"ndspinelli said...
Trooper, We have discussed our love of "Eyetalian" food[that's how they say it in Wisconsin]. Hopefully, you enjoy some of the other great food cultures."
I am glad you asked that question nd. I not only love Eyetalian food I even love Sicilian food. Which the wife and I had the other day in just about the best restaurant in Brooklyn...Fernando's Focceria!
When I was a kid in the sixties is was always a treat to go to the panale store which is Fernandos. We would leave the school at lunch time and walk along Hicks St till we got to the store where we would order potato and panele specials or rice ball specials with frosty cold Manhattan Special espresso sodas. Nothing can beat it.
We went for a doctors appointment on Monday so as a treat we decided to have lunch at Fernandos. We got potato/panale specials. A panale is a deep fried pancake made from chick pea flower topped with three deep fried potato croquet's served on a hard toasted crusty roll and covered with ricotta and shaved Parmesan cheese. It is just about the best thing you ever tasted. We also shared the Rice Ball special that you see on the plate. Your basic rice, meat and peas rolled in a ball and deep fried and smothered in sauce and ricotta. Yummy!
We had Manhattan Special espresso soda on tap and sat next to my favorite picture of Mussolini. It was a trip back in time for me.
18 comments:
Spinelli's about a italian as like Pat Boone, TY.
Il Duce, eh? Yeah that's you. His death and that of his bambina Clara--such ends sweet lovers have ,eh.
Hey if he were mayor the F train would be on time. Just sayn'
more Hoss content please.
Did you know "Moose" Skowron got his nickname not because of his size but because in his youth he had a haircut that made him look like Il Duce.
So..I guess your answer is you are very provincial in your eating. What about sex? Missionary position on Saturday night?
Yeah we love the missionary position.
We climb into this big kettle and pour in a lot of water and some carrots and cabbages and go crazy.
What?
That's what happens to all those missoinaries in the bugs bunny cartoons.
See, no real paysano would write ugly stupid stuff like that. Pat Boone. Which is to say..Hossaroni AKA Barfaroni. But BarfBoy's probably set his google to italiano...
Yr no Il Duce TY. ..blackshirts were anti-capitalists (though of a violent,elite sort) ,and welll..paging Cedarford--not pals of the Chosen. cue... Ezra Pound ...con usura..
I always had the panale but never put the potatoes on... I guess that the Irish comming out... Just sayin
provincial?--an American and supposed irishman proclaims his love for exotic sicilian food? Not provincial---provincial would be like McDonalds or street pizza. Barfaroni aka "spinelli" not's so good at reason or precise use of words.
No Walt that is strictly Sicilian.
These are old Sicilian dishes that these people have been serving since the early 1900's.
This was the place that the longshoreman and gangsters used to go to get their lunch.
Many the times that Joe Gallo and his gang used to chase us away when they came in to have a sit down and eat lunch back in in the day.
Real NY/Boston/Chi-town irishmen didn't usually break it with the sons of Italia--except maybe at Mass. Even then,depended on the Padre. Usually matters were settled ...like via thompsons (as in...ratatatatat). Old school irish G's -- like Dion Bannion and Bugs Moran-- hated Al Caponay and his guinea bastards as much as they did WASP-cops and jews (in fact the sicilian gangs often ran with jews) .
I always got the feeling about Mussolini that he would have been happy strutting around and making threatening gestures that he didn't have to follow through on as Italy's lovable dictator till he died but then along came Hitler, and he was forced to follow through on his threats by the guy who really meant business.
There's a lesson about bluster in there somewhere, huh, ricpic?
(One that will go entirely unheeded in the Internet Age.)
Bugs Moran was Polish. You can look it up.
His real name was Adelard Cunin.
It might be different in the movies but in real life the most popular combination was an Irish dad and a Italian Mom. Or visa versa.
Al Capone himself married a bonny Irish lass at my own church St. Mary's Star of the Sea on Court St.
Nobody epects to see Bluster Brown in the mirror blake even if everyone else does.
It goes with the territory.
Moran, "of Irish and Polish descent"--from the wiki itself. "Adelhard Cunin""---sounds irish. Not Cuninoffski, eh. He was associated with chi. irish gangsters either way.
Al was neapolitan ,right--he might have had some mick in him too. In the pics after his Alcatraz bounce, he looks ...sort of white--not to say say scared shitless (and had a nasty case of syphilis too).He was an insane thug and pimp. Unlike say a real sicilian such as Lucky L. No mick or white there. And ...coool. Lucky was a murderer many times over but no street thug.
Actually Lucky was pretty much a street thug who only got polished when he hung out with Arnold Rothstein who taught him how to dress and act like a gentlemen.
Lucky, Meyer and Benny Siegal were all thugs together on the lower side looking at guys like Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly for inspiration.
5 points gang--and they hung with jewish mobsters (even in Caponay's time---AC did business with Siegel, Meyer Lansky etc didnt he?). But Luciano was a sicilian either way.
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