enough for weeknight dinners, f estive and elevated for a
dress-up occasion. Making them reminds of the Before Times
when I threw latke parties — basically an excuse to eat as many
potato pancakes as s tomachs would allow, with or without
various accoutrements, from simple sour cream and apple-
sauce to decadent caviar. (And, obviously, bubbles to go with it
all.)
This year, rather than making mountains of latkes, I’ll scale
down for our family of three, but I still plan to throw a latke
party. Finding joy and merriment where one can is one of 2 020’s
great lessons.
Most classic potato latke fans fall into two camps: those who
like dense, finely grated ones shaped like hockey pucks and
those who want coarsely shredded ones with lacy, crispy frilly
bits and a bit of a disheveled look about them. I stand firmly in
SEE LATKES ON E8BY OLGA MASSOVI love latkes so much, I named my dog after them.
That’s not the punchline to a joke. When we got our Labrador
retriever puppy in November 2019, we took one look at her pale
yellow coat and named her Latke. And last Hanukkah, we even
tried photographing Latke with latkes, but being true to her
Labrador self, she ate them before we could snap a single frame.
So, latkes are something I’ve obsessed over since I was a kid,
begging my mom to make them for me year-round. As an adult,
I’ve made all kinds: with potatoes and with other vegetables,
coarsely shredded and finely grated, fried and baked, with all
manner of seasonings, spins and techniques.
But for me, nothing beats a crispy, lacy classic potato latke
with few ingredients.
Latkes are akin to a good pair of jeans: quotidian and humbleA latke for all seasons
— especially Hanukkah
Under a range of toppings, this crisp classic delivers a satisfying and celebratory crunch
TOM MCCORKLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTBY SABRA BOYDEtta James sings about a Sunday kind
of love as I pour a tiny mountain of flour
onto the kitchen table. I push a crater
into the center and crack an egg. One
should be enough. I can always add more
if the texture crumbles. Desperate times
call for comfort food. And whenever I
have time, making fresh pasta helps me
embrace being home.
If I have dry pasta on hand, I toss that
into a boiling pot. But rolling out fettuc-
cine noodles is the only kind of medita-
tion I have patience for these days. I
press my hands firmly into the dough,
feeling grateful to have a kitchen. I coat
the rolling pin in extra flour and think
about how, as a homeless teenager 20
years ago, I cooked using only a back-
packing stove. Surviving teen homeless-
ness prepared me for a pandemic in ways
I never could have imagined.
My mother first kicked me out when I
was 14, after my little brother announced
that I was gay. (The fact that I am
bisexual didn’t seem to make much
difference.) We had recently moved to
Port Angeles, Wash., the land of “Twi-
light” and Raymond Carver, to help care
for my grandfather after his stroke. I
didn’t know anyone to crash with, so I
trudged uphill to the dark high school
SEE HOMELESS ON E8ESSAYMy years as
a homeless
teen shape my
table today
BY TAMAR HASPELLet’s face it: This isn’t the season for
deprivation.
But let’s also face it: For those of us
who fight our weight, the holidays, even
the pared-down pandemic version, can
be tough.
So let me float an idea that you can
focus on even in festive times. It’s an idea
that nearly everyone agrees on. It’s an
idea with no downside. It’s wonky and
old-school, but don’t hold that against it.
It’s energy density, the number of
calories in a particular weight (or vol-
ume) of food.
I know, there’s that word! Calories!
But since the very definition of weight
loss is expending more calories than you
absorb, it should probably at least be
part of your vocabulary. Besides, this
isn’t about counting them. It’s about
eating them in the most satiating way
possible.
Energy density is the basis of the
Volumetrics series of diet books, by
Pennsylvania State University nutrition
professor Barbara Rolls, and it’s a diet
concept that has been around forever. “A
lot of the stuff we do, it’s ‘My grandmoth-
er could have told you that!’ ” Rolls told
me of the studies she runs in her lab.
That work focuses on how foods that
SEE UNEARTHED ON E4UNEARTHEDEnergy
density is an
old diet idea,
and it works
KLMNO
Food
EZ EE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020. SECTION E
FEATURED RECIPES
Baked Lemon Trout With Caper Salsa E2
Roasted Spaghetti Squash With Tempeh
Bolognese E2
Butternut Squash and Pear Soup E3
Classic Potato Latkes E8
Douglas Fir Fettuccine Alfredo E8Gift guide
The best things to get people who love to
eat or love cooking — or both. E3Voraciously
Kitchen knives getting more use? Here’s
how to sharpen them. E 6KEKAO