Family history isn’t all dusty books and blurry microfilms.
Lately, I have re-discovered salsiccia.
Salsiccia is an Italian sausage. My memory of it is that my Grandpa Renaud would always cook it as part of his big Christmas breakfast spread each year. I remember as a kid not being thrilled with the taste of it.
Well, it was on sale at Schnucks a few weeks back. Because of the family connection, I thought I’d give it another try after many years. And it turns out we all liked it quite a bit. It wasn’t spicy enough to make the girls complain (which they sometimes do depending on the variety of sausage).
So we bought another batch this week. We ate some today as part of a simple meal: salsiccia, broccoli, and corn on the cob.
Tonight I was reminded by a Wikipedia article on St. Louis-style barbecue that salsiccia is pronounced locally as “suh-zee-tsa.” I had been saying “sahl-see-cha,” which is similar to the Spanish word for sausage (salchicha).
As soon as I read that, it was like lightning resonating in my brain. I could hear the voice of my Grandpa Renaud and my Aunt Carol using that pronunciation in my mind.
Anyway, please share your food-related family stories. I’m sure there are quite a few!
So many favorites-so little space! My mom’s M&M cookies at Christmas, Aunt Stella’s biscuits with chocolate gravy, fried okra, jam tarts and Cornish Pastie in England, fried shrimp of any kind, and the best!-chicken fried steak at the now closed Country Corner in Schertz, TX.