Food - Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella

[bkuehn1952]

I had always sort of wondered why fresh "Buffalo Mozzarella" was called "Buffalo". I intuitively knew it was not because it came from Buffalo, NY. Still, why the name? Wikipedia explained that the term was used because the cheese was traditionally made in Italy from water buffalo milk.

Naturally, during our visit to Italy, we had to visit an organic "Bufalo" dairy. The water buffalo were originally imported by the Romans 2,000 years ago from the Indian subcontinent. These particular beasts were treated reasonably well (at least the females, and only for 15 years).

Massages were on demand:

Bufalo Massage.JPG (1.31 MiB) Viewed 1338 times

When the buffalo felt they should be milked, they queued up at the automated milking station:

Waiting to be Milked.JPG (1011.55 KiB) Viewed 1338 times

When not lounging in the open barn, they could eat and have their head scratched by American tourists:

Head Scratching.JPG (316.05 KiB) Viewed 1338 times

The male offspring were not so lucky. They were turned into meat products, wallets, handbags and shoes. My wallet's name is Antonio.

[DougE]

My wallet's name is Antonio.

[legitimatebeef]

Thanks for the infotainment.

[bkuehn1952]

Thanks for the infotainment.

Prego

[jattruia]

This is awesome.

[bryan k]

That was hilarious.

If I'm not mistaken, mozzarella cheese is protected by one of those protected location of origin treaties that the United States doesn't recognize (and that pisses me off). I hate eating Black Forest Ham from Iowa, drinking Boudreaux wine from California, or mozzarella cheese from Wisconsin. I also find that the authentic buffalo mozzarella that one would find on a certified Neapolitan pizza has a wonderfully creamy texture that can't be rivalled by anything in America.

And speaking of buffalo, we don't have them here in America. Those huge bumbling beasts from the great plains are called "bison".