Showing posts with label new york. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new york. Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Coffee Lovers Rejoice






COFFEE LOVERS REJOICE !!!





COFFEE IS GOOD FOR YOU !!!


Yes Boys and Girls, all you Coffee Lovers out there, it's True, Coffee is Good for You. Ye-Ha! Don't you just love it. You might have heard from time-to-time that coffee is not good for you, bad for your health. Not So, but just the opposite, Coffee is Good for you. Coffee is High in Antioxidants, which can protect against damaged cells and  reduce your risk of chronic disease including Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Strokes. 

Now this is really good news, Great News in fact, the prevention and reduced risk of getting Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Stoke is major, and anything any sane person should be ecstatic and rejoice over, "I am." Coffee can help prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson Disease. Awesome!
Just remember, moderation is the key, too much coffee can cause nausea, jitters, and a rapid heart beat. It is safe to drink up to 5 cups a day, if you start getting over 8 cups you may have problems and adverse side affects. So remember, enjoy your coffee, you can love it, but stay moderate and it will love you back. As for me, I just love and adore my morning coffee. I usually have a second cup in the late afternoon, but hardly ever after 4 PM and I'm finished for the day, until my next glorious morning cup to start another day, my Coffee, in the Cafe, the newspaper and I'm set, Buon Giorno!





 
 



THIS ARTICLE FOCUSES PRIMARILY ON THE POSITIVE BENEFITS OF DRINKING COFFEE, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE DRINKING COFFEE CAN BE BAD FOR YOU, SUCH AS PEOPLE WITH ANXIETY OR SLEEPING DISORDERS.  IN TERMS OF HEALTH, COFFEE IS BEST DRUNK WHEN IT'S BLACK OR WITH VERY LITTLE SUGAR AND MILK ADDED. DRINKING A VENTI MOCHA WITH WHIPPED CREAM FOUR TIMES A DAY ISN'T GOOD FOR ANYONE. 








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"Drinking My COFFEE"






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NOTHING LIKE a NICE CUP of JOE


"I LOVE COFFEE"


NewYorkFoodie.com

BEST NEW YORK FOOD BLOGS













FLIGHTS & HOTELS

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The COOKBOOK













CAFFE REGGIO

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NEW YORK

CAFFE REGGIO is a Famous ITALIAN CAFFE
In Greenwich Village NY. Many Famous People have Gone
to CAFFE REGGIO over the Years, including : AL Pacino,
BOB DYLAN, Christopher Walken, Ernest Hemingway,
Dylan Thomas, and More ...

CAFFE REGGIO was The 1st Cafe to Serve CAPPUCCINO in AMAERICA
Way back in 1927


GET a FINE ART PRINT of CAFFE REGGIO from FineArtAmerica


 








NEW YORK



HOTELS WORLDWIDE






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Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Rock Star Pizza Guys New York & Naples

.


The Biggest ROCK STAR PIZZA GUY of Them ALL !!!

DOM DeMARCO

DiFARA PIZZA

BROOKLYN , NEW YORK


RIP - DOM DeMARCO

I wrote this in 2017, when Dominic DeMarco was still alive.
For me, Dom was The Greatest PIZZAIOLO of ALL-TIME

The GOAT !!!

"My OPINION" - MANY WOULD AGREE



 


ERNEST CACIALLO

Dal PRESIDENTE PIZZERIA

NAPOLI , ITALY

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON Ate PIZZA Here !!!
.
.
.
 
 
MARK IACONA

LUCALI PIZZA

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn 

NEW YORK



 
 
PAULIE GIANNONI

PAULIE GEES PIZZA




 
 
ANTHONY FALCO

ROBERTA'S 

BROOKLYN , NEW YORK




  
 
GINO SORBILLO
PIZZERIA GINO SORBILLO

NAPOLI , ITALY




This is a Picture of The Perfect PIZZA

Dal PRESIDENTE

NAPOLI , ITALY




 
 
 
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON Eats PIZZA
at Dal PRESIDENTE PIZZERIA
NAPOLI , ITALY

PIZZAILO / Owner ERNESTO CACIALLI Back left "YEE-haa" !!!
SECRET SERVICE AGENT RIGHT

"I Ate Here in The Summer of 2015" ... Daniel Bellino Z... 

