Feldman was always kind of a gagootz. In school his friends were of the Freaks and Geeks category and every team he ever played on labeled him a fill-in, never a starter. It wasn't that he was funny looking or dumb or gawky, there was just this air about him that registered slightly off key. But somehow in spite of the branding he managed to graduate college marry a lovely lass and land a damn good job by the time he was 26. The Feldman tale today (by the way Feldman was his nickname which is another whole story) today's tale is about chicken tetrazzini. Feldman had no special palette, nothing out of the ordinary for foods he especially liked, except for chicken tetrazzini. He first fell in love with it at Mama Leone's in Manhattan when he was 19 or 20. He liked spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, veal parm so really liking chicken tetrazzini is not the point here - it's how much he loved and craved it that led him on his quest. He ordered it in every Italian restaurant he ever went to since that first taste of ecstasy and he always regretted not going back to Mama Leone's which went out of business. He scoured foodie blogs, Zagat guides, you name it, looking for clues where he might discover that heavenly taste- he even took a vacation in Tuscany just to try La Vena di Vino in Volterra on a tip he received from a Frommer's guide. But alas and shit sandwiches, it just was not meant to be. That is until a year or two later when he was returning from a business trip to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and never left the airport due to a late snow storm that grounded all flights. On the taxi back to the motel, he asked for recommendations on a good restaurant, the driver said the diner on Sherman Ave. where he was dropped off. The place was empty but the owner who was shoveling the walk said grab a seat at the counter. Yes, you guessed it - he ordered a cheeseburger and kiddingly said but if chicken tetrazzini was on the menu - ha-ha, The owner says "coming right up" and it was the BEST chicken tetrazzini he ever imagined, even better than Mama Leone's. The look on Feldman's face was contorted and his breathing was like a lamaze class, but it was a real foodgasm the way they're supposed to be experienced. The moral here: Don't be afraid to say what you really want - Feldman says.