Hamantashan!

Hamantashan are the pastry associated with Purim. They are 3 cornered pastries made from dough. The are either filled with apricot, prune, or poppy.
Mon is the Yiddish word for poppy. In Yiddish Tashen are pockets. Hence Mon tashen are dough pockets filled with poppy. The name was changed to Hamantashan because, as we mentioned in our last post, Haman was the evil guy who tried getting the king to kill all the Jews.
Why do Hamantashan have 3 corners? Some say this corresponds to the three cornered hat Haman wore. I don't know such a hat is mentioned in rabbinic sources or just a legend. I will look into that.
Every year, at MIT, there is a famous debate over what are better, Hamantashen, or Latkes, the oil fried potato pancakes served on Chanuka. Wikipedia has a great entry on this. My favorite argument is that of Allan Dershowitz. He argued in favor of Hamantashen blaming US dependence on foreign oil on Latkes. :0