"FRIGGIN AWESOME"




 
 
JULIA ROBERTS 

at ANTIC PIZZERIA Da MICHELE

NAPOLI

CLINTON Does Dal PRESIDENT

ROBERTS Does Da MICHELE
 

 

This Was The BEST PIZZA I EVER ATE in NAPOLI !!!

One of The BEST PIZZA'S I've Ever Had in My LifE !!!

 
  
 
THIS GUY Is a PIZZA GUY ROCK STAR

"I don't know his name. He was one of the Pizzaiolo 
at Da MARINO RESTORANTE / PIZZERIA when I had
Lunch there one day June 2015. He's Japanese and is most likely back
 
in Japan as a ROCK STAR PIZZA GUY in TOKYO."





 
 
My SALAME PIZZA at Da MARINA , NAPOLI


So I was ready for Lunch one day and I knew I wanted a nice plate
of SPAGHETTI VONGOLE along with some sort of antipasto item to start.
I was walking around and came across Da Marino. I popped my head in and it
looked pretty good, so as the hostess greeted me I signaled here a table for 1 and she told me
to sit wherever I wanted to.  I found a table, settle in and looked over the menu. I ordered a 
small carafe of Falaghina local white wine and looked over the menu a little more. As I said I 
knew I wanted Spaghetti Vongole and I decided on an Insalta Frutta di Mare as my first course.
It came and it was Awesome and as Perfect as Perfect can be. I ate it, sipped my wine and was
more or less "In 7th Heaven" .. Then came my Spaghetti Vongole and it was the same, perfect 
as perfect can be. 

After finishing my pasta I had to make a quick trip to the WC. On the way I passed the 
Pizzaiolo at the PIZZA OVEN. I took a look and the Pizza looked great. 
When I came out of the WC I stopped by to chat to the Pizzaiolo who was a guy from
Japan who came to NAPOLI to Learn how to make Pizza. "Where Else?" Well New York
wouldn't be bad, but to the Japanese when he went back to JAPAN, making Pizza in Napoli
was going to look better on the resume than New York, though we are known as the 2nd
Best Pizza spot on Earth, "try telling that to the Japanese." TO make a long story short, 
though I wasn't planning on having Pizza, the PIZZA coming out of that oven looked so
DAM GOOD that I just couldn't resist. I didn't feel stuffed or anything, so I figured
"What The Hell," why not try a Pizza here. Id' just eat as much as I could and stop
when I felt full. Well the PIZZA came and as you can see above, it was Friggin Awesome.
And I surprised myself when I ate the whole thing. 

"It was that Dam Good." !!!


..... Daniel Bellino "Z"  .....


 
 
 
 
 
 
My First PIZZA of The TRIP 2015
It was at a cute little PIZZERA "Da GAETANO"
 
PIZZA at 10 AM  
JET LAGGED OUT "PIZZA was The CURE" !!!
 
 
The FIRST PIZZA of THE TRIP

PIZZA FUNGHI

At Da GAETANO PIZZERIA NAPOLI


"AWESOME" !!!!






ARE YOU GOING To NAPLES ?

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by ME

Daniel Bellino "Z"

BASTA !!!!

.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Dining with The Conti Capponi

 

CONTI CAPPONI - BROTHERS SEBASTIANO & NICOLA CAPPONI

The COUNTS of VILLA CALCIANAIA



VILLA CALCINAIA

GREVE in CHIANTI

CONTI CAPPONI




DINING with The COUNTS


      I first met the Conti Capponi in the Spring of 1997, a year that turned out to be the greatest vintage ever for not just Italian Wine in Italy, but it was so remarkable that it was a great vintage for all of the best and most prestigious wine region in the World. The vintage was outstanding in Bordeaux, burgundy, Champagne, The Napa Valley, in Austria and Germany, in Piedmont, Montalcino, Campania, Tuscany (Chianti, Brunello), and the entire World. This was the year I made my first big wine trip to Italy, were I met Count Sebastiano Capponi and his brother Nicolo Capponi, and Giovanni Manetti of Fontodi in Panzano, who produced top notch Chianti and Super Tuscan Wines as well.

