Do They Eat Tripe in Long Island City?

I am halfway through a new book about Long Island City, but I just can’t wait any longer to share it with you. It is titled “Do They Eat Tripe in Heaven,” and simply put, it is wonderful. The reason I have not completed it yet is that it’s the type of book that I really want to savor. Below is a very accurate description of the book, as written by the authors.

Do They Eat Tripe in Heaven?, a collaboration between John Ciavarella and his sister Paula Ciavarella Caravati, was born out of the two siblings’ yearslong desire to finally get down on paper their family’s most-cherished Italian-American recipes and keep them from being lost forever.

With Paula taking the lead in re-creating 60 favorite recipes based on their mother’s no-fuss southern Italian-based cooking and John handling the writing, including narrating stories of his childhood in the 1960s and ’70s and the family’s life in the formerly working-class Hunters Point section of Long Island City, Queens, Do They Eat Tripe in Heaven? is unlike any conventional family cookbook.

Along with the recipes, the book is filled with nostalgic recollections of the authors’ parents, Mary and Frank, and their extended Italian-American family, and explores how food can often evoke our most poignant and humorous, and sometimes sad, memories. Do They Eat Tripe in Heaven? is a homage to food and its larger meaning in our lives, family heritage, and a spirited New York City neighborhood and the resilient people who lived and worked there.

Featuring more than 100 vintage full-color and black-and-white images of family members, street scenes, and ephemera; original artwork and photography by book designer William Dean Reynolds and Caren Hyde; and contributions by the authors’ siblings and cousins, and others. 

I spoke with John Ciavarella last week, and will write up my interview with him once I finish the book. For those interested in purchasing the book, the link is below and John has very generously offered a $20 discount by using the coupon code LICTALK20.

In the meantime, I will share that the description above fully lives up to its billing, especially for those of us living in Long Island City and having an interest in what everyday life was like for the families here long before they built the towers.

And the ‘no-fuss’ recipes are a great resource, both as a base for what have become staples of the American diet, and to change up one’s weekly routine. Somewhat surprisingly, many of them are vegetarian – when you need to feed a family of eight on a single-income blue-collar budget day after day, meat is expensive. Start reading, and cooking, today:

Do They Eat Tripe in Heaven? – link to purchase the book, coupon code: LICTALK 20

‘Do They Eat Tripe’ Facebook Page – lots of additional photos, as well as comments from local friends and neighbors