Grrr! Talkin' Like a 'Soprano' [It's "mani-got"... not manicotti]

FOXNEWS ^ | July 03, 2006 | By Mike Straka

[Skel]

My Mom's people are from Abruzzi.. They drop the "A" at the end of Ricotta , supressatta,and "bracciola", the "i" at the end of "manicotti"; and tend to replace the "Cs" with "Gs". And it's "GRAVY", not "SAUCE"

My father's parents are from Abruzzi - they do the same thing!
My mother's parents are from Lyons. I don't care what they do. ;) (j/k)

[johnny7]

LOL...

[DCPatriot]

My grandmother from Sicily pronounced it Caaba-gaul (Capicolla).

[NutCrackerBoy]

Enjoyed your post. It's a great, great series, full of surprises and insights. I have to credit the writers most of all, but Gandolfini carries the product.

[xsmommy]

what lovely memories, and they are the same ones that my husband has of his Sicilian born grandparents. I know about the "us" and "them". all 4 of my grandparents came from eastern europe, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine. My Lithuanian grandmother always told me to NEVER marry an Italian, because they are "a different kind of people". She met and liked my husband before she died but didn't live to see me marry an Italian! i also lament the watering down of the culture, and the fact that my kids don't have the same feelings about their heritage that my husband and i each do.

[johnny7]

...all 4 of my grandparents came from eastern europe, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine.

My dads side... was from Poland... but his father fought in the Austrian army during WW1 before coming over. Go figure. I tend to think they moved around alot in that part of Europe... from one shell-crater to another.

[xsmommy]

my mom's parents were both from Lithuania but met over here. my Polack granddad met my Ukrainian grandma here too. Eastern Europeans were the "same" kind of people, no matter which country they were from, according to my Lithuanian gram! She did say that the Italians all beat their wives and burned each other's houses down too... ; ) Fortunately, my hub, albeit Italian, is neither wife abuser nor arsonist... LOL!

[johnny7]

Polacks and wops make good couples... a woman on my paper route told me that 40 years ago. ;)

[xsmommy]

i know, they do, don't they? and they make nice looking kids : )

[johnny7]

I'm living proof!

[Question_Assumptions]

The way an Italian co-worker (from Sicily, by the way) put it was that he really couldn't understand very much of what Italian-Americans would say to him (he lived in New York City) because they spoke a 100 year-old dialect that nobody in Italy still speaks. In fact, his "Italian Accent" sounded more Eastern European than Italian to me.

[PzLdr]

So did the Abruzzi side of my family. Pop's side is Portuguese.

[DCPatriot]

My pop's side was Dutch German...my mom's maiden name was Cirella and my grandmother's was Accordino.

[PzLdr]

Mom's maiden name was Liberatore.Don't knowe what Nana's maiden name was.

[Texas Federalist]

Great. Maybe you can tell me what "cappa-coo" is

cappicola - an Italian lunchmeat

[DCPatriot]

Didn't your grandmother have any brothers?

I have an original photo of my grandmother's family arriving at Ellis Island. In the photo, she is about 7 or 8 years old.

She got married away at 13. I can still "see" her sitting in the kitchen watching Gomer Pyle, laughing, while holding her ever present rosary beads.

And I can still smell the meatballs frying on the stove every Sunday morning when she made homemade pasta for the extended family.

SIGH! R.I.P Gramma Teresa.

[xsmommy]

i was complimenting YOU as well as my own kiddies : )

[xsmommy]

my gram loved Sat Night with Studio Wrestling and Bruno Sammartino, the Crusher, Haystack Calhoun etc.

[johnny7]

As long as that's understood... ;)

[DCPatriot]

My Gramma preferred Lawrence Welk and that accordian player Myron Floren and of course the Lennon Sisters.