My last few posts reviewed my bike tour to a couple of Upstate NY Pizza Meccas. Before the tour, I had several undocumented Great Pizza Searches. So, I’ll catch up in this post.
But before that, while riding lately, I’ve been thinking about other “70’s V4” songs. if you remember, I defined a “70’s V4” song as one that its words are recreated by a friend and me. Another is below.
Neopolitan Words of the Day
skeeve/skeevoz/schifozz’ – disgusting, a disgusting thing, (real Italian word – schifosa) [shkeev/shkeeVOAZ/shkee-VOATZ]
From the American-Italian dictionary
moolanyan [mool-an-yawn] – eggplant (real Italian word – melanzane)
70’s V4 Part 2!
One of my buddies going way back into grade school was Donny D88! During grade school, I’d walk over to Donny’s house to play Knee Nerf Basketball or table hockey. We lived on the same street and only 4 blocks apart, but it seemed like 5 miles as a kid!
Our games were competitive. I really sucked at both Knee Nerf Basketball and table hockey. I’d routinely resort to some type of cheating. I’d stand up, off my knees, and hack the heck out of Donny. He’d yell “foul!” I’d laugh as I got under his skin! Or I’d shake the table hockey table to knock the puck off his guy to stop him from scoring!
Many times we’d end up yelling at each other! Donny would say that he “skeeved me” and “bah fa Napla” multiple times a week.
I’d reply with something like “Clyde (Donny) stinks” refering to Walt “Clyde” Frasier, his favorite Knick. Or, “why do you like the Knicks? They must not want you in Cleveland?!” He’d invariably retort, “Bingo (me) can’t guard Clyde” referring to Bobby “Bingo” Smith, my favorite Cav.
Even with our incessant bickering, we’d repeat the Thayer Avenue Games the next day!
As we grew into high school, we’d still play basketball at lunch in the gym. I was pretty bad, but it was more out of friendship, and my desire to needle Donny about the Knicks (or Vikings…I still can’t figure the Vikings out)!
Getting back to 70’s V4 songs…another great collaboration was with Donny D88. For most of HS, we rode together. By junior year, he took over his dad’s gold Plymouth Duster.
It’s radio was outstanding! After school, Donny would drop me off at football practice, out of his way to work on the sports’ desk of the local newspaper but another occasion to sing over the radio while making up our own words!
One day, while riding on Harbor Avenue just before it turns into E. 15th Street, he blurted out a timeless, homespun lyric over England Dan and John Ford Coley’s “I Really Love To See You Tonight.”
Donny D88’s infamous version overwrites, “I’m not talking about moving in…” with “I’m not talking about Marine Land!”
I split a gut! Where does such inspiration comes from? Who knows? It’s unforgettable! Even today, I’m unable to sing the “real” words!
GPS #30 Home – Pizza & Several Eggplant Dishes!
Great Pizza Search (GPS) #30 was Homemade Sourdough pizzas and several different eggplant dishes. As a kid, we used the word moolanyan. I never really used the word eggplant until I moved here.
I had planned to make sourdough bread, but we had invited the kids for Sunday dinner to watch the first Browns Game and decided to repurpose the sourdough for the pizzas.
I’d made sourdough pizzas before with mixed results, this turned out the same. The dough was too wet making it nearly impossible to shape and allowed to sauce to leak out onto the pizza steel. The upside was that the extra liquid in the dough caused them to rise greatly!
But, all in all, MEH!
Conversely, one moolanyan dish that I made was good and the other was GREAT.
I made eggplant parm but decided to roast the moolanyan first instead of battering and pan frying the cuts. It made for a nice parm, but it lacked the zing that one gets from the battering and pan frying.
I also roasted several moolanyans and then made a salad with red wine vinegar, garlic, and fennel. That was/is OUTSTANDING. So, much so, I’ve made it multiple times per week for the past 5 weeks!
GPS #31 – Homemade Future In-Law Visit!
After the sourdough pizza problem from the previous week, I scrapped that idea for Week 2 of the football season, especially since our future in-laws were visiting.
I thought it would be important to T if we “showed our best” with Granpa Tony meatballs, homemade sauce and past, and homemade pizza made with my “regular” dough.
This pizza was GREAT, as were the past, sauce, and meatballs. I believe that made T happy…which is the goal of any real parent!
GPS #32 – J&L’s Pizzeria Visit 2
The last pizza before my bike tour was Great Pizza Search (GPS) #32. I did a ride with my buddies Dennis and Frankie Q. on gravel trails on the southern part of Rochester. Strava Link.
This route took us from Pittsford on a part of the original Erie Canal; I’d not been on this section of trail before. For those who don’t know, the Erie Canal was widened and rerouted to become the “Barge Canal” in the early 1900’s (Wikipedia link).
We then connected to the Auburn Trail which we took to the end and then onto the Rochester-Syracuse Trail.
This gave me a chance to convince Dennis and Frankie Q. to try J&L’s Pizzeria. I reviewed J&L’s before, but given the number of pizza’s I’ve this year, I was bound to start to repeat!
The first time I rated J&L’s in GPS #24 (link here) as MEH. Frankly, it was better, but not great!
You must be logged in to post a comment.