After my passion for food and photography, my great love is animals. I have and have ad a plethora of cats. At one time I also had a beautiful bearded dragon and a series of fish tanks. But I only had two great dogs, a gorgeous Belgian shepherd named Mookie and a wonderful Catahoula named Charlie, pictured here playing in the snow. The wasn't a sweeter and more loving animal. I miss him along with my other ex pets dearly. Only an animal lover can understand this. 

 This is what a true Sicilian eggplant looks like in Sicily. Just picked early in the morning and bought at my favorite frutta e verdura establishment in Castellammare del Golfo. The flavor is totally heavenly.

                                 A sunny spring day at the plaza of the Louvre museum in Paris.

 A quintessential Sicilian dish: pasta alla carrettiera or pasta eaten by carters on their lunch break. In this case I used spaghetti. It's a real simple and economical dish but more important it's very easy to make. It's like a classic aglio ed olio with added with ingredients found in the field such as parsley, wild fennel etc. . The dish is finished with incanestrato or classic Sicilian pecorino. This dish has evolved with many other additions but I prefer making it as original as possible.

 This is to me a very disturbing image. I shot it at Central Park, Manhattan, in the early seventies with a Leica M-2 and the 90mm F 2.8 Elmarit lens. I was also on a boat. There is something unsettlig in this composition. The film was Tri_X, naturally.

A delicious risotto with cauliflower and a light tomato sauce. Just wonderful.

 

 

Bed-Stuy Brooklyn in the early eighties just before gentrification kicked in. What a great color.