{"id":35654,"date":"2018-11-01T07:45:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T11:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=35654"},"modified":"2021-02-26T16:05:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T21:05:14","slug":"my-childhood-as-an-international-cheese-smuggler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-childhood-as-an-international-cheese-smuggler\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruminations: My Childhood as an International Cheese Smuggler"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>ense memories are an extraordinary phenomenon: certain sights, sounds, tastes, and smells can instantly summon emotions from moments long ago. For me, homemade Italian food brings my childhood to life\u2014the steam rising up from a plate of just-cooked pasta conjures bustling Sunday dinners at my grandparents\u2019 Brooklyn home, while seafood platters remind me of Christmas Eve feasts filled with excitement. Slicing caciocavallo cheese, however, surpasses them all in terms of evoking vivid memories. As soon as I draw my knife through the pale, golden rind of the gourd-shaped delicacy, I am transported back to the 1970s, my early days as an international cheese smuggler.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Wait\u2026I can explain.  <\/span><\/p>\n

When my paternal grandparents and their siblings emigrated from Italy in 1920, most of them settled in Ontario, Canada. My grandfather, however, had secured a job as a tailor in New York City, so my dad and his parents headed for Ellis Island instead. Being so far away from their close-knit extended family wasn\u2019t easy, so they collectively vowed to visit one another every few years.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Although my grandparents fully embraced the American way of life, they were also committed to preserving their Italian traditions. My father\u2019s parents were born and raised in Monteleone di Puglia, a village in southern Italy known for its caciocavallo cheese. (The hamlet still hosts the oldest\u2014and most well-attended\u2014caciocavallo festival in the world.) A staple in every Monteleone resident\u2019s home, even moving an ocean away would not stop my Nonna from having a steady supply of caciocavallo on hand.  <\/span><\/p>\n

There was just one problem: Although several cheesemakers from their hometown set up shop in Canada, my grandparents couldn\u2019t find their beloved caciocavallo stateside. The only way to ensure our family had plenty of caciocavallo in the pantry was to smuggle it across the border.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Technically, it isn\u2019t illegal to bring cheese into the US from Canada\u2014as long as it\u2019s for personal use\u2014but you\u2019re supposed to declare it at the border. That\u2019s where things got a little dicey for us. While our caciocavallo stash was certainly not for resale, the sheer quantity my Nonna insisted upon probably would have gotten our cheese haul seized had we tried to declare it. So, we didn\u2019t.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, we hid the massive mesh bags under blankets in the trunk, stacked our luggage precariously on top of it, and kept our fingers crossed that the aroma wouldn\u2019t waft out until after<\/i> we made it back to the States. Even now, one heavenly whiff of the buttery cheese conjures up the pangs of nervous fear that struck as we approached the guard booth. Although I never snitched about the secret stash, there was one close call: When I was around 10 years old, I dozed off before we got to the border, and as per policy, the agent insisted I be awakened to respond to the mandatory questions. My parents feared that I would forget \u201cthe script\u201d in my sleepy stupor, but I responded like a champ: \u201cYes, I\u2019m American. We visited family. We didn\u2019t buy anything.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

Luckily, border agents never did search our car and cart my father off to Cheese Smuggler\u2019s Prison. Instead, upon returning from the 10-hour trip, we got to see Nonna\u2019s face light up as we peeled back the oil-stained blankets to reveal her transported treasures.  <\/span><\/p>\n

These days, I\u2019ve been able to carry on Nonna\u2019s legacy of always having caciocavallo on hand\u2014minus the harrowing trips across the Canadian border\u2014thanks to an Italian shop just a few miles from my New Jersey home. Nevertheless, every time I see those bells of cheese hanging from the rafters in my basement, I still feel like a bit of an outlaw.<\/p>\n

Illustrated by Tom Bingham.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fond memories of smuggling caciocavallo cheese over the Canadian border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":35655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[6372,1750,6370,6371],"coauthors":[6369],"class_list":["post-35654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ruminations","tag-caciocavalla-cheese","tag-caciocavallo","tag-cheese-smuggler","tag-smuggling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy Childhood as an International Cheese Smuggler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fond memories of smuggling caciocavallo cheese over the Canadian border.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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