#camille's

Fire ants are part of our Key West existence. You cannot be here any length of time without being bitten.

For Japan, it is a new experience. Nary a fire ant till May 20 of this year. They came in on a cargo ship hidden away in cargo boxes. Shortly thereafter, more arrived in a different vessel. Now fire ants immigrate to Japan with frequency and reproduce once there.

The Japanese are not handling the fire ant invasion well.

A Japanese newspaper reported early on that a fire ant epidemic in the United States killed 100. Obviously erroneous. Corrected, but the damage had been done. The Japanese people are convinced fire ants are murderers, assassins, and infiltrators.

An over reaction big time.

Additional sanctions have been levied by the U.S. against 13 high ranking Venezuelans.

Stupid!

Maduro and his government may be bad people. However, it is for the Venezuelan people to change the government. Not the U.S.

Thousands protest. The streets are jammed. In the hundreds of thousands. However, the people stop there. They do not go to the next step and take up arms to depose Maduro.

It is their problem, not ours. Especially when the Venezuelan people are not willing to fight for themselves.

When will we learn to keep our noses out of another country’s business?

McCain showed his independence and courage last night with his no vote. I take back any negative statements I made a few days ago re his failure to stand up when the first vote was taken.

Where did this Anthony Scaramucci come from? He is an embarrassment to our government and to the people of the United States.

I am personally embarrassed. The man is Italian-American as I am. He is a throwback to the 1920-1930’s.

Now for my yesterday.

Dropped the car off to be detailed. Needed a thorough cleaning.

Walked over to Lori’s at the other end of the block for a haircut.

Needed to kill an hour after the haircut while the car was being finished. Stopped into the Sunshine Grill for lunch. Where Mattheson’s was formerly located. On White Street, across from Fausto’s.

Great food! Go!

Diner type food. Wholesome.

I enjoyed a Reuben. One of the best I have ever eaten.

Checked the menu out. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very reasonably priced. My next visit will be for dinner some evening soon.

Met Karen. The front house manager. Charming and lovely.

The bill carried a comment on the bottom: Eat here or we both go hungry.

Made sense.

Picked up the car. Seven years old. Looked new inside and out.

Dinner was with Donna and Terri last night. Terri had to work late. I stopped at their home and enjoyed a drink and political chatter with Terri. Yesterday was definitely a Trump day!

Terri is more than a vocalist. She understands. Everything. Our conversation ran deep.

Donna finally arrived. Her ass dragging. It had been a 12 hour day.

We had dinner at the New York Pasta Garden. Donna and Teri enjoy the place. Last time I was there was 20 years ago with three of my grandchildren. I thought the food was terrible. Never returned! Last night’s meal was excellent.

I had egg plant parmigiana and pasta. The parmigiana with my Mother in mind. She used to make it frequently.

John owns the Pasta Garden. He also owns the Ocean Grill across the way. Word on the street is he is in the process of buying Camille’s.

Enjoy your day!

Grandson Robert was 12 years old yesterday. God bless!

The celebration might not have been. Robert was born with cancer of the liver. The tumor was larger than his liver. He had two major operations in the first eight days of his life.

God was good!

Lisa cooked a Happy Birthday sunday dinner and a birthday cake. The meal outstanding! As to the cake, very little left. Robert had a sleep over the night before. The guys pretty much devoured the cake.

Ally’s birthday is in two weeks. Yesterday, she looked beat up. Had a bad stomach bug the day before.

Summer vacation around the corner. We talked about what they will be doing. One thing will be Seacamp on Big Pine. An educational sea camp. The kids are excited.

Spent yesterday writing this week’s KONK Life column. Heroin Will Survive New Drug Bill. It is a followup to my article three weeks ago Afghanistan and America’s Heroin Addiction.

The new column hits the stands wednesday.

The first heroin column appears on E-Blast this morning.

My picture on E-blast took me back for a moment. I have not seen it in years. It was taken during my first Greece trip five years ago. I am sitting at a table at my favorite restaurant writing my blog. The bearded Louis.

Stone crab season ended yesterday. A good season. Stone crabs galore. I enjoyed every one I ate. To me, the best of foods. I always say if I knew my meal was to be my last one, I would order stone crabs.

Movie star Roy Scheider had a home in Key West. Scheider of Jaws and French Connection fame. Puchased 630 Dey Street in March 1982. His winter home.

Everyone does everything in Key West.  Scheider was a regular at Camille’s when it was on Duval. He was frequently seen at the breakfast bar chain smoking.

Fausto’s is celebrating its 90th birthday. Its main store today on Fleming, just off Duval. A family business. Quality foods. Surprising however that it has lasted so long. Means whatever they sell has to be good.

