On a slow July afternoon, we tweeted what we thought would spark some conversation: What’s your most controversial Jewish food hot take?
What's your most controversial Jewish food hot take?
— Jewish Food (@JewishFood) July 10, 2019
While we knew people have many feelings about Jewish food, we didn’t expect the sheer amount of opinions we got — everything from bagels are overrated to brisket is the worst to the widest range of feelings on gefilte fish and matzah balls. Even Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman weighed in about how her sister’s family makes Milky Way challah (which, yes please).
We decided to round up some of these strong Jewish food hot takes, grouped by food below. The saying “two Jews, three opinions” is even more true on Twitter. So many Jews, so many opinions:
1. Kugel
The kugel tweets are either anti-kugel…
Down with kugel. (Sorry-not-sorry @CarlyPildis et al.) https://t.co/MyNRktdLr1
— Lea Zeltserman (@zeltserman) July 10, 2019
Kugel with raisins is gross. In fact, all kugel is slightly gross.
— Mandy Slutsker (@MandySlutsker) July 10, 2019
…or a statement on which kugel is definitively the best kugel.
potato kugel > noodle kugel https://t.co/zpExrTWoUw
— Aaron Schwartzbaum (@aaron_schwa) July 10, 2019
noodle kugel is weird. potato is the only good kugel
— james hirsh (@jameshirsh) July 10, 2019
The only good kugel is chocolate kugel.
— Rochelle (@Rochelle) July 10, 2019
There is no point to ever eating potato kugel when sweet noodle kugel exists
— (((Dorvin Borman))) (@dorvinborman) July 11, 2019
2. Cholent
People seem to truly despise cholent, the traditional Jewish Sabbath stew.
Cholent is PEASANT FOOD and everyone makes way too big of a deal about it. https://t.co/UrNQ2X0PeH
— Rebecca Levitan (@rivkachava) July 10, 2019
Cholent should have stayed in the Shtetl. https://t.co/BJHXTZZHvY
— Carly Pildis (@CarlyPildis) July 10, 2019
3. Gefilte Fish
This is the food that stirred up the most opinions, which fell firmly into two camps.
You either love it:
I love gefilte fish. Love. https://t.co/x7zSUU0zGh
— Helaine Olen (@helaineolen) July 10, 2019
Gefilte fish is a top 5 Jewish food https://t.co/3uCl4FegnJ
— Lev Gerstle (@onmylevels) July 10, 2019
Or hate it:
Gefilte fish is trash https://t.co/u10fO7Mm2C
— Or Moyal (@OrMoyal) July 11, 2019
4. Bagels
We did not expect bagels to make this list: Who could hate bagels? Turns out, there are people out there who can hate anything.
Bagels are wildly overrated. https://t.co/R7BW8PBpX7
— Jon Fassnacht (@JonFassnachtRE) July 10, 2019
Then, of course, feelings on cream cheese and how to actually eat a bagel ensued:
1. Bagels and lox is fantastic but adding a tomato to the mix ruins it completely. https://t.co/YkVksey7Ql
— (((Gabriella))) (@2samadams3) July 10, 2019
the only important measure of a bagel is how well it works as a cream cheese delivery system.
— Ellen Keri Goldberg (@ellegitimate) July 10, 2019
cream cheese is vile and lox is better directly on bread. cc @nattysom
— Dave Sommer (@realdavesommer) July 10, 2019
5. Matzah (and other Passover foods)
A few people argued for the consumption of matzah, matzeh brei, and haroset year-round:
matzah brei can and should be consumed year-round https://t.co/rZF9oXzVwJ
— democracy diva (@democracydiva) July 10, 2019
Charoset is an always food
— andi zeisler (@andizeisler) July 10, 2019
Matzo as all-purpose year round cracker
— Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@tweetertation) July 10, 2019
Others had strong feelings on the density of matzah balls:
Fluffy matzah balls are gross.
— Oxford Comma Fan (@sippikj) July 10, 2019
Matzoh balls should be chewy. https://t.co/cHf84AOw2s
— Naomi Kritzer (@NaomiKritzer) July 11, 2019
6. Latkes
And pivoting to Hanukkah, are gluten-free latkes really as good as regular ones?
Gluten-free latkes are just as good as normal ones. https://t.co/mGrRO3dhzY
— Gabe Friedman (@GabeFriedman563) July 10, 2019
Others don’t even like them at all:
*hires security detail*
*dons kevlar best*
*hides in bunker*
*whispers*:
"Latkes are just ok" https://t.co/dZdnx7uFki— Eli Levenson-Falk (@EliLevensonFalk) July 11, 2019
And some eat them with ketchup (gasp)!
The best condiment for latkes is Heinz ketchup FIGHT ME https://t.co/KrkIlr29L4
— Gabe Rosenberg (@GabrielJR) July 11, 2019
7. Ptcha
Someone argued for the renaissance of ptcha, AKA calves’ foot jelly. (Why yes, it did make our ranking of the grossest Jewish foods.)
I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to bringing back ptcha https://t.co/N2eArw8Cy7
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) July 10, 2019
8. Hamantaschen
Like everything else on this list, people are very particular about their hamantaschen!
Hamantaschen are overrated. https://t.co/Nl2JitZ67K
— Joel S. (@jh_swanson) July 10, 2019
Any Hamantaschen filling that is NOT poppy seeds is blasphemous. https://t.co/F9vDmpDqMu
— Dana Regev (@Dana_Regev) July 10, 2019
9. Dairy
This astute observation was the best:
For a group of people with a tendency toward lactose intolerance, we eat A LOT of milk-based products. https://t.co/EbC3vzoD6u
— Bunny Sparber (@maxsparber) July 10, 2019
And I’ll leave you with mine: I don’t like pickles.
