Salo

Now that we live right across from a market, I find I'm doing most of my shopping there.  Most often I am with the kids, and the vendors love it when I am and ask about them when they aren't.  They often give something to them, and I feel bad sometimes because I don't often buy things, or sometimes what they give is worth more than what I buy.  Take the fruit vendor who always give the kids a banana.  Or a peach.  Or a pound of plums.  And I bought 2 pounds of potatoes.  That means she just about broke even.

And then there is the salo lady - she sells pork products.  But we mostly eat chicken, or beef, and pork maybe once in three months.  She always gives the kids a big slice of salo.  it isn't expensive - but all she gets back from this relationship is the kids' enjoyment.  And do they ever enjoy it.  I had T out of the stroller recently and we were in the market and as soon as he saw the meet counter he got very excited and was pulling my hand to get me there faster.    He loves his salo.  The ukrainians say it isn't fat.  They say it is something different.  They swear it is healthy - but whenever I've seen it, I've always thought LARD.

Today though, something in my mind triggered and I thought SALT PORK.  It was a light bulb.  isn't it interesting how words can have so much weight?  You say salt pork, and you think I could use that to flavor soups or frying pans and you say LARD, and you think oh my arteries.  Here, the main salo that you buy doesn't have lean in it - but in the grocery store you can buy something that looks similar, with more lean - still not bacon - but something between the two.

As an american from the North West - Salt pork doesn't mean too much for me really - it is an old fashioned word found in historical novels.  I imagine people in the northwest buy it and use it - but it has never been on my radar.  In the south, I understand, it is still used and eaten.  Anyway it was quite the brain wave for me, 6 years in coming, to reach a better translation than the standard one of bacon, which we all know it isn't.