Sfogliatelle

The best place to eat sfogliatelle

Sfogliatelle are Neapolitan pastries that are triangular folds of crunchy dough containing sweetened ricotta. They are a mouthful for me to say as sf words don't easily roll off my lips. In Italian, the prefix 's' is similar to our 'un'. Fortunate =fortunato; unfortunate=sfortunato. Foglia=leaf . In Boston, these pastries are known as 'lobster tails'-something that flows more readily off of American lips (and then on to their hips!!). When we were in Boston last time, Shanna asked us to pick up a lobster tail for her. Steve thought she meant the actual crustacean.

I had a sfogliatella in the Gran Caffe Gambrinus shortly after we were dropped off in Napoli (from the Greek neopolis-new city-ha! they don't know what new is)and told to fend for ourselves with one week of Italian under our belts. A beautiful place full of frescoes and art noveau woodwork. My first job: asking for a sfogliatella without resorting to 'Vorrei quella' (I want that!) And how did we eventually find what we needed to find? French tourists! En francais! Good thing I knew French!

Now these delights are under my roof thanks to Steve along with the cherry cheese knishes, which are just as good as Mrs. Stahl's. So he's safely back and I am seeing if I can leave tomorrow despite the snows along my path.

I am tired of this snow. I went to the Y to run my laps. The public schools are out this week so the place was full of kids. I parked in a snow drift spot only inches longer than my car. Should get a gold medal for parking. I will award it to myself just like the Russian skater awarded himself the 'platinum medal' because he did a quadruple toe loop.