I, on the other hand, am from...

...a little-known burg called Union, NJ. Not Union City. My little town, of formerly-pristine picket fences is a traditional, if not over-crowded, NJ suburb. Nestled snugly between such mammoths of Jersey industry and commerce as Elizabeth and Newark, it's not overly-industrialized, and has many schools, parks and playgrounds that are beautiful and fun to be in.

Two of my favorite town events just passed: the Greek Festival, held annually at my home parish of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church (where, growing up, I attended Greek School, Sunday School and served the altar). Yes, I was an altar boy. Delicious food and good times were a bit dampened by the weather, but a good time was still had by all.

The second, The Italian Feast, in Union Center, almost completely passed me by, except for a late-night photo session (that you can check out here, if we're cool like that). I don't mind missing the annual Where-Are-They-Now of locals and townies, but I did want a Sauseege sangwich, which my sister was so generous to bring me back later.

I long to one day be on the Union High School wall-of-fame, alongside gilded head-shots of such luminaries as successful doctors and lawyers and also, show-biz talents like Robert Wuhl and Goodfellas' Ray Liotta. Artie Lange, another illustrious UHS alum, is not honored, but still cherished. That'd be some night out drinking, eh? The Wall of Fame would certainly be plastered that night!

Union is also home to the world's tallest Water Sphere.

We all know Greeks are proud. So are Union folk, so I'll cut it short here, before I ramble on too much with hometown pride.

What I look like on the weekends lately...

I am from...

Queens, NY baby. Since Cassie started this whole 'where are you from' blog? I decided I would jump on the band wagon and share my side. I was born and raised in Middle Village, Queens, NY and have been living in Flushing since '04, just 10 min away from my moms and pops.

Til this day, the only pizza that holds the highest standards for me is ROSA'S PIZZARIA. I still remember their phone number - 718-894-4707. I can guarantee if you call that number, an italian-accented man will answer yelling out "ROSA'S!" Every wednesday, I would get out early bc my school had a CCD program for public school kids. Not sure if you know what that is, but bc I went to Catholic school, all the public schools in our area would come in on Wednesday afternoon for religious programs. Oh how I loved Wednesdays! We would go to Rosa's every Wednesday and I kid you not I would get tomato sauce on my white button down catholic school uniform shirt. Bleach even wouldn't help that!

My mom is from North Dakota and my father is from Argentina. Imagine that combo. My parents are great peeps and they help their "baby girl" out all the time. Here's a pic of my pops, Julio Tula. Every September, you can find him roaming the US OPEN. Such a fun man!

My poor car...

HAS LOTS OF DIMPLES!!!! From last night's journey home. WAHHHH WAHHHHHH

Don Giovanni's

Donny G's - Mediterranean Salad w/ Chicken

A side-note to start: I spelled Mediterranean correctly above the first time I tried and it made me think not "wow, I'm a good speller!" but "something must be wrong with the spellchecker in blogger..." Me of little faith...

The Mediterranean Salad, aka a heavily chopped lettuce based salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, white onions, radishes (don't belong), peppers and the pleasant surprise of artichokes was dressed with some sort of oil based dressing but a little bit different than a vinaigrette (that I had to spell-correct). My deduction: oil dressing w/ a mixture of juice and grease from the grilled chicken sliced on top.

The chicken breast was delectable. The outer-layer charred to perfection with the right mixture of crispiness outside and succulence within.

Recommended because of chicken excellence but the salad itself is weird. Next time I will purposely and with authority request dressing on the side, to investigate further, AND a side of oil & vinegar, just in case the dressing, in it's rested form, is skivatz.

I insist...

On one last food-related post before I update myself to the new general store attitude of this blog.

Today we had SPICE - and I had the Thai Volcanic Chicken...the spices weren't characteristically Thai, more like Thai-basco sauce. The container was full of oils and spices and some zucchini, kale, onion and oil and oil. I mixed in my brown rice. I ate most of it. Then I exploded. It'll be a while before I randomly choose SPICE from the binder of menus or lunch orders. A long time.

I enjoy Asian food, but not in the glasses down, scarf around way. It's too heavy. I enjoy salads, then cookies. And lots of coffee.

Love you.