THE GURGLING COD: Duck Ham

The envelope with the Easter dinner winner is in a suitcase handcuffed to the wrist of a trusted representative of Ernst and Young, but first, what made Friday not just good, but awesome. A pre-Easter warmup at Five and Ten with the whole school was a delight. The menu is seasonally driven, but as a means to and end, rather than as an end in itself. The last meal cinetrix and I enjoyed there was early Feb, and it was good, but sound, rather than inspiring.This was inspiring, in both the sense of the word as a platitude, and inspiring, in that I am gonna roll around like The Child Buyer, except for ducks, take them home, and smoke their breasts.

The Codmother, making her Athens debut, started with the simple spring plate of Benton's prosciutto.* She was a bit concerned when I told her between ordering and appearance of food, that it was from Tennessee, not Parma, but the cress, parm, and fava, and the subtle flavor of the ~~ham~~ prosciutto made a believer out of her. The cinetrix and I both started with crisped shad roe. As it turns out, we could have shared it, as the roe reached nearly schnitzellian proportions. Out of professional interest, other family members investigated the pickle plate, with fennel emerging as best in show, and La Femme Covert toyed with a pea soup, if memory serves. I had a squab main, the cinetrix had a catfist, okra, grits concoction, and I sort of lost track. I blame the shad schnitzel. As viewers of Blazing Saddles will recall, schnitzel does have the power to cloud men's minds. As a party of five, rather than two, we got to try more stuff, but more than I can adequately recall. My brother ordered a Frogmore stew, which I'd been interested in but steered away from on several visits. It is good, but as our excellent waiter Bob said, more like what you can get elsewhere than the rest of the menu. The duck ham, though, was a revelation. We were fortunate to be allowed to take some home, and it was as good sliced thin on a plate solo as it was with frisee and a poached egg. Because there is still half a breast in the fridge, and my POSSLQ reads this, I am reluctant to share my duck ham brunch plans, but dang, is it good. It did not move me to want to slap my conveniently adjacent mother, but just to eat more duck ham. Lots and lots more duck ham.**

I would encourage all Cowboys, Catamounts, Rebels, War Eagles and Wildcats planning visits to Athens to stop in here.*** If your plans do not include an upcoming visit to Athens, but do include attending the Beard awards, Five and Ten proprietor Hugh Acheson will be there. I suggest having a friend distract him while you conduct a discreet frisk to locate any portions of duck ham he may have secured about his person.

*This is not menu sortilege-- Benton's has a product they sell as prosciutto, as distinct from their hams.

**YMMV. I work with the father-in-law of the chef, and know the chef a little bit, so you might not get a duck ham goody bag. But it would not be worth writing about if it weren't worth paying for.

***If your mascot does not appear here, it is not an accident. You'd probably be happier brownbagging some of the fried gizzards they sell at gas stations around Columbia.