Wednesday

[susandennis]

This morning's swim was an hour of frustration. Having to breathe is fucking up my stroke. GRRRRR. And then there was a woman sharing my lane who was slower than I am (which is pretty fucking slow) but doing flip turns which kind of cracked me up. Meanwhile I was trying to concentrate on using my other side and/or both sides to breathe while staying out of her way. About halfway in, my arm tangled with the hard plastic lane line. Now I have a blood bruise bigger than an Apple watch and, it broke the skin. ARUGH.

It's not supposed to get horribly hot today so I am venturing out. There's a new little biscuit cafe in Pike Place Market that opened yesterday. They have country ham biscuits on their menu. Country ham is a thing - it's a specially cured ham found in Virginia and a couple of places in North Carolina. Seattle is not big on ham and really does not 'get' it at all. But they really don't get country ham. There are places that have it on the menu and it turns out to be sugar cured ham, or not cured ham, or off the shelf whatever ham. Never country ham. The owners of this new pace are from North Carolina so they better know what they are talking about. I am going to find out today.

There is real country ham in Seattle. I know two different butchers who sell it but, they only sell the whole ham which is huge and pretty much require a mortgage. My brother always brings me slices whenever he visits. I can order it online and sometimes do. But, the idea of being able to just walk into a place and order a ham biscuit tickles me.

So that's that I'm doing today. At least that's the plan.

Comments

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tried using a snorkel? A lot of competitive swimmers use them in their workouts to train their streamlines.

[susandennis]

No! I've seen people use them at the pool once in a while and just figured they hadn't noodled out breathing yet! Wild.

I think I'm going to try it!! Thank you!!

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

Here's a really good video on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5oVNhcd0kk

[susandennis]

Thanks! I found one Finis video about it but not this one. I will study. It's the kind I just ordered. It will be here Friday.

Thanks so mulch for the tip.

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

That youtube channel - Go Swim - has a lot of great videos. Glenn Mills was one of the US teams' swimmers that was affected by the 1980 Olympic boycott. He's a breaststroker. Does a really good job with training videos.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm still not sure I get what your country ham is, but I don't think I ever will short of heading over there and ordering it :) I'm really quite baffled by the biscuit[*] though! I'm kind of picturing a cookie with pieces of ham in it, but thinking that's highly unlikely! We don't really have a concept of savoury biscuits.b

[*] Though not quite as baffled add you would have been had I not spotted that my phone had autocorrected my sentence to say that I was "baffled by the Buddhist".

[susandennis]

Ham is made 'country' by the way it is cured (mainly by coating in salt and hanging in the air under some smoke for a really really long time). Most people in the U.S. have no idea what country ham is nor do they care.

Biscuits, on the other hand... I see the problem. Our biscuits are nothing like your biscuits at all. The closest thing you have is probably savory scones. Only round. They are made with flour and baking soda and butter. We call your biscuits, cookies.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

American biscuits are probably a cross between scones and Yorkshire puddings, though I'm sure some purists on both sides of the Atlantic will be furious with me for saying so!

[susandennis]

Oh right. I forgot about Yorkshire puddings. It's hard to find the right comparison.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow... Savoury scone made sense as an explanation, but a scone crossed with a Yorkshire? Really struggling to envisage that (and also really really curious to try one)!

Obviously next time I'm in the U.S. I need to broaden my eating horizons!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Cookies are everywhere in the U.K. these days... They're distinct from our biscuits, but would clearly hang out together.

So this ham biscuit... Is the ham baked in, or do you split the biscuit to make a sandwich?

[susandennis]

The ham is actually pan fried, not baked and yes, the biscuit is spit with the ham in the middle.

Here's what they look like (these are smaller but regular sized ones are exactly the same but bigger!)

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

If you ever find yourself in the eastern U.S., and see a Cracker Barrel restaurant near the highway, that's a place that reliably has country ham available! They also serve breakfast all the time, though they won't volunteer that information. They have great southeastern U.S. food, even in other parts of the U.S. (I might need to go visit one soon, now!)

[susandennis]

Oh man! I have not been in a Cracker Barrel in years and years... GREAT suggestion. I love the west coast but we have some serious deficits out here.