# A non-Jew making latkes: Offensive? Appropriation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807 "2003-12-24T07:07:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/21 "2003-12-24T18:31:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racinchikki \* > \*\*There’s an IHOP up the road! I can go there and avoid having to grate potatoes all day! \*\* Ah, now you’re learning. What is a Jewish-American Princess’s favorite thing to make for dinner? Reservations.;j ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/22 "2003-12-24T18:57:23Z")
I make latkes. Yum. And I usually make them once during Hanukkah, though I’ve been too sick this year to bother. My recipe was given to me by a bona-fide Jewish person, even (and, since she is a healthy-minded person, involves frying and then baking, so they’re not so oily). ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/23 "2003-12-24T19:32:01Z")
Thank you. I now have a taste for potato pancakes, which I have not had for years. Now on Friday I’m going to have to go to the store and buy some potatoes and sour cream (I have onions). As if I didn’t have enough to do this weekend. And a highjack on the topic on appropriating holiday traditions. Before we met my wife used to invite everybody she knew who didn’t have a family to come to her place and celebrate “Christmas for Strays.” She’s told me that a number of years her Jewish friends seemed to have more fun decorating the tree than she did. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/24 "2003-12-24T23:32:33Z")
Good grief…someone’s taken offense at that??? Latkes are just food. They’re not holy, like Christians consider communion wafers to be. Same goes for jelly donuts, matzo, or chulent. The only offense is if they don’t taste good. Now, if there was a Temple and we were talking about sacrificial animals, maybe there’d be an issue here. But until then…bon appetit! (P. S. - I prefer mine without applesauce, personally.) ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/25 "2003-12-25T04:07:43Z")
I’d call it tasty, personally. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/26 "2003-12-25T07:24:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hajario \* > **How on Earth could making a food be offensive?** Well, if you made penis-shaped cookies or something. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/27 "2003-12-25T07:33:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hajario \* > \*\*How on Earth could making a food be offensive? \*\* Well, dwarf bread is a potent offensive weapon… [/Terry Pratchett] 😃 ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/28 "2003-12-25T15:12:28Z")
People get OFFENDED at latkes? Good Lord. Still, that leaves more for me, maybe. YUM! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/29 "2003-12-26T05:29:17Z")
My uncle eats potato pancakes with MAPLE SYRUP. Now THAT’S offensive! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/30 "2003-12-26T21:21:52Z")
I’d be offended if someone _didn’t_ like latkes! Shows bad taste and all. God, think how lame things would be if we only ate foods from our own ethnic backgrounds! I think I would shrivel up and die if I couldn’t eat Mexican or Indian food anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/31 "2003-12-26T21:47:47Z")
Just thought of something… (sorry I’m being serious here :)) Hannukah celebrates events from over 2000 years ago. Potatoes were introduced to Europe, what, 500 years ago? So Latkes simply **cannot** be connected to Hannikah in any meaningful way, except by “appropriation” by the Jews themselves. Y’all still got one more day to enjoy latkes during Hannukah. After that, they’re back to being plain potato patties 😉 Dani Dan Quayle, eat your heart out! I got them **both** right! ---
**Author:** ![Oat1957](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Oat1957](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oat1957)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/32 "2003-12-27T00:36:29Z")
I make them a lot and we’re not of any religion. They just plain ol’ taste good. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/33 "2003-12-27T01:43:43Z")
Just don’t eat pastrami on white bread with mayo, okay? _Most[_ Jewish food isn’t really “Jewish” but was expropriated from another culture and transformed (dietary requirements, etc.). It is Jewish now only because the original host culture has moved on and the but tradition remains with the Jews even as they moved to other lands. Bagels were South German in origin (the word is German for “bracelet”) for example. ---
**Author:** ![BadBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@BadBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBaby)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/34 "2003-12-27T03:59:24Z")
I have a theory that eating traditional foods from other countries and/or cultures promotes an understanding of that culture. Since we often hate what we fear and fear what is unknown, eating ‘foreign’ foods leads to world peace. I like this theory because it’s delicious. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/35 "2003-12-27T06:05:23Z")
Sometimes it’s delicious and sometimes it’s not, **BadBaby** , but I like your idea nonetheless. (Genuine Korean food, for example, is not for the cowardly. I wasn’t quite able to do it, unfortunately.) Mmm…bagels. Yummy. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/36 "2003-12-27T08:26:03Z")
Maybe my friends have been “dumbing down” their meals to appeal to me, but all the “authentic” Korean food I’ve tasted has been positively delicious! I now have a Korean soon-to-be-stepmother, and I can guarantee I’ll be visiting my dad a lot more often just for the food! (Not that I don’'t love seeing my dad anyway and all.) Of course I’ve always had pretty darn catholic eating habits. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/37 "2003-12-27T15:07:54Z")
Unless you’re frying up some bacon, adding it to the potato mix, then frying the whole thing in the bacon fat, there’s nothing wrong with make latkes. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/38 "2003-12-27T16:07:41Z")
There’s lots of non-scary Korean food, but I know there is some that is since I’ve watched my family eat it while I chicked out. Anything involving a raw egg is just out – I can’t, no matter how good it might taste. Call me a coward. If this is going to turn into a general international-food thread, anybody want to go for pho? It’s the food of the gods, I swear. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/39 "2003-12-27T16:09:53Z")
“chickened” out, not “chicked” out. Though I guess that’s not entirely inaccurate what with being a girl and all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807/40 "2003-12-27T16:17:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Annie-Xmas \* > \*\*Unless you’re frying up some bacon, adding it to the potato mix, then frying the whole thing in the bacon fat, there’s nothing wrong with make latkes. \*\* Nothing wrong doing it **with** bacon, either. OK - no _kosher_. But **wrong**? 🙂 Dani [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-non-jew-making-latkes-offensive-appropriation/220807.md?page=1)