I am anti-Trump. No question. I may even be anti-Clinton. I may not even vote.

That being said, the New York Times on saturday did a number on Trump. An unfair one. Front page. The article’s thrust was how Trump behaved with women.

The article should never have been written. It lacked substance. All it proved is Trump can occasionally be an asshole with his mouth.

Trump deserves an apology.

Enjoy your day!

  Rhode Island is food nirvana.

    I'm not a foodie, trust me. I do not flip out over broccoli rabe sauteed with saffron and minced capers, and I do not turn up my nose at TGI Friday's once in a while. But Rhode Island has an incredible variety of restaurants and cafes and bistros and delis and bakeries. In fact – ahem, ahem – I just read that Providence is the #3 city in the country for foodies. Who says so, you ask? Oh, no one. Just Travel & Leisure.

    Take Italian food, for example. Some years back, a New York food critic said in print that there were only two places in the United States where the Italian food was any good: Manhattan (naturally) and Rhode Italian. Amen! Costantino's. Angelo's Civita Farnese. Camille's. And (hats off to them) Twin Oaks in Cranston, the ultimate old-fashioned Italian restaurant, with Provimi veal, and waiters who look like Italian versions of Victorian footmen, and huge platters of food. Here's how you can recognize Rhode Islanders: you say the words “Twin Oaks,” and you watch them close their eyes and shiver with delight.

    Feel like Chinese? My two favorites are Shanghai on the east side of Providence, not far from Brown, and – a sentimental favorite – the China Inn in Pawtucket. I first went there on New Year's Eve 1978, when it still had red-checked tablecloths. They're in a nicer space now, but they still serve elegant excellent food.

    And the local mini-chains, naturally. What Rhode Islander doesn't eat at Gregg's? (I'm a card-carrying customer. But I confess Partner and I don't go as often as we used to. Too aggressively bland - what a friend of mine used to call "gentile food" - and too many other good choices.) And Chelo's (although I was never a big fan; their specialty, French meat pie, isn't one of my favorites).

    And every ethnicity you can think of. An Ethiopian place called Abyssinia just opened on Wickenden Street, and I am trying to prevail upon Partner to go there. Japanese food is still underrepresented, but when my friend Pat comes to town, we go to Tokyo on Wickenden for dragon roll and ahiru donburi and ginger ice cream. And there is Latin food everywhere, sometimes even authentic: Bolivian, Peruvian, real Mexican. You want Turkish? Efendi's Mediterranean Grill is right down the road in Cranston. I can think of at least two rodizio-style Brazilian barbecue joints, where they just keep bringing meat to your table – on swords! - until you signal them to stop. (There's a new cafe a few blocks from here called Tea in the Sahara, which displays a Moroccan flag in the window, but I haven't been there yet; I'm afraid I'll be disappointed.)

    The Portuguese and Azoreans and Verdeans have made their own contributions. If you have never had bitoque – steak with a fried egg on top, and a side of thinly-sliced fried potatoes soaking in the steak's juices – you have not lived. (Riviera over in East Prov is good; Madeira, also in East Prov, is better; Estrela do Mar, also in East Prov, is supreme.)

    If you want Tex-Mex for comfort, join Partner and me at the Cactus Grille for nachos. (Last time we went, the new kitchen manager introduced himself to us and told us that he'd be revamping the menu soon to be fresher and more authentic.  We look forward to seeing what he's going to do.)

    Pizza and calzones and spinach pies are a religion here. As with Chinese food, everyone has a passionate favorite. Caserta's on Federal Hill is good, but – for me – not the best. For a Friday-night treat, we order Ronzio (although someone at work just recommended New York Pizza). For work functions, I order Pizza Pie-er (expensive, but tasty). But the best I've had locally – and I have to hand it to her for finding them – is Apollonia's fave, Catanzaro's in Cranston, with a caramelized-onion rectangular pizza that was sweet and savory and tore the top of my head off with deliciousness.

    All the big national steakhouses are here now: Shula's, Ruth's Chris, Fleming's. Capital Grille started here in Providence, thank you very much. I spent my childhood chewing on huge chunks of red meat, so I don't crave it so much now; but now and then a nice piece of prime rib, or a nice steak, is just what you want. (I like Fleming's, because the service is so pleasant, and the lighting is flattering to my pale pasty complexion. Although Shula's gave us a very nice meal this summer.)

    Doris Lessing, in her science-fiction novel “Shikasta,” has an alien commenting on earthlings and our unnatural obsession with food: “In describing the attractions of a city,” he writes, “first of all will be listed the food that is available and even the details of the cooking!”

    Sadly – or happily – Doris Lessing got it right.