© 2010 Paul Forte

By Rosie Williment, née Forte, daughter of Aquilino Forte and Carmela Gizzi (Brighton)

Nonno Alfonso

One of my earliest memories of Nonno Alfonso was when he was living with us in Hove.  He chose to live with us after Nonna Filomena died in 1955.

He loved chicken soup.  The chicken would be boiled with vegetables and the liquid would be served as soup for the first course with some pastina cooked in it.  The chicken, chicken's feet and innards, together with the vegetables were then served as a main course.  He used to love sucking the chicken's feet.  As a four year old, I used to be horrified.  He also had a wonky eye, which was rather scary as I never knew which eye to look at or where he was looking, but he was very kind.  I remember he bought me a lovely toy cooker that had tablets you could light so the burners would glow (no health and safety then!).  He also loved it when Romanita made him stewed veal.  He would bring her veal ribs bought at the local butcher and she would cook them with onions and white wine.  My older brother, Tony remembers he liked to drink raw egg beaten with sugar and hot milk every morning for breakfast.  He was always very smart, dressed in a suit with a tie and hat.  We would go walking on the Downs looking for wild spinach, dandelion leaves , greens and snails and he would tell us to keep quiet about it as the English in the mid 1950s were not particularly adventurous in their diet!

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