Your family and most of mine are considered Litvak which usually preferred sweet to savory. Litvak is based on the Polish term for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Litwe which is pronounced as Litva. Also included is the eastern most part of Poland including Bialystok which was switched from the Grand Duchy part of the Commonwealth to the Polish Kingdom part by Stefan Bathory as Lithuania weakened.









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Sent from my Android phone with mail.com Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

My father's family were Litvaks, from Malat and Salakas;    His mother served us applesauce on latkes, and sour cream on bananas.    I never had gefilte fish.

Elise Cundiff

On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 05:45 PM, Joan Parker wrote:

Recent posts about Galicia brought to this senior's mind from the distant past... what you put on your latkes showed from whence the family came, or so the story vaguely goes for me.  Apple sauce?  Sour Cream?  Something else? Having a sweet tooth my choice was applesauce, but others used sour cream as far as I can remember from way back when..  Applesauce  = ???  Sourcream = ???  Something else = ???

 

My family is from Brest (Litovsk), Belarus; Grodno, Russia; Russia-Poland.  My in-laws were from  Berezin/Bresin, Kodima, Minsk, Belarus.

Stay safe and well,

Joan

Joan Parker

Past President/Archivist

JGS of Greater Miami, Inc.

1) GOLDBERG/ GOULD, GOODSTEIN/GUDSTEIN, BERGER, GERBER/CRAWFORD, JAGODA-Lipno, Plonsk, Plock, Poland-Russia; Warsaw, Poland-Russia; Galveston, TX; Bronx and Brooklyn, NY, Portland, OR, Los Angeles/Hollywood, CA.

2)  PARKER/PINKUS, WINOGRAD, (GERSHO-BEROVNA?)., R0SEN, -Brest (Litovsk), Belarus; Grodno, Russia; Bronx and Brooklyn, NY. WEISS, NEIKRUG, DEL PINO--Brooklyn, NY.  RABWIN--Hollywood, CA, Salt Lake City, UT. CLAYTON-California.

3) GELFAND, KRITZOFF, KATZ, TROCK --Berezin/Bresin, Kodima, Minsk, Belarus, Bronx, NY, Miami and Miami Beach, FL.

I love latkes and always used just salt and nothing else. I was born in Proskurov, Ukraine. 

I'm pure Litvak on all sides and it was apple sauce all the way. Sour
cream means you only eat latkes with diary meals.  Side note: I have
spent several months in Lithuania over the years. "Kugelis" was
considered a Jewish dish, and it was always on the menu at the Vilnius
State University cafeteria.  It was just like my mother's kugel!  On one
visit I stated with the yiddish writer Gregory Kanovich.  His Lithuanian
wife taught me how to make the real thing.  I will share the secret with
anyone who writes me for it.

Jules Levin

My family from Krynki, Russia/Poland put sugar on the pancakes!

My mother from Galicia put apple sauce on latkes and sour cream was mixed in with sliced bananas on dairy night. 

My Litvak father ate what he was given with no complaints. Best gefilte fish was all whitefish and blintzes were cherry or cheese with nothing on top. I hated borscht which upset my Litvak gmother. 

My Yiddish teacher told us that the preference for sweet vs. savory corresponds to distinct Yiddish dialects.  He said that it's called the "Geflite Fish Line."

BTW, there is a great scene in Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness where one of his grandmothers complains about how sweet the other grandmother's cooking is. 

Lee Jaffe

My mother's family came from Suchowola near Grodno (Poland/Russia) and we had applesauce and sometimes sour cream but sour cream on bananas always. I still like bananas, but now with yogurt. I have many kugel recipes, but would love yours. 

My mother (z"l) was pure Litvak and we grew up eating potato latkes with sour cream.  If Litvaks were supposed to eat latkes with applesauce, she didn't know that
or used the sour cream only to please my father (z"l), who was pure Ukrainer.  I doubt it that, though, because he was strictly a meat and potatoes man and I can't recall
him ever eating the latkes, even on Chanuka! 

Oh yes, my mother, who spoke fluent Russian as well as Yiddish and English, always spoke of "borshch" rather than "borsht."  Borshch is the
Russian pronunciation.  My father understood Russian more than he spoke it, but he and my mother used Russian, when they spoke of things the kids were not
supposed to understand.  We kids spoke English and Yiddish.

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zevr1135

 My maternal grandfather's parents were Galitizianers, my maternal grandmother's parents and my father's parents were from places within the Minsk Gubernia. So it's always both.

In my family we always ate them either just with salt or chreyn (the Russian chren) - horeseraddish and beetroot condiment. Delicious. My husband whose father was a Galitzianer from Lvov says they ate them with apple sauce. My family are Litvaks - from Simnas in Suwalki gubernia.
Shirley Holton

My paternal grandparents are from Poland/Galicia.  I like both applesauce and sour cream on my latkes.  That just makes me greedy.

Kleinman, Smith, Ganz, Sussman