Ham Day 2008

Hello gastro travel fans. I'm up in the NYC area for my family's holiday celebration, Ham Day. It's a little bit of Festivus, a lot of Hannukah, with a twist of Easter. Legend has it that when the our family, which had been under seige in the Temple by the Greek Army, went looking for rations they only found one pork-based product, and it wasn't bacon. It was only one honey-glazed spiral ham. But this ham lasted eight days, and fed the agnostics through the seige until New Years Day reinforcements arrived. The miracle of the ham was acknowledged by all. And every year we celebrate Ham Day. Like all Jewish holidays, it moves around the calendar. Sometimes it's late, sometimes early, but always welcomed.

Unfortunately a Nor'easter passed through the region late Saturday night into Sunday morning, and we had to cancel the festivities. Some would say that if you're gonna serve ham for Hannukah chances are someone (the old man in the sky for instance) is not going to like it. Those people are insane. Do you honestly think that a transcontinental weather system was created by an omnipotent, omniscient being who, when finished creating the universe, decided that a small extended family's celebration in the NYC suburbs was worth its time? But I digress.

So instead of Ham Day, my brother and sister-in-law and I went to DeCicco's Market in New City, NY to stock up on snowstorm supplies. I highly recommend a visit to this family-owned culinary paradise. Included in our loot was fresh smoked mozzarella, fontina, manchego, fresh mozzarella and asiago, pizza dough, fresh marinara, hot sopressata and pepperoni. We were gonna hunker down with homemade pizza. We thought Corsendonk and Chimay would be perfect to complement the pizza. There was a four cheese and a meat pizza. Yummy. My sister-in-law had made truffles filled with crumbled oreo cookies for Ham Day, which we devoured.

Anyway, we're watching the Travel Channel right now, which I'm addicted to. It's a "paradise" marathon. The first episode was on donuts, the next on ice cream, and currently it's about subs and delicatessen's. It's time to eat. Happy holiday's, I'm headed to San Francisco for New Year's to visit some of my closest friends. I'll let you know what we ate. Bon appetit.