Do you know what I love most about pizza? Well, besides the cheese, sauce, and dough? That perfect first bite.  You know what I am talking about. It makes a crunching sound when you bite into it as you also get a rush of a sweet zing of the marinara sauce and melty gooeyness of the cheese. Of course, despite that crunch, the slice is soft and pillow like in the center.  Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong!! That first bite tells you everything you need to know about how amazing or disappointing the pizza you are about to indulge in actually is.  That first perfect bite is something I dream about but in my search for the perfect pizzas don’t often come across. However, if you are smart enough you will visit Ignazio’s in Brooklyn and taste some of the best pizza that has ever crossed my lips.  I stumbled upon Ignazio’s by accident.  It was a swelteringly hot day in Brooklyn and I was driving around the downtown...

I actually sort of know the answer to this question.  I know that she did not die from typhoid as her name would suggest.  She actually died at the age of sixty-nine from a pneumonia on November 11, 1938. The story of Mary Mallon is a sad one.  She was born in Ireland in 1869 and emigrated to the United States in 1883. As was common in those days, Mary found work as a domestic. She became a cook and in 1906 was working in Oyster Bay in Long Island in the summer home of Charles Henry Warren - a wealthy financier. Within a week of her employment six of the eleven people in the household fell ill with typhoid.  Typhoid is a bacterial infection that leads to high fevers, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, abdominal pain, and fatigue. It is largely associated with poor and overcrowded areas where there is a limited availability of clean water. It can very quickly become fatal.  With the much of the Warren household sick, a man named George ...

The short answer is yes, sort of.  Earlier today I was relaying this story to my father after having returned from a lovely drive around said bridge this afternoon. Lucky for me, Brooklyn is a place with so many historic and beautiful places I never tire of taking pictures or telling their stories.  The story of the Brooklyn Bridge opening day is one such story. First things first; some fast facts.  If you are not from New York, the Brooklyn Bridge is a suspension bridge that looms over the East River and connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It is one of the most recognizable images in all of New York.  Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began on January 2nd, 1870 and fourteen years it opened to the public on May 24th, 1883 (fifteen years before Brooklyn was officially apart of NYC). It was done by one very pioneering family; the Roeblings. John Roebling was a German born American immigrant who was also a brilliant...

It was a slow and gradual process until it wasn't.  I was able to simultaneously live in a world of denial and avoidance knowing that it loomed there in the shadows waiting for me to face it head on.  Not until I was able to fully comes to term with needing eye surgery was I than ready to proceed with it. Actually what really forced my hand was that my life was forced to come to a crashing halt in more ways than I could truly handle.  My last blog post is dated February 5th of this year and that was the day before I had cataract surgery on my right eye. I remember very clearly how I struggled adjusting all the mechanics on my computer and even moving it back and forth from me to see if that helped. It did not. I practically gave myself a migraine trying to proofread it and to this day have not been able to bring myself to re-read it and check for errors. I will as soon as I am done here. What I have wanted to tell you for so long now, is that my blog ...

It is the most wonderful time of the year. Or rather it was not that long ago.  I love finding unique and traditional ways to celebrate the holidays. One of those special excursions happens right in my own borough; the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights. Dyker Heights in a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Brooklyn. Historically this was a predominantly Italian-American upper-middle class area. Nearby neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst are too. These areas are great places to eat and shop for all types of Italian goodies. One of my favorites is most definitely B & A Pork Store . Besides eating, it turns out this neighborhood also excels at celebrating Christmas!  For the kind of light displays worthy of their own TV show this is where you need to be! As a native Brooklynite, I have known about these light displays long before there was internet. But now they have such a following there are even tours set u...