Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That sticks in my craw. Gravy is a sauce made by thickening meat drippings. Tomato sauce doesn't fit the description. Besides, gravy is an English word, not an Italian one, so they are just using it wrong.
I'm not going to let this destroy my life, though.
I think we forget about the Italians who settled here (Newark) who could not speak English, so for my Grandparents, it was easier to say "Gravy" for tomato sauce instead of "sauce", which is what we mostly ate. My Grandmother hardly ever made brown gravy.
Oh and coming from Newark, NJ when in the day, had a lot of Italians, I would run to the local Italian bakery for Grandma to get a loaf of Italian bread. I returned home to ask for a slice of the bread with "gravy" on it. I now make that round Italian bread and tell my Grandkids about this!
That doesn't make derision of an entire group okay, necessarily. I'm not indignant over here, just mindful of what appears to be a double standard. Leave African-Americans aside for the moment and substitute any racial (as opposed to ethnic) minority and imagine that sort of crack passing muster. See what I'm trying to say?
there are jokes about racial minorities on this forum. It's just a little more "subtle" that's all.
I'm half Italian. Mom speaks, I learned and we still have relatives in Italy: Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia.
So that makes me northern Italian and I do see a bit of a difference compared to my fellow NJ Italian Americans. My grandparents emigrated to Chicago and grew up a little "less aggressive" than the East Coast Italians, or less than Coppola, Scorsese or David Chase would have you believe.
Military moved my parents to NJ where I grew up. But meeting Italian Americans from Northeast NJ is still a pretty big culture shock and I probably have more in common with the Pennsylvania Dutch.
The spouse and I plan on teaching our children Italian, visiting my relatives every two years, and continuing the culinary traditions of Emilia-Romagna, the breadbasket of Italy (like never putting cheese in tortellini) - always chicken.
You know, like the real Italy, not the Italian American caricatures reality TV would have you think.
My friend is Italian lives in a place in NJ where there arent' many Italians,
Yet she still speaks the langauge, aprecciates the culture, and does ideintify herself as Itailan much more than her other side that isn't Italian.
then again her grandmother still speaks Italian to her.
Where in New Jersey are there not a lot of Italians? Every county is at least 10% Italian (Salem County is not included in the following link - but I can tell you that it's above 10% (13% to be more specific //www.city-data.com/county/Salem_County-NJ.html)
Where in New Jersey are there not a lot of Italians? Every county is at least 10% Italian (Salem County is not included in the following link - but I can tell you that it's above 10% (13% to be more specific //www.city-data.com/county/Salem_County-NJ.html)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
