Crazy Good Eats - A New Tradition?

Shameless product placement.

My brother, who has lobbied for a blog nickname or TLA (three letter acronym), has done a wonderful thing. So wonderful, in fact, that I might actually get the research monkeys to work on that TLA.

In the finest of holiday traditions, he has sent me five specialty salamis from Olympic Provisions. One for each of the first five days of Hanukah, ostensibly leaving the remaining three for latkes and sufganiyot.

Already I have been on the phone with the elder statesman, my father, arguing about which salami is most delicious. Somehow Loukanika isn't in the running. I respect his judgement on many things, but in this regard he is wrong, wrong, wrong. Perhaps this is another nascent Hanukah tradition, the vociferous ranking of the pork products.

Of course I think the salami is buttery smooth with intriguing spices, but the kids like it too. I gave them a few pieces for breakfast, a time when they are usually grouchy and picky about food, and the daughter gave a thumbs up. The son was distracted and needed to discard his pants and run out of the room for reasons not completely understood. But I don't think this concerns the Saucisson Sec.

The true test will come when I tell them the white on the outside of the meat is a natural edible mold called Penicillim. If they keep eating despite this then I know we have an undisputed winner.