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Italian-Americans and the language of food: How calamari became galamar and ricotta became rigott
MSN ^ | 3/16/21 | Michael La Corte

Posted on 03/16/2021 5:30:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway

New Jersey is a wonderfully diverse place. Though a relatively small state, it has the highest population density in the U.S. It's also brimming with an immense amount of Italian-American residents.

I'm half-Italian, but I didn't grow up speaking a lick of the mellifluous tongue. From pizza and pasta to "The Sopranos," I was raised in a place where the notion of Italy is celebrated. However, it took me some time to note that this was not Italian culture, per se, but a slightly different "sect" altogether — an Italian-American history and culture that's rich in and of itself.

It wasn't until culinary school that I began to embrace all that the Italian-American experience has to offer, which is so much more than chicken parm. From bolognese and gnocchi to caponata and fennel, the breadth of Italian-American cuisine began to come into full view, and I've been eager to learn and consume as much as possible about the storied culture's food and history ever since. (It also didn't hurt that I have a killer Italian accent.)

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Food; Local News
KEYWORDS: aleech; brahzhole; calamari; cookery; italian; pastafazool; reegut; squid
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To: nickcarraway

Where’s the pasta fazhool?


41 posted on 03/17/2021 7:38:17 AM PDT by MarDav
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To: MarDav

Mah-dohn a me


42 posted on 03/17/2021 7:39:42 AM PDT by MarDav
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To: nickcarraway

Italingish is worse than Spanglish. I am half Italian and I say “calamari” and “cappicola.” Never cared for low class trashy culture promoted by Hollywood.


43 posted on 03/17/2021 7:40:31 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: pinkandgreenmom

Very funny! Lorraine Bracco’s Brooklyn accent is not very athentic, though, probably because her mother was French, and also that she moved to Europe at 20 and learned to speak real Italian and French.


44 posted on 03/17/2021 7:41:27 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: nickcarraway
They couldn’t afford to keep them.

Bwahaha!

45 posted on 03/17/2021 7:42:21 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: Prov1322
the national language may be Italian, but every single town has a dialect, or a variation of the language, which is entirely unique to the people living there.

Terrific thread; thanks for the ping! Even Philadelphia has dozens of dialects, one for each ethnic neighborhood. A study from UPenn once found over 30 dialects in Philly.

46 posted on 03/17/2021 7:48:34 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: nickcarraway

My uncle (my grandfather, his dad, was an Italian immigrant) was down in Savanna Georgia to dine at a friend’s new Italian restaurant. He ordered a plate of pasta and asked the waitress if he could have it “al dente”

The girl put her hand on her hip and said “Al who???”


47 posted on 03/17/2021 7:54:59 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (Trump took down ISIS, Biden took down Dr. Seuss)
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To: gr8eman
New Jersey...It's a sh-t hole of epic proportions. Unfortunately I had to go there to see my aging mother!

She must live near New York City. South Jersey is little towns, farms and forests, with great beaches the farther south you go. And the Appalachian Trail runs along the northwestern part of NJ—beautiful country.

Shaddap You Face

48 posted on 03/17/2021 7:58:30 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: nickcarraway

Wonder how many people can pronounce Sfogliatella. I know how the Sicilians say it.


49 posted on 03/17/2021 8:02:21 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: 1Old Pro

There’s a tiny Sicilian place on Sullivan Street, the street where the St. Anthony Feast used to be, and what I pronounced Svogliadell, the owner pronounced the exactly correct way.

My mother was able to speak good Italian. She took it in high school because she was already second generation and wanted to learn the right way.


50 posted on 03/17/2021 8:17:10 AM PDT by firebrand
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To: jerseyman

That is true.....you might find the rare gem but it’s the exception

Some places are better hunting.....south Florida

Or New Orleans

Places Italians settled down here

Closest real Italian to the western south is The Hill in St Louis....not too shabby...you’d be happy


51 posted on 03/17/2021 8:21:22 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG )
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To: 1Old Pro

I know how to say Ferrara’s on Grand st

My wife’s favorite Italian pastry

“Shfo tella “

I have no clue how to spell it


52 posted on 03/17/2021 8:28:03 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG )
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To: MarDav
Where’s the pasta fazhool?

"Fazhool" is Italglish for fagioli (fa gee OH lee), the Italian word for beans. Typically, pasta and beans is made with white beans like cannellini; and here's a dish of pasta è fagioli made with ditalini pasta:


53 posted on 03/17/2021 8:36:31 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: jerseyman
Worst Italian food I have had is in Salt Lake City. I’ve been to their three “best” Italian restaurants and they are/were horrible.

When it comes to anything Italian, I prefer cooking at home, but the Italian restos I go back to again and again here in the US are as follows:

Robertos (Bronx, NY), Piccolo Venezia (Astoria, NY), Al di La (Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY), Arturo’s (Boca Raton, FL aka Long Island South).

I live in NJ now, and most places I have been to were overpriced and overrated. In other words, I cook at home and go out only for Portuguese/Greek/Middle Eastern/Cuban/Indian/Chinese/Seafood/“American.”

54 posted on 03/17/2021 8:41:13 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: COBOL2Java
He ordered a plate of pasta and asked the waitress if he could have it “al dente” The girl put her hand on her hip and said “Al who???”

Back in the 60s my parents took us to Canada. We stopped in a remote part of Nova Scotia at a restaurant run by Italian-born Canadians, and the teenage Canadian-born daughter was our waitress. Dad ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and I kid you not, she asked him, "Do you want meatballs with your spaghetti and meatballs?"

55 posted on 03/17/2021 8:42:27 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: EEGator

True eyeties say neither (“salsa” is the word used for most sauces in standard Italian, local dialects have a ton of other terms, including “ragu”). Never took time to find out why Italian Americans use the English word “gravy.”


56 posted on 03/17/2021 8:44:13 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Chicago Italians are mostly Sicilian or from Tuscany. There is a “Little Tuscany” on Oakley Street on the west side.


57 posted on 03/17/2021 8:46:16 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: nickcarraway

My skin crawls when I hear tomato sauce referred to as gravy. And I’m from NJ.


58 posted on 03/17/2021 8:47:35 AM PDT by EnquiringMind
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To: 1Old Pro
Wonder how many people can pronounce Sfogliatella. I know how the Sicilians say it.


Sfol ya TEL la; or, in Seegeelyan, sfoi ya DELL.

59 posted on 03/17/2021 8:48:24 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."—Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh)
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To: Albion Wilde
Sfol ya TEL la

yep sounds about right

60 posted on 03/17/2021 8:50:44 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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