     I was in the process of opening the first Venetian Wine Bar (Bar Cichetti NYC), ever to exist in The United States, along with my partner in the venture, Tom T. I had conceived the idea after reading an article on Venice that mentioned the Bacari (Venetian Wine Bars) in the piece in The New York Times Travel Section. I got all hopped up reading the article, and made plans to go to Venice and investigate in the Spring of 1995. I booked a flight to Venice, and was on my way. Over the course of 8 days, I went into every Bacaro in Venice, eating Cichetti and drinking local wine, along with other wines of the Italian Peninsula. I studied the Bacari (Wine Bars) and how each of them did things : what types of cichetti they had, and how they served them,  the wine lists, decor, and every little detail involved in each separate wine bar. I took notes, both mentally and in my notebook. I learned quite a lot, and was armed with the knowledge to set my plan in motion.

     I made a business plan for the Bacaro that I wanted to open in New York. I met Tom T. at an event at the players club in New York. It was a Black Tie Event, honoring comedian / actress Carroll Burnett. It was quite the event. I met Tom, and we took a liking to each other, and somehow my plans to open a Venetian Wine Bar in New York came up. Tom loved the idea, and said, “Let’s get together and talk about this further,” and so we did. We decided to open the place together, and so this was how one-thing-lead-to-the other, and we ended up being invited to Villa Calcinaia to meet the two Italian Counts, The Conti Capponi, Sebastiano and Nicolo Capponi, aka Conti Capponi.

     The meeting was arranged by our friend Olga, who knew the two Noblemen Flroentine Brothers, Sebastiano and Nicola. Olga had a camera shop, just feet away from the famed Ponte Vecchia Bridge of Florence, and was just a block away from The Palazzo Capponi on the other side of the bridge from Olga Shop. A few months before Tom and his girlfriend Kate were in FLorence and met Olga when they went into her store to buy some film. They struck up a conversation and became friends. And so once, it happened that Tom and I were going to open a Venetian Wine Bar, and we were all taking another trip to Italy to do business, and explore more about Italian Food & Wine, restaurant, and wine bars, Olga told Tom about the Conti Capponi who owned Villa Calcinaia, and if we wanted to visit their wine estate in Greve, the Villa Calcianaia. And so we did.

    Another friend of ours in New York, Jean Franco who was from Florence and was the Maitre’d at our favorite Italian Restaurant “Novita,” was friends with the owner of Fontodi WIne Estate in Panzano, where Jean Franco arrange a meeting for us to meet Mr. Manetti, and visit the Fontodi Wine Estate.

     At the time we went on this trip, I didn’t know any proprietors of wine estates in Italy. Once I opened Bar Cichetti, and the Italian Wine Community saw what I was doing, they all wanted to meet me, to taste their wines, and visit their wine estates, any time I desired. This was wonderful and quite a revelation. Anyway, lets go to the day in question. The day we dined with the Conti Capponi.

     It was arrange that we would meet one of the brothers, Nicola Capponi at The Palazzo Capponi adjacent to The Ponte Vecchio. Olga went inside to look for Nicola. A few minutes later, out came Olga with the Conti Cappone Nicola. She introduced him to Tom, Maurat, and I. “How do you do,” said Nicola Capponi as we shook hands. He had an aristocratic English accent. I felt as though I was meeting Prince Charles. We had two cars. Maurat went in the Fiat Panda with Nicola. We had a  driver, and Tom, Olga, and myself were in the Mercedes with driver, following Nicola in the Fiant down to the town of Greve in Chianti, and to the Villa Calcinaia, the Capponi’s family wine estate, that had been producing wine in Greve for almost 500 years.

     We left Florence, we hopped onto the SR222 ancient road, the Chiantigiana and made our way to Chianti Classico and The Villa Calcinaia in Greve. The ride was enchanting, arriving into the beautiful rolling hills of Chianti, dotted with Castles, stone farm houses, and a patchwork of Sangiovese Grape Vines, row after row, Olive Groves,Cypress Trees, and other local flora. Seeing the rows of Grape Vines and Olive Trees, I was in seventh heaven. For this is one of the most beautiful spots in all of Gods Good Earth.

   We turned off the main road and onto the driveway leading up to the Villa. Again I was astonished as the drive, just like you see in the movies, was lined with Great Cypress Trees on both sides of the driveway. It was incredible.

