Salmon, film, lingerie, and Les Misérables

I was editing my previous post (even editors make mistakes), when I got to thinking about the word salmon. Growing up, we (I think it was we; maybe it was only me) pronounced the letter l in salmon. We said sal-mon, not sa-mon. I still have a hard time not saying sal-mon. I guess I notice it more now since I see it a lot on menus or at the grocery store. And every now and then I order or buy some. Don't think I ever saw salmon in the grocery store in Lamesa, Texas, back in the day. There weren't many opportunities, much less  any reason, to go around saying, sal-mon.

In about the fifth grade, I remember being laughed at and teased (still to this day) by my brothers and sisters for pronouncing the word film as thilm. I don't know where I got the idea that it was pronounced that way. I remember being adamant about my pronunciation; I was a smart student. What did they know? :-)

I also remember thinking when I saw the word lingerie in the department store that it was pronounced just the way it looks: lynge-er-ee. I don't remember when I learned that it was a French word and was pronounced, lahn-zuh-ray.

In about the fourth grade, I read Les Misérables (an abridged children's version). It's a wonderful novel by Victor Hugo; I should read the unabridged version. We saw the Broadway show when we lived in Memphis. But, the whole time I was reading it, in my head, I pronounced the protagonist's name, Jean Valjean,  the way you would pronounce my middle name, Jean. Not Jahn Vahljahn. I went through that entire book reading to my self, Jeen Valjeen, thinking — here's a man with my name!

Fresh Fish

Fish was novelty at our house. I never ate fresh shrimp until I was in a high school Home Economics class when we made a dish with boiled shrimp. (Come to think of it. This was West Texas. It probably wasn't fresh, but frozen.) Growing up, the only fish that we ate with any regularity was canned tuna and canned salmon. On occasion, if we were lucky, we might get invited to a fish fry where we had fried catfish, Daddy didn't fish (or do much of anything else in the way of a hobby), so catfish consumption was dependent on the good will of friends or neighbors.

In my own family, we often make tuna salad just like Momma did, except we don't add onions. But, we never have salmon patties. I made them once, and Bruce and Emilia turned up their noses. Salmon patties with gravy. Yum, now that's a dish. Bruce and Emilia don't know what they are missing. Of course, they think it's sacrilege to put catsup atop the gravy on chicken fried steak. Speaking of chicken fried steak, it often was ground hamburger meat formed into patties. Still good. Especially with that catsup atop the gravy.

Maybe I should rename this the Ford Family Food Blog, huh? :-)

Naw, I've got more things to talk about than food.