Bagels Everywhere!

On my way to a gathering at our church's nursery school where we enjoy fresh bagels...living here you can take this for granted. I am so thankful!

Great Weather!

Here comes Long Island's best kept secret: The wonderful temperatures of fall.

Today's High: 72, Tomorrow's: 71 with low humidity and sea breezes!

Sea Turtle

Tony Esposito and I were simply crabbing on Thursday when

this guy showed up at the end of the line! Of course we let him go.

The Beach

Long Islanders love the beach, well some of us do.

Unfortunately many do not realize or take time for the playground just a few minutes away.

Growing up on the Island, the beach was the place for us! I took my girls there and now I am taking my grandkids there.

White sand beaches, water that never warms up (we like it that way!), the salt air, the waves and much more is why we love it and why this Friday I'll be there.

Worth Listening To!

Next Generation Radio Broadcast

"Summer Special Series"

Hosts: Rudy Migliore, Rob Harrison, and Jacob Mathai
Start Time: Saturday, June 20 at 1:00pm
End Time: Saturday, June 20 at 2:00pm
Where: Long Island, New York

WNYG
1440
Also available on line

Love This Weather!

We are now into the second day of mist. It is not rain. It is mist. I love it! The backyard (Google Larry's Backyard and click on the first entry to come up) is getting taken care of by the LORD. some Bible Scholars believe this is the way God cared for the earth before the flood- by a vaporized mist. It is wonderful.

Another great part of this Unique Island's weather!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend on the Island means parades, BBQ's and of course the beach. Jones Beach and Robert Moses and many others open for the season.

There is also the gardening, although here on the Island most people already have their gardens in. Still some of us like to putt around in our yards.

Like other places in the country, people will visit cemeteries.

One thing (among others) however they don't get to have is a hard roll with ham and Swiss Cheese like I had before. With apologies to all the other bakeries across the US, a hard roll is one of the things, the many things, that make this Island unique, thus the address of this blog - www.uniquelongisland.blogspot.com

Dinner at the Diner

My nephew and my wife agreed that they would enjoy dinner at the Peter Pan Diner tonight (www.peterpandiner.org) We had a great time. Steve had a Reuben. Lucy had Broiled Salmon Caesar Salad and I had Chicken Souvalki. Wow! A great time was had by all.

For Those Who Have Left The Island...

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/topic.php?uid=2204716160&topic=7024

I Love Guests!

My nephew will be here for the weekend. He is in college in Philly. Philadelphia has great cheesesteaks but once again nothing compares to Long Island Cuisine! When he was here a few years ago we went to the Carnegie Deli. That was an experience!
I enjoy having him. One reason is that he will ask if we can have some pizza. Of course I will oblige! and enjoy! and savor each bite of what you can only get here on the Island and vicinity.

We will head upstate NY to do some work around my parents' house on Monday. The big thing we are looking forward to as far the culinary delights there is Dairy Queen... which I do enjoy but nothing compares to food of the Island!

They're Back Again

Where I Had Lunch Yesterday

I ate here as a kid in Jerusalem Junior High. They have great heroes. Yesterday I treated myself to an Italian one. It was delicious.

On my way to a meeting I picked it up, on my way home from the meeting I ate it. The car reeked of onions and Italian dressing!

Long Island Cuisine! No place on earth like it!

Good News For Long Island

More About Pizza and Heroes

I had a meatball hero today. It was delicious. It was what people who come back to Long Island look for. It makes eating an imitation of this whether it be called sub, hoagie, grinder or any other name in any other part of the country very disappointing. Once you have had the real thing nothing even comes close!

Long Island Bagels Update

I was with my kids and grandkids in New Jersey last week. They assured me that my first visit to Panera Bread would be enjoyable. I ordered a poppy seed bagel with veggie cream cheese (They didn't have lox spread). The first clue should have been when they asked if I wanted it toasted. I never heard of a toasted bagel until my brief hiatus in Upstate NY when all they had were Lender's Frozen Bagels. I never got used to them. The second hint in Panera was the cream cheese. It was handed to me in a container that had a plastic seal. I opened it and spread it on my "bagel".

I guess for someone out of the area this breakfast could have sufficed but all I kept thinking of was an everything egg bagel with chopped chicken liver or an everything bagel with lox/cream cheese spread and not plastic wrap with it!

I know I am spoiled but that goes with living on the Island where the best food in the world is. Nothing else even comes close!

You Know You Are From Long Island... #59

59. Its rare to get really bad bagels or pizza on Long Island, almost as rare as it is to get good bagels and pizza anywhere else.

(This is from the list from the post of December 15, 2008)

In just had an everything egg bagel this morning. It was fresh and only like you can get on the Island. I have had people who have moved off Long Island tell me about the bagels and pizza they are now getting. Funny that they continue to compare them to the ones they got on the Island.

This is serious stuff! Since I had an 11 year hiatus from living on the Island, i have some experience in this. It is when you come back to visit or in my case to live that you realize what you were missing and that nothing even comes close!

It was at my Aunt Marge's and Uncle Torrey's in Bellmore about a year after we left that we visited. Aunt Marge had some fresh fruit and some hard rolls for breakfast. I buttered up a hard roll and took a bite and let out an "Ah!!!" I forgot. Now I remembered. I hadn't tasted that taste or texture in over a year! It was sublime. Where I moved to I was eating globs of dough that they called rolls. This was a work of art! A delectable delight!

My Uncle John came to visit and we bought two loaves of Italian Bread. We had half of it gone before we got home. He let out the same "Ah!"

We ordered pizza one night for some out of town friends. They were all "Ahing!" It was like a chorus of Ahs!

People come back for a visit and they list Pizza as a must have meal. My niece who is 13 years old recently filled out one of those online e-mail surveys. For her favorite food she listed Aunt Lucy's dumplings and NY Pizza. There is simply nothing like it.

This Morning On Long Island

Last Night On the LIRR

I love train travel! The Long Island Railroad provides some interesting illustrations in life. On the train into Flushing last evening I overheard a young man talking on his cell phone to a friend. He was heading into the city to meet this young lady he had met a few weeks ago in New Jersey. They were having their first date. All the arrangements were made. His mom said to him as he left, “Suppose she doesn’t show up?” He said to his friend, “Way to build up my confidence, Mom!”

True To Form

While my friends in the south and west think we are getting what the rest of the northeast is getting we really are not. If you'll excuse the pun, people who have not lived on Long Island just don't get our weather.

I have seen predictions of major snowstorms and it turn out to be nothing. I have seen predictions of freezing rain, have the temperatures moderate and again- just good rain just like last night. Just the opposite happens upstate- they get a warning and they get hit.

We have had many winters with no snow days. This is our coldest month. I'll start my seedlings as soon as I get all the Christmas stuff put away. That is life on Long Island. Then again some of our biggest snows have come in February, ...then melted and we are in the thaw!

Weather on the Island

Long Island's weather is interesting. Surrounded by water our temperatures often moderate. This morning was very mild and in what is our coldest month, we picked green onions from our garden and our goldfish were up thinking it was spring time.

That will all change this evening with snow and then freezing rain. Winter is here and we get the weather to prove it but quickly it changes. After this storm the ten forecast shows mostly sunny weather with cold temperatures. This will be our deep freeze. By February a thaw will come and by March spring clean up begins.