Latke and matzo ball soup, together at last!

“I don’t even come here for knishes any more,” a gentleman I shared a table with at Knish Nosh said to me yesterday. “I come for her cooking,” he said of Chef Ana Vasilescu, who makes killer perogies among other specialties. I had come for a bowl of matzo ball soup.

“Better than my mother’s,” my new friend remarked of the classic Jewish restorative. “Mine too,” I thought, remembering that I don’t have a Jewish mother. Then I noticed two golden brown patties next to his soup. “Are those latke?” I asked.

Soon I was digging into a double dose of Jewish soul food. “I’m good advertising,” my new friend remarked when he saw my order. The latkes—with applesauce natch—made for a nice accompaniment to the matzo ball soup.

“So you only have these during Hanukkah? I asked Chef Ana. “No, we have every day,” she responded in her usual slightly harried tone that comes of being a one-woman show. Now that I know Chef Ana’s latke are available year-round, I’m trying to work up the mettle to ask her to make me a chopped liver latke sandwich. Wish me luck!

Knish Nosh, 98-104 Queens Blvd., Rego Park,718-897-5554