从这个作者的描述,我很想尝一尝那种火腿。你们谁吃过那种forbidden ham吗?真
那么好吃吗?谢谢!
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The following is from mises.com:
The Hams of Spain (a footnote to the live blog from Salamanca)
October 24, 2009 10:12 AM by Jeffrey Tucker (Archive)
In the 16th century, if you could transport it, whatever it was, from of one country and into another, there was no doubt that it could be consumed. There was free movement of goods and people, the age before planning and passports. Today, we brag about our free trade, our internationalism, our global outlook, but it is ridiculous. The world is more segmented by national autarkies now than it was 500 years ago.
My particular outrage today concerns the following height of absurdity.
It turns out the Spain has this highly special ham. Actually, there ought to be some other word than "ham" because it is like no ham I've ever had. It is made from something called a black-hoofed pig that is fed acorns exclusively and then the meat is prepared and cured for fully 3 years, and it sells for something like $400 for a leg of the stuff.
In Spain there are special holders for this leg that allow you to cut of super thin slices as you need them. The flavor and texture is indescribable. It is sweet and succulent and there aren't enough adjectives in the language to explain it.
Of course I was ready to sell my cow-hide shoes to raise the money to buy one of these hams. But then I had some vague memory that customs has a problem with bringing food in. Well, that's unfortunate of course but I figured that at least I won't have to throw out my clothes and stick a ham in my bag. I'll just order one when I get back to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So I thought first I would google around for a good Spanish ham company. Oh there's one. But wait! There is no option for shipping to the U.S. I went to another company. Same problem. Again and again. What the heck is going on here.
Well, it turns out that you cannot import this ham to the U.S.. Maybe there is a dodgy smuggling company somewhere that makes it possible. Maybe the Medellin Cartel is taking up the cause. But I seem to lack contacts with this outfit. So I'm completely stuck as is every other American. (Here is one place that offers a substitute but you have to engage in some kind of deposit and it seems rather complicated, and one doesn't even end up with the right thing.)
Apparently it has something to do with the U.S. Agriculture bureaucracy. They don't think that this ham is prepared the right away and it might introduce something unhealthy into our system. And don't you just know that those bureaucrats in Washington are sitting around worrying about health and this is why they have to keep us from doing things like importing dangerous hams?
The U.S. government even publishes a guide to ham safety which I'm sure you check often.
This is preposterous. I'm willing to bet that there is some U.S. ham lobby or something behind this rule.
Can you believe this primitivism? In order to have this great food, one has to board an airplane and fly to Spain and book a hotel and go out to eat. Or you could buy a ham in Spain and camp there for a month, eating it bit by bit. In this age and in our times!
Actually, if you think about it, there is an inconsistency here. If the USDA is really so concerned about protecting me from Spanish hams, why does the government allow me to fly here and eat it? Should the U.S. just ban all travel to Spain for fear that some citizen somewhere might endanger his precious health by eating a ham? Why should it be legal for an American to eat ham in Spain but not the U.S.? And maybe too the U.S. should ban anyone from Spain from coming to the U.S. because perhaps the immigrant is a carrier of the ham disease and could infect the whole population.
There was a time when Kings and Princes and Queens would order explorers around the world to bring back spices, vegetables, and meats from all places. Now our rulers order us not to bring spices, vegetables, and meats from all places but rather to munch only on what can be produced on American soil. This is not progress. This is horrible, and it is a general trend. Look at the tariffs on Argentinian beef, French cheese, and Swiss chocolate?
We live in age of autarky of sorts, and we not even aware of it. Like the Soviet Union of old, the American government is trying to keep us all ignorant of the delights available around the world in order to make us more captive and obedient citizens.
Remember how the Russians began to rebel once technology revealed to them the prosperity available outside its borders and around the world? I swear to you that if every American could get one taste of the forbidden ham, they too might rebel and for the same reasons the Russians did. Or everyone might just be forced to flee to Spain the way people from East Germany would leave for the West.
- Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/24/2009
就是我说的那个Jamon嘛。真是好吃,有机会一定请大师美餐一顿。 - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/24/2009
真能在美国买到吗?真好吃的东西,是值的。好吃但买不问钱,莫待没有空叹息。
谢谢。;-) - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/24/2009
火腿在这儿,我请大师吃一餐virtually forbidden...
http://www.jamon.com/shopiberico.html?gclid=CPH136mtsJ0CFVRM5QodZWybjQ - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
谢谢maya。你真见多识广。我先订购几片让全家尝尝。若爱吃,有机会去西班牙时,
再多吃一点。(主席已经宣布猪流感进入紧急状态了。) - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
建议先知Iberico和Serrano都试试,前者最好的要Bellota,后者比较普通。我这人不大有口福,Iberico吃一两片觉着特好吃,再多就有点腻了因为比较油,Serrano要瘦一些,差别打比方的话象sushi里的toro和一般的tuna。不过这网站卖的够贵的,大约西班牙的四倍。
我现在好奇一件事,为什么火腿在西班牙那么popular,会不会和当初reconquesta的converso有关。 - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
既然有卖,就是有进口,mises.org的人在抱怨什么呢?
