Tony Danza

I've always enjoyed Tony Danza's work. His character on TAXI was a boxer which always made me think of my father who had been a boxer for the old BMT when he was young. On WHO'S THE BOSS, he played a housekeeper and often spoke about the "old neighborhood" in Brooklyn. I got to know more about him on his morning talk show.


Last week I heard that he had a cookbook called DON'T FILL UP ON THE ANTIPASTO which he wrote with his son. So, of course I had to add it to my collection. In this book, along with family recipes he talks about growing up in Brooklyn near the Brooklyn/Queens border. I grew up in Queens on the Queens/Brooklyn border. I knew the streets he mentioned, even the church and school he attended. When he wrote about walking along Fulton Street from Nichols Avenue to the paint store, I knew those streets and even walked them myself. I could picture the stores that were there, the ice cream parlor (Hess' I think), the butcher, the hardware store, etc. And the El I rode home from work with my husband when we were dating.


I could see the Blessed Sacrament Church and schoolyard, even the separate entrances for Boys and Girls so similar to those we had at St. Sylvester's. When he mentioned the time he ran away from home and walked along Conduit Avenue and the Belt Parkway, it was so vivid. How many times did I cross Conduit Avenue on my way to the subway for high school.


I don't know how his recipes are, but this book was a great stroll down memory lane for me.