[Here’s another great article from our 2020 Holiday Food & Drink Guide! Check the rest out here to make your holidays extra festive!—eds.]
We’re all staying in for Hanukkah this year, right? Thanks to, you know… everything… it’s not a great time for communal gatherings, much less between two and eight of them in rapid fire. You know how we’re always like “I never know when Hanukkah is”? Let’s hold on to that energy for like… another six to eight months. It’s a lunar calendar, people, no one knows how it works! If your family calls you on it, commit to doing 16 days next December. Be prepared to negotiate up to 17 or 18, but hold the line at 20. There’s only so much chocolate gold a person can safely eat. So for now hunker down, start a Zoom room for dreidel games, and let’s talk takeout options!
The three competing themes of traditional Jewish holiday cuisine can be roughly categorized as “the old country” (typically Eastern Europe and Russia), “the new country” (here), and “the very, very old country” (Israel). The end result tends to be a pastiche of all three, passed through generations of families who assimilated to different degrees in different places. The good news is that Portland has some great options representing each branch of the diasporic family tree. Fair warning: Not all of these options are certified kosher, so you’ll have to do your homework if that’s a consideration.
The Old Country
Let’s start like they did in An American Tale on the frozen steppes of Russia. Our hometown slavic superstore Kachka has a good mix of traditional favorites on the menu year-round like borscht and Draniki (belerusian latkes), but this year they’re also offering a smoked brisket special and a “Latke Party for 2” which features roasted applesauce with toasted coriander, maitake mushroom gravy, and a truffled farmer’s cheese spread (it also comes with a dreidel in case the shoebox full of two dozen cheap plastic dreidels isn’t kept at your house).