3 sufganiyot, and they were all I'd eaten all day. Mmmmm...sufganiyot, definitely the best thing about being here in the winter. (maybe this one wasn't actually a bad thing)
3. Because when I try to make latkes, I realize I need a potato grater. But I don't know the word for that in Hebrew, so I buy what looks like one. But after spending half an hour to grate a quarter of a potato, realize that it must not be one, and end up using a peeler to get the rest of the potato and onion into little strips. Which aren't actually little enough at all, and since I also forget to buy egg or bread crumbs or any other unifying agent, my would-be latkes disintegrate in the oil (which incidentally starts spitting little burning bits of itself all over the place and is both painful and scary), and end up being more like the oiliest hash browns you could ever imagine. Which I then try to eat but realize that I forgot to get sour cream or applesauce, and that all i have to put on my oil-potatoes, is ketchup. But my ketchup is spiked with tabasco sauce because I seem to have not been paying attention when I bought it. And so I eat a highly unsatisfying dinner of a shredded, deep-fried potato with mouth burning ketchup.
The end.