Not a food thread, I promise.

Reading through the New York Review of Books on the bus, I came across the sentence "I hunger like a Virginian for the next installment."

Has anyone ever heard this phrase before? The quote is from an excerpt of a review, so there may be some context, but it was a review of a fairly esoteric-sounding sci-fi novella, so I doubt the reviewer was referring to something in the book.

Are Virginians known for being especially hungry (do we have any on the board?) or is there some historical context to this I'm not getting?

Now I'm hungry - time for elevenses, even if it's only 9:30 here in California.