Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Floating in oil

.
Yet another batch of soofganiot frying in hot oil!
What would Chanuka be without them?
Today I caught sight of these jelly-donuts-in-progress as I walked down Jaffa Road, near the shuk/souk/market.
The smell of calories attracted my attention.


(Enlarge the photo to see the finished product on the left.)

Soofgania comes from the Hebrew word that means sponge, sfog, which comes from a similar Ancient Greek word.
And indeed this dough absorbs hot oil like a sponge, as do latkes (grated potato pancakes), that other traditional Chanuka treat.

.
The holiday was instituted not to celebrate the 165 BCE military victory of the Jews over the Seleucid Greeks (who defiled the Temple with pagan worship), but rather to celebrate the miracle of the olive OIL.
.
When the victorious Jews came to rededicate the Temple, they found only one small vial of still-pure oil (i.e. with the seal of the high priest intact). They needed to rekindle the menorah and keep it burning throughout the night every night; but to press, prepare, and consecrate a fresh supply of oil would have taken eight days.
.
The Talmud (in tractate Shabbat) says:
"What is Hanukah? The rabbis taught: . . . The vial contained sufficient oil for one day only, but a miracle occurred, and it fed the holy lamp eight days in succession. These eight days were the following year established as days of good cheer, on which psalms of praise and acknowledgment (of God's wonders) were to be recited."
.
So that's why our "days of good cheer" are now filled with oily tasty soofganiot.
.

17 comments:

  1. mmm. Looks delicious! How much does one donut cost in terms of U.S. money?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gigi, I'm afraid I don't know how much they cost. Didn't buy any this year.
    But for fun you might look at http://israelity.com/2009/12/11/foto-friday-hanukkah-in-jerusalem/
    The little menu shows "gourmet" soofganiot in all new varieties. The number in brown is the price in shekels. Divide it by 3.78 to convert to dollars.
    I think a normal simple one costs less than a dollar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. good to share these fat days with friends!


    ShAloha, Dina


    Comfort Spiral

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dina, I did what you said. The numbers in brown look like the number 8. (???) I could be wrong.

    After doing the math, it looks like each donut costs more than $2.

    wow!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gigi, yeah, those soofganiot in the ad are all the "gourmet" fancy ones, with chocolate filling and special icing. One new one this year even has vodka! I think it is the novelty that you pay for. Silly. Not for my budget.
    Tomorrow I will find out what a normal soofgania costs. I'm taking a new-in-Israel friend to the market and she will need to taste one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Dina. Isn't it great that food is an important part of our religious traditions! If you have time, take a look at my friend, Lori Lynn's post on latkes www.tastewiththeeyes.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yuuuuummmm! It looks fabulous! I love latkes. It was so much fun when my students' parents would bring them to class to share their treats and traditions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. My grandmother made those donuts. They are oh so good when fresh and oh so bad when old!

    ReplyDelete
  9. hello Dina, wow this is a delicius in this time! buon giorno!
    Luis

    ReplyDelete
  10. Although «Louis» knew the story of how the festival of lights began, he hadn't equated how jelly donuts came to be a symbolic food for the festival with it. Well, duh!, «Louis»!

    ReplyDelete
  11. interesting and definitely lovely. thaks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. But what are these sponge like things? Some type of doughnut?

    ReplyDelete
  13. They look delicious. I usually have very good donuts in the mountains, in a confectioner's shop at Bardonecchia.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I am envisioning the finished soofganiot, those tasty morsels.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Finally caught up with your blog! Our celebrations are over but I forgot to consider all the other work I'd put aside because of them. Okay now. I think.

    Many, many thanks for this explanation of Chanukah. I just knew it as a Jewish holiday, but nothing else. A celebration of a miracle — I like that.

    ReplyDelete


Thanks for your comment!
Comment moderation is on so I will see any new comments even on older posts!