Andrew, I'm suspicious, too. Latkes aren't restaurant food. You can't take shortcuts, you can't let them sit, etc etc etc. They might be the one single food you absolutely MUST make yourself. And so they literally are the one single food I make myself...:)

JIM

I wonder if you can fry latkes in schmaltz. Boy, would they be deadly. Usually, they're made in heart-healthy olive oil, so one would have to conclude they are a veritable health food.

A few years ago, I had a Chanukah party and couldn't find Olive Oil in the store. (I'd waited 'til the last minute to shop.) I used peanut oil instead and when I called my mother to tell her how terrific they were, she told me that peanut oil is what my grandmother had used.

Who knew?

You can almost never get a good potato latke from a restaurant. Usually too dry and too big.

One of the problems is they really are best eaten immediately after they're made. Lots of places - even "good" ones - have 'em ready.

Still, I wanna check out a couple of the places mentioned in the Chowhound thread. (I have this feeling the Stage will be good and I'm strangely optimistic about Mo Pitkin's.)