    We arrived at Villa Calcinaia, and again I was astonished. It was beautiful, old, and grand. Outside, Nicola’s brother Sebastiano was waiting for us. Olga made the introductions, and so I met Sebastiano Capponi. What an honored. I have known Sebastiano for almost 25 years now, seeing him many times in New York and at the Villa Calcinaia as well. We went inside, at the doorway that lead into the kitchen where there was an open hearth fire, and the cook (a lady) was cooking, and preparing our meal. Wow?

   Nicola took us on a tour of the Villa , first leading us down the hall, he said “This is Alibaba,” as he led us into the room were large Terracotta Urns were filled with Olive Oil from the Capponi Estate. Nice. Nicola took us into another room, and said, “This is ou 300 year old Mother.” The mother being a gelatinous film that you pour wine over to turn it into vinegar. And the Capponi’s have one that has been kept alive for 300 years. Needless to say, their Chianti Wine Vinegar is amazing. We would try some letter when we’d have lunch with the two Counts.

    After seeing the Olive Oil Urns  (Alibaba) and the 300 Year Old Mothers, Nicola took us into the room where a couple tons of Trebbiano Grapes were hanging on slats to dry out, to make Tuscany’s famed Vin Santo Wine. Villa Calcinaia’s is one of Tuscany's best, and we just love it.

    We were then led into a room with many large Slovenian Oak Cask filled with aging Sangiovese for making Chianti wine. Nicola is quite theatrical, and he didn’t disappoint telling a dramatic story, and telling us about the CHianti and the Wine Theif he used to take some wine out of the large oak cask for us to taste. “Wow,” this was my first time doing what si know in the wine world as a “Barrel Sampl,” tasting wine that is aging in wooden cask out of the barrel to see how they taste at any particular time during the aging process. And I was doing it at a renowned Chianti Wine Estate, being served by the Noble Conti Capponi  Nicola. I couldn't believe my great fortune. Again, “I was in 7th Heaven”

   After touring the Villa Calcinaia Cellars, Nicola took us outside to show us the Herb Garden and some Sangiovese Vines, and Olive Tree Groves of the estate. Again, “Wow”

     We then went back inside the castle and were led into the dining room. “Wow, Wow, & Wow? I was going to have lunch with the two Noble Brothers, the Conti Capponi, Sebastiano and Nicola. We all sat down at a beautiful table in the dining room. The lunch was wonderful, drinking several vintages of Capponi Chianti, as we dined on a lovely Antipasto Misti of homemade Salami, Tuscan Pecorino, Olives, and Crostini Toscano. We drank the most recent vintage Chianti of Villa Calcainaia. After the antipasto, we had Pici Pomodoro (Pasta w/ Tomato Sauce), and drank more Chianti.

    The main course was a delicious Roast Chicken with Potatoes, and Chianti Reserva that was absolutely wonderful. We finished the meal with  Villa Calcinaaia Vin Santo and Biscotti, that was one of the most magnificent pairings imaginable. “Wow? What a meal?” , Needless to say, “It was the most memorable meals of my entire life. One I shall never forget. Thank Goodness I do have one nice picture of the meal. It is of me, in the dining room of Villa Calcinaia. “I wish I had more.” Thank God I do have at least that one.

    We finished lunch, thanked the brothers for such a wonderful time, and we bid then adieu. We hopped in the car, and made our way to Panzano. We’d meet Giovanni Manetti, nibble on Salami, and taste their amazing wines. The wines of Fontodi : Chianti, Chianti “Vigne del Sorbo,” Flaccinella, and Vin Santo. 

    “What a day?”





Daniel Bellino Zwicke


January 1, 2025









Me at VILLA CALCINAIA

GREVE in CHIANTI

"LUNCH with The COUNTS"

"Wish I had a BETTER PICTURE"








With CONTI SEBASTIANO CAPPONI

MYSELF & GIOVANNI MANETTI

NEW YORK 2024




CHIANTI


CONTI CAPPONI CALCINAIA CHIANTI











BOOKS by DANIEL BELLINO

DANIEL BELLINO has authored SUNDAY SAUCE, La TAVOLA, Mangia Italiano,
SINATRA SAUCE, The RAGU BOLOGNESE COOKBOOK, Got Any Kailua ?

And POSITANO The AMALFI COAST Travel Guide - Cookbook












SUNDAY SAUCE

AMERICA'S FAVORITE ITALIAN COOKBOOK