Bubbie’s Market & Deli Serves Up Hanukkah Treats

Hanukkah “is only 2,000 years old,” jokes Jeff Ingber, owner of Bubbies Market & Deli.

As those who celebrate know, Hanukkah marks when, in the second century BC, the Jewish rebels the Maccabees overthrew Greek usurper Antiochus IV, retaking control of Judea. When they cleansed and rededicated the defiled Second Temple, they only had enough oil for the menorah to burn for one day. It miraculously stayed lit for eight, giving Hanukkah the moniker “Festival of Lights.”

To honor the occasion, menorah candles are lit over eight nights, “and we eat lots of food fried in oil,” says Ingber. “Nothing could be better.”

One of those foods is the latke, a potato pancake pan fried or deep fried in oil. “The Jews from Eastern Europe, who fled during the Holocaust, brought the potato latke tradition with them to the US,” Ingber explains. He identifies two schools of latkes: thick or thin. “Marriages are saved or broken based on these things.”

While Ingber prefers a “thin and crispy” latke (his wife, he laments, prefers the thick, but they remain happily married), Bubbie’s is plating the thick version for their holiday special, an open-faced latke sandwich: corned beef or pastrami piled high on top of a latke.

“We are planning to branch out with sweet potato latkes and zucchini and carrot latkes,” Ingber says, but observes that bucking tradition is an ongoing battle. “Do we stick with conventional or go cutting edge?” A fan of both tradition and creative eating, Ingber’s doing both.

There is another, but no less delicious, tradition: sufganiyah, or jelly donuts.

Sufganiyah translates into “sponge,” because the donuts soak up the oil like one. Food historians trace back the addition of jelly to Poland in the 1500s, when the cost of sugar went down. Eventually, the jelly-filled sufganiyah immigrated to Israel, where the locals embraced it wholeheartedly. “They are everywhere in Israel, including the bus stops,” Ingber says. “It’s wild.” Bubbie’s will have a traditional jelly donut as well as one filled with pastry-cream for the holiday.

Inger, who also co-owns the New England fish delivery business Kosher Catch (“not a dating service”), anticipates hosting a few fish and chip pop-ups at Bubbies. “When in New England,” he jokes before pointing out that fish and chips have their roots in Judaism.

But for Ingber, Hanukkah is all about the latkes. “Hanukkah is a fantastic holiday. There’s the commercial part with gifts and the dreidel. But it’s one of those holidays where someone’s Bubbe (grandmother) slaved over a cast iron pan to serve up hot, crispy latkes to her family. It’s the quintessential food that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.”