A Hanukkah menu with a few twists at Wall Street Grill

NEW YORK - Nothing says "Hanukkah" like a crispy potato latke fresh out of the frying pan.

"We go through maybe 50, 60 orders a night," said Joseph Paulino, the executive chef of Wall Street Grill, an upscale Kosher restaurant in Lower Manhattan.

The restaurant offers several special dishes during Hanukkah, and while they remain true to their class roots, Paulino tries to give each item a unique twist.

While his latkes are made with the standard potato, onion, egg and flour mix, he spices the dish up with a sauce, subbing out plain apple sauce for a sweet-and-sour garnish.

"We're doing a pickled peppadew in apple," he explained. "So it's kind of a sweet-sour mode."

The sauce is made by adding chopped apples and sugar to the pickled peppadews to create a jelly-like sauce.

Also on the special Hanukkah menu, another holiday hallmark: sufganiyot, or doughnuts. With these, Paulino skips the traditional jelly filling for something a little more decadent.

"We actually make a vanilla-based custard and infuse it with all different types of aromatics such as cardamom, cinnamon, star anise," he said.

Olive oil cake may not be a Hanukkah classic, but it does carry symbolism.

"Hanukkah is known for how long the oil lasted so we figured when we first opened let's try to take something significant in the kosher world—oil," Paulino said, referring to the story of Hanukkah in which a small portion of oil expected to last only a day ended up burning for eight nights.

Wall Street Grill will serve the latkes and doughnuts on the Hanukkah menu through Sunday night. The olive oil cake is a regular menu item.

Wall Street Grill | 128 Pearl St., New York, N.Y. 10005 | 212-635-5757 | wallstreetgrill.com