I have written to this list about Smithfield process ham before, when Johnny
Apple of the NY Times wrote a wonderful column celebrating it rare
distinctiveness.  It was one of Apple's last columns before he died and that
is exactly how I would like to go, with a thin piece of Smithfield ham on my
tongue.

Interestingly, I have found seafood and chicken and sausage gumbo with okra
in Manhattan and all manner of southern delights for sale here but never
Smithfield process ham.  Maybe I haven't looked in the right place yet.  I
should check out Zabar's.

Worse, my wife and I were staying at a hotel in Colonial Heights in the
Southside for a conference at VSU.  I asked several members of the hotel
staff, black and white, where I could get some Smithfield ham and none knew,
with most indicating they did not know about the ham at all.  I finally used
my ears.  I walked around the hotel listening for the deepest southern
accent in the place.  I finally found it in a mechanic who did repairs on
the hotel.  I asked him and he pointed just across the street to a
restaurant that specialized in serving Smithfield ham!!

I still dream about a breakfast of Smithfield ham, grits, eggs, biscuits,
and fried apples at the 3rd Street Cafe in Richmond.  Virginia food was
almost as much of a revelation to me as is Virginia's complex and rich
history.

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Excalibur131" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: Speech patterns


> Heck, come to think of it, I don't remember much about Coke until I was
> probably 10 or 12 and I don't think I tasted coffee until I was a
> teenager.
> I do remember lots of Kool-Aid Popsicles in the summer though. As for real
> Smithfield ham (yes, there are many pretenders out there) I'm not sure I'd
> call them "rubbery," but I'd sure call them reallllllly goooooooood. Real
> Smithfield ham is still around, thank goodness, and my family has it every
> Christmas Eve. We used to have it with silver dollar biscuits, but good
> silver dollar biscuits have simply gotten too hard to find and, if you
> find
> decent ones, they cost a small fortune.
>
> As a child I remember Granny cooking Smithfield ham. She'd start by
> putting
> the ham in a sink of water, and then scrubbing it down with soap and a
> scrub
> brush. And for those that don't know, yes, Smithfield ham is best eaten
> paper thin -- the thinner the better. If you can almost see your hand
> through the slice of ham you've gotten a true treasure!
>
> Tom
> Eastern Shore & More Forum
> http://www.easternshoremore.com/forum/
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 9:59 AM
> Subject: Re: Speech patterns
>
>
>> When I was a kid- pre air conditioning- we had summer curtains and
>> winter curtains, a summer and a winter rug, all designed to keep the
>> house cooler or warmer, as the case may be. Popular culture today is
>> a bit hard for me to understand, because when I was a kid the word
>> "heck" was considered too strong or dirty for children to say. I once
>> got bit on a finger by our parakeet and blurted out that it hurt like
>> heck. My mother was shocked. And we 3 kids were only rarely allowed
>> to drink Cokes [and never coffee], Mama said we already had too much
>> energy, we didn't need the caffeine. To drink some Coke- usually on
>> summer vacation to the beach- was a rare treat. I guess the caffeine
>> in sweet iced tea in the summer didn't factor into that equation. But
>> the big treat was at Christmas, paper thin slices of real Smithfield
>> ham. People who only eat those rubbery, wet hams don't know what they
>> are missing.
>>
>> Nancy
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html