2017.11 Happy Happy Hanukkah!

***Full disclosure.  I sat down to type this up last night, and then promptly fell asleep on the couch.  So, yeah, falling more and more behind every day, but here we go…

Tonight is the first night of the festival of lights.  If you observe, I hope you are with family and eating your heart’s content of fried foods.

In a previous incarnation as a big wig in the tanning world I traveling back forth between Denver and Oklahoma City and found myself eating out, often.  One of the restaurants in Denver I frequented was Zaidy’s Deli.  Best Reuben sandwich in Denver, not to mention their German chocolate cake is out of this world.  Maybe not as good as Kathleen’s but better than no German chocolate cake.

So, one particularly rough day in December 2010, when I was missing my family, I stopped by Zaidy’s on my way back to where I was staying.  Traffic was especially bad near city center because they were having a Christmas tree lighting.  I thought I was never going to get to Zaidy’s let alone to the place I was staying.  When I got to the restaurant it was about half an hour from closing, but the usually grouchy waitress welcomed me in, assured me it was no issue, they were staying opened until everyone had eaten.

When she seated me, she did not give me a menu, asking instead, “You want the Rueben right? And latkes of course, its Hanukkah, you are having the latkes” I agreed, although I was not previously aware it was Hanukkah.  When she brought me my dinner she sat at the table and chit chatted with me, pointing out the live feed of the state capital building all lit up for the holidays.  When I finished my meal she brought me a huge piece of German chocolate cake and a handful of chocolate Hanukkah gelt. 

As I paid the bill, and thanked her for a lovely dinner I confessed that I hadn’t realized it was Hanukkah and that I wasn’t even Jewish, she just laughed and said, “It is the first night of Hanukkah everyone is Jewish.”