Have you ever had a food, when you ate it or even thought about it, the remembered smells and taste transported you to another place? For me, that food is the panini. When I was in school in Florence, Italy, every day in between classes I would walk down the labyrinth of medieval streets and pop into a nearby, tiny, paninoteca (Italian sandwich shop) - quite literally what one would consider a 'hole in the wall'. Half of the store was composed of display cases filled with rows of panini, the other half was standing room - no wider than the cases themselves. I would place my order with the gray-haired man behind the counter, and into the press my panino would go. Several minutes later emerged a crusty golden flat bread, oozing with cheese. The old man would wrap the bottom half in brown paper and over the glass display case, would hand me the steaming hot panino. As there was no room to sit, I would walk several streets back to the Duomo, sit on the stairs and eat. This became my daily ritual while in school until one weekend, I decided to recreate them at home in my modest Italian kitchen. I remember going to the market for the first time to fetch the ingredients, and seeing mozzarella di bufala. This white pillowy ball didn't look anything like the dried ropey roll of glorified string cheese I was used to seeing back home in the United States. When I got back to my apartment with my goodies, I removed the mozzarella ball from its water-packed container and cut into it. Immediately I knew this was something special. It was soft! I mean, really soft...And milky! The flavor was creamy, yet delicate, and absolutely sublime. I used to love American cow mozzarella, until I had my first taste of unadulterated Italian buffalo mozzarella. If you haven't had it, you must try it! You'll never go back.