My friend Darlene recently posted about a jewish deli in Birmingham, Alabama that she tried and loved. When she talked about the different food that she and her family ordered, it made me start to think about all my favorite foods that I no longer get to enjoy because they just can not be found where I now live. I am a much more picky eater than she is, I don't like as varied a food choice as she does but I sure do miss some simple food pleasures. Things like a loaf of Italian bread. Oh, sure they sell Italian bread (or what they label as Italian bread) in the supermarkets, but it is not the same bread that I ate when I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. The kind of bread that you buy in an Italian bakery, the kind with a hard thick crust. And speaking of Italian bakeries....cannoli's, black and white cookies, and my favorite...rainbow cookies, oh how I miss them all. There is an italian bakery in town and their stuff is good, but not really close enough to what I remember, something is missing. I have tried my hand at making these delicacies and found that my black and white cookies came out better than the local italian bakery, and my rainbow cookies aren't too bad either....but the bread just cannot be duplicated.
My rainbow cookies before I cut them.
And another thing that I miss is Spumoni. Real spumoni the kind that you get at Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn. We used to go there often when I was a kid. They served pizza and heros and italian food but on a hot summer night, nothing was better than spumoni from Spumoni Gardens.
Oh the memories!! Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
I only dream about these delicious treats while living in Florida
but I guess it is just as well
'cause I would never lose weight if
I still lived in Brooklyn.
I am with you 100 percent on all those things Nancy! I especially don't understand why the black and white cookies outside of NYC are so soft and cake like when they are just supposed to be vanilla cookies with chocolate icing on one side and vanilla on the other!
ReplyDeleteYour cookies look wonderful. Care to share the recipe?
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me smile!
ReplyDeleteWe live in Central NY & this area is pretty heavily Italian populated. Anyway, my brother-in-law & several of my husband's friends live in FL now & they miss the food here very much.
Whenever we visit, they always want to know if we stuffed our suitcases with bread, pastries & pizza for them.
Also, I have never been to Spumoni Gardens but I believe I just saw something about it on TV a few nights ago. (Maybe on Man-vs-Food?) It looked like my kind of place! Yum!