... today with my good S-Z buddy and RI friend, SteveM, at RI's iconic 'Mike's Kitchen' in a VFW Post ... famous for their light, crisp, and butter tender Calamari, and their tomato sauce, great portion sizes, and very reasonable prices ...
Unfortunately the original owner, Mike Lepizzera passed about a year ago at the age of 86, but fortunately he left his recipes in the most capable hands of his kitchen staff ...
Donny, you GOTTA make that road trip !!!

Tony Looks delicious...

........and it was a splendid time eating and catching up with Tony trading stories with great food.

Below is the Rabe and Cavatelli (cavatis to some of us) that Tony had. I ordered the Spaghetti Aglio with olives, pepperoncini and anchovies.

Donny, Tony said it all "ya gotta make the road trip" by the time you leave here you'll be about 5 maybe 10 pounds heavier than before you arrived.

Boyz the "HILL" is on my list.....

No fair posting photos of great looking dishes a couple of hours before dinner! So many great places to eat all along the east coast. Sounds like a great place.

Donny, that's great, but this place isn't even on 'Da Hill', which of course is 'Federal Hill' in Providence ... this place is in the city of Cranston, and for 'down home' Italian food, it matches anyplace on 'Da Hill' ...

Dave,

I think we could go to a different great restaurant here every day for a month and still not eat at all of them.

And that's just the ITALIAN ones ...

And the 'take home' for dinner ...
Polenta and Sausage

Hmmm, Looks great Tony next time I’ll have to order that too.

I'm back on the South Beach Diet, went from 230 to 210 in 12 days, and my wife says I look a lot better. I need to get down to 180 to keep the docs happy.

All the best,

Gary

Obviously, Steve and I were not thinking about a diet today ...

Looks like a Weight-watcher's nightmare!

chas

But a food lover's dream ...

Looking at these lunch pics got me hungry last night !!

Now you're talking, Donny ... Zuppa di Pesce for Donny P ...

Donny,

That’s one good looking pasta dish!

Yummy.... we got great food in NJ too ....lol

I'm eatin' free at Ernest's the next three nights!

Get the salad and crawdads. All that other stuff will make you gain weight, which is the opposite of what you want to do. This morning, I'm down 20 pounds - 40 more to go.

Tonight, Carol and I had Maryland style steamed crabs washed down with an ice-cold Coors Light draft. Oh yeah! Tomorrow night, we'll consume the other half of the dozen crabs. No carbs, low calories, high protein.

Gary

Good for you, Gary ...
To each his own ...
As the song says "I ain't here for a long time, but I'm here for a good time" ...

PS ... Losing weight is like giving up smoking - you have to be ready to do it ...

One thing's for sure, you can't be here for both .

chas

Maybe it just depends on HOW good a time ...

I have a philosophy eat healthy die anyway.

I had a cousin who ate the healthiest of meals, was a Chiropractor, practiced a holistic life style and died at 49 from colon cancer, go figure.

Yes. I'm planning on ordering a bushel of Md crabs from Crisfield for Memorial day. Son's visiting from KC and this is kind of his birthday present. We get the family together on the paio and chow down. Problem is, it costs as much to air them to us as they cost.A bushel of standard males is $213.00 + $70.00 fedex overnight.. Expensive for a retired E-6 but it's worth it. We add a couple pounds of shrimp from the Wal-Mart and corn on the cob for a real feast.

Chas... my friend... who sez ya can't be here for a good time... as well as a long time?? I'm living proof! LOL! As far as I can determine, I'm the "geezer" at this unique site! Now, if only I had the most talent! (Like you guys!)

My new goal in life is to be a tornado chaser like Mason... chasing my arranger KB as it flies to some unknown destination!

Cheers... ----Dave

The problem with ol' folks 'pigging out' is that, unlike in our youth, we don't balance it out with an appropriate amount of exercise. In most cases, our sex lives are a distant memory and any other form of exercise just doesn't seem worth the effort (YMMV ). In any case, I like Steve's philosophy best; "eat healthy, die anyway". I'm going to repeat that every time I set down to a plate of ribs. Okay, gotta hit the fridge before I go to bed; I just can't fall asleep on a 3/4 full stomach. That leftover pizza slice ought to do it.

chas

Steve, “I have a philosophy eat healthy die anyway.

We all will die eventually, but I am concerned of how I am living today. I eat healthy and get lot’s of exercise, why rush the I am leaving process.

John C.

For me, every day's a good day - just some days better than others!

Gary

Along with Toto and Dorothy ??? ...

Two weeks ago, my wife and I drove down to Williamsburg VA to see our grandson at William and Mary College. He was appearing in a production of "Smokin' Joe's Cafe" and was singing lead in a number of songs, including "Jailhouse Rock" ... On the drive home that Friday, we hit some BAD storms and an alert came on my phone that there was a tornado watch for Snow Hill MD and I saw that we were driving through Snow Hill at that very moment ... fortunately I saw no signs of a twister, but a couple of times I had to get off the road because I could barely see 50 feet in front of me ... during one of the worst thunderstorms I happened to be driving across a bridge ! ... We drove all the way through Delaware under Tornado watch conditions ...
That's as close I ever want to get ...

John to a degree some of that comment was tongue in cheek. I love big meals and if I ate and drank like I used to 35 years ago I’d probably be dead today. I watch my food intake, and exercise regularly I do not deprive myself all the time especially on special occasions. Tony and I only live about a 20 minute ride apart, life gets busy so when we can manage to meet “we’re gonna have a feast.”

I always get a big chuckle out of the term "Eating Healthy." All food is healthy! Keep in mind that the folks on the planet, according to a massive study conducted by the World Health Organization, who live the longest are those that consume the most fat and have the highest cholesterol levels. The only people that consume more fat than the French is the Aleutian Eskimos, yet both races have an extremely low incidence of cardiovascular disease. The race that consumes what we refer to as heart healthy foods is the Australian Aborigines, a diet consisting of fruits, nuts and very little red meat. They have the lowest cholesterol levels on the planet, yet they also have the highest incidence of cardiovascular disease.

When I worked in field of cardio-pulmonary medicine, more than 70 percent of my patients that underwent bypass surgery had normal and low cholesterol levels and were at or below ideal weight. Most, however, had a sedentary lifestyle, which I believe was a big contributor to heart disease.

I sincerely believe that the medical community have bought into a bill of goods when it comes to cholesterol. Cholesterol lowering drugs, statins, etc... are a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, which is where most of the statins are consumed worldwide. Most other nations do not have high consumption rates of statin drugs. It's hard to watch TV without a cholesterol lowering drug not being advertised. Gotta be some big bucks being made on them in order to pay for this much advertising.

My advice, stay away from the carbs (within reason), exercise as much as possible and within age limits (sometimes we old farts get lazy), and enjoy all that high fat, high cholesterol food. If the WHO studies are correct, and I sincerely believe they are, you will live just as long, but happier, if you wolf down a big fillet mignon, lobster slathered in butter, crab cakes, cheeses, ribs, and all the other stuff folks claim are not heart healthy. Ironically, the guy in the restaurant that is nibbling on the rabbit food will likely die of cardiovascular disease long before the guy dipping his lobster in butter sauce.

Today's breakfast was Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage Patty, Egg Beater Blue Cheese Omlett topped with a slab of cheddar cheese, OJ and coffee. Down 20 pounds in 15 days as of this morning. OH YEAH!

Enjoy what little time we have on the planet,

Gary