Someone I know celebrating Hanukkah now mentioned latkes used to be cheese before the introduction of the potato to Europe

And I mentioned this to another friend and she pointed out how weird it was to substitute potatoes for cheese, which got us into arguing about their exact relationship, like you wouldn’t put nacho cheese on mashed potatoes like you would gravy, BUT cheesy potatoes exist and you might put cheese OR gravy on roast beef (this was my position)

And I appreciated how it was so in the Spirit of Hanukkah, The One Jewish Thing the Rest of America Vaguely Gets, that our appreciation of cultural tradition had turned into an argument by increasingly ridiculous hair-splitting analogy

Happy Hanukkah!