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(New York Jewish Week) — At Edith’s Sandwich Counter, a “Jew-ish” takeout place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the most well-liked bagel sandwich is their bacon-egg-cheese-latke (BECL) combo. Every component of the sandwich’s filling is made to order: crispy bacon, an omelet cooked in an individually-sized tamagoyaki pan, topped with sharp cheddar and a freshly fried latke.
Since opening as a brick and mortar retailer in spring of 2021, the BECL has change into Edith’s hottest bagel sandwich — and demand for the latke as a stand-alone aspect dish is excessive, too. This introduced a problem: As anybody who’s ever hosted a Hanukkah occasion is aware of, cranking out these recent, crispy latkes, separately, had change into difficult. They promote 1000’s of latkes every week.
“It was getting tougher and tougher for us to maintain up,” proprietor and founder Elyssa Heller advised the New York Jewish Week. “I needed to discover a manner to enhance the standard of our latke and use our progress as a car for getting higher.”
Enter Heller’s invention: the oblong latke. Whereas Edith’s doesn’t serve conventional Jewish deli meals (see crispy bacon, above), they do take historic components of how Jews ate all through the Diaspora and incorporate them into their menu. After performing some analysis, Heller decided that what makes a latke a latke isn’t its round form (which it assumes when the batter is dropped by the spoonful into oil), however that the potatoes are blended in an egg batter after which fried.
Working example: The title alone, “latke,” merely means “little oily,” in line with Gil Marks’s “The Encyclopedia of Jewish Meals.” In different phrases, a latke is concerning the oil, not the elements nor the form. “Each meals has a regular of id, traits that outline it,” stated Heller. “Nothing was ever talked about a couple of latke needing to be spherical. Versus spherical challah on Rosh Hashanah, which represents the cycle of life, the form of the latke has no symbolic which means.”
In different phrases, a latke remains to be a latke even when its form suits in the field.
Right here’s how they do it: The latke batter — which consists of Yukon Gold potatoes, onions, eggs, potato starch and matzah meal — is poured into a big sheet pan and par-baked in order that it’s 80% completed and retains its form when lower. The large latke is then lower into rectangles, the identical dimension and form because the omelet it sits atop within the bagel sandwich. Then, when an order is available in, the virtually ready-to-eat latke is fried and served piping scorching.
The ensuing sandwich, through which egg and latke match in dimension, is Instagram-worthy — an important requirement within the meals world of as we speak. And, simply as essential, the diner will get a chunk of latke with every chunk of egg.
Diners are delighted by the outcomes: Feedback on Instagram vary from “that is the innovation we want” to “I would like these crispy corners.” On the similar time, they don’t appear notably stunned. “Individuals know that, right here at Edith’s, we do issues our personal manner whereas honoring traditions,” Heller stated.
(You could be pondering, “Aren’t the hash browns at McDonald’s primarily an oblong fried latke?” True, the quick meals large has been promoting rectangular-shaped transportable potatoes for greater than 40 years, however once more: A latke is often made with an egg batter; hash browns will not be.)
Heller, who additionally owns Edith’s Eatery & Grocery, a sister institution to the sandwich counter, based each locations to make good Jewish meals accessible all yr lengthy — not only for the vacations. The latkes, based mostly on Heller’s grandmother’s recipe, are on the menu 12 months of the yr. Their BECL comes on Edith’s signature twisted bagel for $13.50; if you’d like simply the latke, you may have that for $2.75 (add $1.25 if you’d like it topped with creme fraiche).
For Hanukkah — which begins this yr on the night of Sunday, Dec. 18 — Edith’s Sandwich Counter and Edith’s Eatery & Grocery shall be getting ready their new rectangular latke, which shall be accompanied by a alternative of ketchup, scorching sauce, apple sauce or creme fraiche. They may even serve braised brisket and jelly donuts, though the group at Edith’s has not but decided the jelly flavors they are going to use.
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Within the spirit of “intellectually pushed meals” that Heller espouses, Edith’s additionally has a Russian cheese pancake, syrniki, on the menu. It’s just like the cheese pancakes that Jews in Japanese Europe ready for Hanukkah earlier than potato cultivation turned widespread there beginning in 1840. Made with farmer’s cheese and accompanied by smetana, a cross between bitter cream and creme fraiche, and tart currant kissel, a thick fruit syrup, it’s accessible for Hanukkah and all yr spherical, too.
Concerned with making rectangular latkes of your individual? Our associates at our companion web site, The Nosher, have Edith’s recipe right here.
Edith’s Sandwich Counter is at 495 Lorimer Avenue in Brooklyn.
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