maya wrote:
就是我说的那个Jamon嘛。真是好吃,有机会一定请大师美餐一顿。 - posted on 10/25/2009
The person who wrote that piece, Jeffrey Tucker, is a libertarian. He not only married a man but also would like to personally bring some meat product he bought from Spain into his home to share with his husband/wife who cannot go to Salamanca to attend that meeting with him. Mr. Tucker was pained by that fact; therefore, he wrote that complaint. He was totally spoiled by the liberty that the current system allowed him. To teach persons like him a lesson, Chairman should be more resolute and assertive in his declaration of trade wars (e.g., tariffs that made the forbidden ham so expensive in the USSA, etc.), etc. Long live the Chairman. Libertarians are bad. Down with them!
"We" can live without those forbidden hams, but "we" cannot live without the protection from "our" father - the beloved Chairman. Long live the Chairman! - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
谢谢你。看来退休后要多去一些地方,在吃上就有那么多种。现在就多吃点美国的火
腿吧,为国家多做点贡献。;-)
浮生 wrote:
- Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
我听说个人带火腿进关是不行的,不止是西班牙火腿,金华火腿也是不行。火腿月饼进关就被没收了。这规定有没有道理我不知道。 - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/25/2009
据说连四川灯影牛肉罐头都不让进关。其中必定是有道理的,只是我们不知道而已,
反正是和国家安全有关的。有那么多的人在日夜为我们工作、保护我们国家的安全,
我们应该感谢他们。想吃什么,就到当地去吃算了。 - Re: The Forbidden Hamposted on 10/26/2009
Fiorucci, an Italian brand, sells Jamon Serrano. I found it in a local food store --- only $3.29 for a 4oz package. Not sure if it is authentic.
- posted on 10/26/2009
这两个名字的区别主要在猪,通常Iberico是那种黑蹄猪,根据橡子在猪饮食比例的不同,Iberico的价钱也不同,而且前腿和后腿的价格相差也很大,我个人觉得主要是因为前腿骨头大,肉少,后腿嘛,自然可食的比例高些。在西班牙的很多店里,也有专门卖肉的,参考价格为100欧元以上每公斤。Serrano就是普通的白猪,好像喂食也没有很讲究。通常普通西班牙人往往在盛大节日之前买个大腿回家,算是tapas吧。Serrano的价钱相比之下就低得多,但两者的风干过程是差不多的。在欧洲,西班牙火腿的价格被严重低估,因为意大利的Pama火腿把自己卖的太好,西人不如意人会做市场。但我个人偏爱西人的火腿。平日里以Serrano做早餐,要犒劳自己的时候就买点Jamon Iberico。祝大家胃口好!
浮生 wrote:
建议先知Iberico和Serrano都试试,前者最好的要Bellota,后者比较普通。我这人不大有口福,Iberico吃一两片觉着特好吃,再多就有点腻了因为比较油,Serrano要瘦一些,差别打比方的话象sushi里的toro和一般的tuna。不过这网站卖的够贵的,大约西班牙的四倍。
我现在好奇一件事,为什么火腿在西班牙那么popular,会不会和当初reconquesta的converso有关。 - posted on 10/26/2009
我猜写ham的那个人因吃西班牙火腿而爱上了西班牙的东西,这篇写的是他爱西班牙
的cape.
我在里斯本时在几处街道上见到成群结队的大学生们的一种(可能是) club initiation 仪式,
男女成员们身穿黑色的西服(女子穿套裙),每人手臂上搭着或身上披着印有类似coat
of arms 的彩色图案的黑色cape, 看质地象羊毛的。一些女子那样打扮,真是很好
看。而那些获选人就惨了,穿的衣服是牛仔裤体恤之类的,都不成样子了,上面沾
着鸡蛋、发出酸臭气味的东西、颜色等。还要承受那些成员的吼叫、被命令俯在地
上做动作。我想:这是图个啥呢?又想:穿上那套西服和美丽的羊毛cape的感觉肯
定很好,也许对他们来说是值得的经受那个club initiation 仪式的。
The following is from mises.org:
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The Cape in Spain (Final Footnote to the Live blog from Salamanca)
October 26, 2009 12:50 PM by Jeffrey Tucker (Archive)
There is a scene in Lawrence of Arabia in which Lawrence is presented with the white grab of an Arab sheik following his amazing rescue of a man during a long trek through the desert. He puts it on and finds a private spot and practices walking, running, bowing, and playing the part. It is the viewer's first signal of consummated love between this Englishman and his adopted new culture.
