Quoted:Quoted:Quoted:Quoted:
Huh? Why didn't I see this thread before?
Not too shabby, anyway... not too shabby.
For all of it, I know you Americans are accustomed to different flavors than us - we would scream to someone puttin tomato ketchup on our pasta -
but what I liked more was your research for genuine Italian beverages.
You did even find some Sanbittèr.
You didn't find some Birra Moretti for your pleasure, didn't you?
We have a little family owned italian store (those are always the best) that stocks the pellegrino sodas along with great capicola, prosciutto, and genevetta. I've never seen the san pellegrino sodas anywhere else, though.
that's great. How do you manage fresh food shipping? Did you ever try getting your hands on Mozzarella di Bufala, or something along those lines?
I've never had mozzrella di bufala. I'm guessing mozzarella made from the milk of buffalo? My grandmother grows all of her own peppers, tomatoes, etc. so that's where all of the fresh foods come from. Other than that, the lunchmeats come from the store, along with some other italian produce that's imported. I'll have to see if I can find some of that mozzarella.
The "Mozzarella di Bufala Campana" is a DOP food. It means it's a "copyrighted" kind of mozzarella that has to stand to some rules to bear such a name.
It's namely a mozzarella only made from buffalos milk, Only in Campania ( region of southern Italy ), only in farms that will allow their cows to roam and eat freely from the ground.
Not only the animals are due for quality tests, but all of the farm: grass quality, space for the animals, how they are treated, and milk processing.
Most of those farms are very small entities, mostly family-run, this gives a basically much more "country" feeling to the mozzarella.
If anyone in your family knows the meaning of the word "ruspante", that's basically it.
What's special about that?
the flavour, consistency of the mozzarella and the fact that it's absolutely NOT a factory, mass-produced food. it's mostly home-grown.
Flavour is much more intense, consistency is superior ( it's not squishy like regular mozzarella, yet it's so.. "milky"?
(gratuitous food porn )
We have our own here in Northern Italy delivered through a "broker", a guy we knew and that makes just that:
He connects all these small farms and takes orders - based on what you ask.