So long to sweet: Savory sufganiyot strut their stuff
This year, Hanukkah doughnuts come filled with liver, pastrami, schnitzel and more
Strawberry jelly is so last year.
While your standard Hanukkah sufganiya (doughnut) may be stuffed with jam, or sometimes chocolate or caramel, standard doughnuts just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore in 2018.
As kosher eateries in the New York area got into the holiday spirit, a range of decidedly nontraditional, edgy, meat-filled sufganiyot are cropping up.
Some have decried the creations as sacrilege, while others are too busy chewing to comment.
So what crazy creations are available this year?
The Golan Heights eatery in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood (home to Yeshiva University and hungry college students), has brought back its “Maccabee” sandwich for Hanukkah this year. The menu item features a sliced doughnut “stuffed with schnitzel, brisket, fried onion, fried eggplant [and] slaw.”
In Monsey, New York, The Ridge Steakhouse has been selling a unique savory creation: a homemade doughnut “topped with lamb bacon, maple glaze, cornflake and purple potato chip.”
The Gourmet Glatt supermarket in Lakewood, New Jersey added a unique offering to its takeout menu this year: a pastrami filled and topped doughnut.
And the Pomegranate kosher supermarket in Brooklyn has been selling some particularly interesting items on its Hanukkah catering menu. Alongside more traditional doughnuts, shoppers can buy both a “chicken liver mousse” doughnut and a “pulled beef” doughnut.
As it turns out, these wild creations are not just found in North America. This year, the Moses burger chain in Israel also served up a meat-filled offering. The restaurant called
it an “Asado doughnut,” although it’s actually a brioche bun, filled with slow-cooked meat and topped with ground almonds and a dollop of ketchup to give it that festive sufganiya look.
While things seem to have reached a peak for Hanukkah 2018, crazy doughnut creations aren’t exactly new. Earlier this year, the Doughnut Project in New York City teamed up with the late Carnegie Deli for a “Reuben Doughnut Sandwich,” with a caraway seed doughnut sandwiching pastrami, Swiss cheese, apple slaw and a Russian dressing glaze with a cornichon pickle garnish.
And in 2016, Israel’s Burger King chain offered a “Sufganiking” – a burger doughnut sandwich that received decidedly mixed reviews. Last year, the famed Hatzot steakhouse in Jerusalem served its signature mixed grill inside a sufganiya for the eight days of Hanukkah.
By this time next year, we’ll probably be stuffing latkes inside doughnuts in the spirit of the holiday. •