So it was for me, the last night in Spain. A gentlemen attending the final event, Carlos Siemens, wore his formal Spanish cape for the evening. Striking doesn't quite describe it. It was beautiful without being pretentious, elegant to the point of making anyone gasp but not "put on" in the slightest. It was even inevitable, as much a part of the living landscape in this country as ham and maracas.
Carlos explained its history deep in Spanish roots, how it used to have a hood until the king wore one without, how the wool navy of the one he wore is a bit less formal than the traditional black but still worn only for gala occasions. The red inner lining made of cotton velvet shows when worn open because there are no buttons to keep it closed. Even the top collar, which is sized by neck is never fastened but retains buttons that reflect the local tradition, usually in silver.
There are special ways of handling the cape. When you throw it over your shoulder, you grab it from the inside and turn it just a bit so that when it rests on the other shoulder, a flash of red can be scene. When you escort someone, you throw the whole of one said into the bend of your arm, so that your arm can be taken. When you sit, you gather up the entire cloth to the lower back and drop it again once you are seated.
The garb is not only beautiful. It is also functional because it is light enough to be worn on a gently cool evening but when one throws a side over the shoulder, it completely blocks the wind so that it protects against the most bitter cold. Carlos taught me all these things.
The site of the world's most famous maker of Spanish capes in Madrid offers a list of famous personalities who have worn them, including Picasso, Buñuel, Rudolph Valentino, Plácido Domingo, Alfred Kraus, Andrés Segovia, Ernest Hemingway, Gary Cooper, Marcelo Mastronianni, Catherine Deneuve and Federico Fellini.
I stood and marveled that I was seeing one in real life. And then Carlos very generously took off his cape and put it around me, and with it the long history and deep culture of Spain, and I imagined that it all fit perfectly, garb not only to be worn on the outside but one that penetrates to the heart and soul. And then that feeling that Lawrence had overcame me, and I momentarily imagined that I had been adopted a son by Spain herself.
The question remains for Americans, just how viable is this within our borders? As with most men's clothing, they key is casual confidence, not feeling as if "I'm wearing a crazy cap!" but rather "this is what I wear to stay warm." It strikes me that it can be done, without much trouble at all, especially in black tie and dinner wear.
From what I can tell from the Sensena site, it runs a bit more than $1000, which strikes me as low given the quality of wool and exotic beauty of this item. This is what you pay for a suit at Brookes Brothers to make yourself look like a politician. At least when you wear this cape, no one will suspect that you are that!
And, yes, they are available for women too.
I asked Hans Hoppe what he thought. He laughed and held tightly to his Loden coat. And yet the Austrian School is a large one, an international one, a way of thinking that stretches far back in time and far into the future. There is surely room for diversity here.
Perhaps the seasoned anti-statist can wear as a symbol. Think of the state as the bull and the cape wearer as the matador.
- posted on 10/26/2009
谢谢吃客。你要是早给说说,我也不至于站在那么多种火腿面前不知所措,每回都是看别人买了什么就追着人家问,多数时候又问不明白。
我前两天去查火腿的来历,以前看过的一本《A History of Food》by Toussaint-Samat,关于猪肉的一段写得很逗,不过据说书中事实不一定准。找不到能ZT的,抄几小段:
'the best game in the Western world. Gaulish hunting, a kind of rustic war, skifully waged and with a quasi-religious element in it ... was the naturl complement of agriculture, a means of exploiting land and beasts that had remained wild.' For the forest also provided wood, the bark of trees, ashes, fruit and honey; it was silva melliflua, a forest flowing with honey, where pigs not much tamer than the related wild boars -- and none of them the products of stock-breeding -- fed on acrons, wandering almost at liberty under the nominal supervision of swineherds who were hardly more civilized than their charges; swineherds were serfs on the very lowest rank of the social ladder.
... ...
Today a certain amount of pig meat eaten in Europe, particularly ham, actually comes from China, to the annoyance of European pig farmers. However, as a result of some rather complicated trade agreements, certain countries such as Romania pay for Western goods with their own pigs, keeping the Chinese animals for home consumption: they are cheaper, and have certain diplomatic after-taste which does not go down too well in the West.
... ...
The pig was also popular with the Romans. According to Galen, its flesh tasted like human flesh, and it was to be discovered later that the cannibals of the South Sea Islands thought explorers were even better than pork. Such comments on "long pig" all seem to agree, though I do not know that anyone has gone to the trouble of checking them.
But the real delicacy of patrician Roman banquets was a dish made from sows' vulvas and teats. No account of such festivities omits to mention them. Pliny goes so far as to claim that the vulva of a sow who had aborted her first litter was the best of all, while other writers of the time preferred the virgin sow. Comparisons were also drawn between the teats of a sterile sow and of one who had just given birth and was about to suckle her young. Apparently the deranged Emperor Heliogabalus was capable of eating this dish ten days running. Asterix the Gual was not too far out in claiming that 'These Romans are crazy!'
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