talkin’ my favorite things on Speculative Chic

The Speculative Chic blog has a regular feature called “My Favorite Things” where authors wax rhapsodic about things they love. This week, I’m the author in question, as I geeble about some of the things I love about my home town of New York City. Click on this paragraph to see me rave about the Big Apple.

An excerpt:

Little Italy: Not the one in Manhattan, which is mostly a tourist trap and a place for people looking to figure out where the flashback scenes in The Godfather Part II took place. No, I mean the one up in the Bronx, where E. 187th Street and Arthur Avenue meet. Lots of Italian expats still live there, and they have some of the best restaurants in the city — Mario’s, Tra Di Noi, Zero Otto Nove, Dominick’s — and also the best food shopping, whether it’s meat at Biancardi’s or Vincent’s, fish from Cosenza’s or Randazzo’s, bread from Addeo’s or Madonia’s, pastries from DeLillo’s or Marrone’s, cheese and cold cuts from Tino’s or Calabria’s, or general shopping at the big Retail Market or at Teitel’s.

Plus, two of the best pizza places in town can be found in Little Italy, one right at 187th and Arthur: the Full Moon. The other is closer to nearby Fordham University, on E. 191st Street between Hoffman & Hughes: Pugsley’s. Run by Sal Pugliese since the 1980s, Pugsley’s is a colorful, beautiful, joy-filled place filled with pictures and tchotchkes — plus the pizza is just phenomenal. If you’re lucky, he’ll play his saxophone for you. (If you’re not lucky, he’ll bang the big gong when you’re not expecting it.)