Crybaby wrote:
You cracked me up here, Beth, as I, too, laugh at my own jokes. I kill me, too, in other words. And I especially loved the "I didn't invite them" part, too.
I remember the chili wars. I'm a no bean girl but when people INSIST chili has no beans, it makes me crazy, too. Like the person who told you what you served alongside latkes made them not latkes -- how freaking ridiculous is that! The way I look at it is something different served alongside latkes.
Same forum ~ different discussion about latkes....
The discussion was about how there were different ways to make latkes, some used raw potatoes, some used grated cooked potatoes, etc., etc.
I mentioned that in my family we made German Potato Pancakes, made the same way as the latkes and also said they were sometimes ground with onions in a hand-crank cast iron grinder attached to the edge of the kitchen work table. When fried those were the BEST, really creamy & smooth on the inside and crispy on the outside, and served with applesauce and bratwurst.
As soon as I posted my comments I got an immediate IM (instant message) from the same lady to inform me that latkes would NEVER be served with bratwurst! (a pork product)
I was really glad I had called MINE German Potato Pancakes.
I think I was dismissed from the conversation because I wasn't Jewish....but I was simply interested in how the same food product was made by different regions / cultures and just called something else. It's the rigid, my-way-or-the-highway attitude I don't like. I want everyone to be able to participate in a discussion about food.
I know Lore, being from Germany, surprised me when she said she had never made potato pancakes or said she didn't grow up eating them. Then one time I was looking at a map of Germany and it struck me how large a country it is and then it hit me that the foods of one region of Germany wouldn't be the same throughout the country, the same as the foods from one area of the US is different from another. But that's what food forums are good for ~ we get to learn about lots of different areas and the customs people grew up with.