Named after the island of Capri in the bay of Naples where it is believed to have originated.
When we lived in Naples, I first tasted real Mozzarella, which is made from buffalo milk. It was a strange looking cheese to me. The cheese I knew was the cheese on a pizza or the Japanese snow-brand triangular cheese that my father used to eat. I went to a place that made Mozzarella and there I saw white round things as big as baseballs floating in a big barrel of water. It tastes like milk, and it is usually eaten with tomatoes and olive oil. it is quite soft and very delicious. Now days, real Mozzarella cheese is available at many nice food stores, but around 1980s, it wasn’t sold in US or Japan. I wonder if the Mozzarella store, I visited still exists. If so, I want to go back and try the freshly-made Mozzarella straight out of a barrel.