Tipico

In every town, there are small food shops saying they have 'tipico' this or that. Tipico means typical, which doesn't sound too special but we had this very long cheese lecture and tasting today saying how special the word is supposed to be. We had 'tipico' cheeses-cheeses that could only be made in the Abruzzo region and are crafted in small quanities. Of course the word is abused here too with imported stuff trying to say it's 'tipico' so they have special standards agents hunting this stuff down. So McDonald hamburgers maybe typical food in Ann Arbor but unless it originated in Ann Arbor using only Ann Arbor materials and made in small batches , it can't say it's tipico. The slow food movement originated in Italy and they use the English words to describe it as it is a protest against their other English term, fastfood.

Almost all the cheeses are made with unpasteurized milk making them forbidden in the US (until recently) but they said they can never get the real cheese from pasteurized milk. They have some saying, in Italy the bread should have many eyes (holes), the cheese, no eyes, and the wine should bring sparkle to your eyes. I guess they don't think much of Swiss cheese with its 'eyes'. All the cheeses were very good except one, which tasted putrid to me. It was supposed to some kind of aphrodistiac. Need to study. I found out I can't just audit the class-I need to get a grade. I've been getting As on all my Italian work but the film class is a toughie.

I am speaking better and better but have a long way to go. Still make too many pronunciation errors but I am starting to do the rolling 'r's but not consistantly.