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Pineapple pizza doctrine


year2027
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Okay, well, okay. And of course I was only funnin'. I do happen to know just how serious the Eyetilian 'Mericans are about their ethnic cuisine. I have two friends, brothers who live in the little community of Two Rivers, Alaska, who love their Italian food. They are known as the Bizzarro Brothers, in that that is their last name. One of them, Jeff, is a graduate of some culinary school, and is a very good chef. And while I lived up there with the other brother, Rob, we had "family dinner" at Jeff's every Sunday, with Jeff as the head chef. Basically, those who came to dinner were the two brothers' wives and all the kids, me, the visiting sister Trish The Dish, their visiting Mama, and at least two or three other locals.

Jeff would fix all kinds of nice stuff, and make sure to explain that we all understood what it was about. He made his own prosciutto which he would include in the gravy. He did egg plant patmisan one night, chicken cacciatore'(sp?) on another, and always there would be different types of pastas with marinara sauce. He made sure that I understood the difference between the gravy and the sauce, for, gravy had meat in it, but the sauce does not. And we would have wine, with part of the tradition that as a guest, you brought a bottle of wine. It was really funny too, because, one gal, a local tough gal Alaskan musher (dog sled racer), didn't like any of the merlot, chianti, and others, and always complained about the "our wine" being sour. And so, she would always bring her "screw top wine" that was always of a nasty sweet nature. It wasn't quite Boones Farm Apple wine, but I am sure she would have preferred that over the nice wines that we enjoyed that spring/summer of 2004 while I was working in Fairbanks for three months. I also used to tease the Chef by saying; "Hey Jeff, these noodles are great!" When referring to the pasta. And he'd plug his ears and go; "La la la la! I can't hear that! Noodles are a stupid Chinese counterfeit made from eggs! It ain't pasta!

And we'd all have a fine time with the kids at one end of a very long table, and we adults at the other. The wine would warm the conversation, the food would warm our souls, and the fellowship was just fine! We would finish it out with good coffee made in a French press with real cream, and it was grand. Great fun, that, and an excellent tradition for any family, regardless of the cuisine. However, I think it was then that I finally appreciated the greatness of Eyetalian food! And ya know, we never once had pizza!

Edited by Jonny Lingo
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I also used to tease the Chef by saying; "Hey Jeff, these noodles are great!"

when referring to the pasta. And he'd plug his ears and go;

"La la la la! I can't hear that!

Noodles are a stupid Chinese counterfeit made from eggs!

It ain't pasta!

Learned something new today! :spy:

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On the other hand - Pasta has eggs in it!! Really! I've made homemade ravioli and cappellini (angel hair) and spaghetti

Oriental noodles tend to have rice as the main flour - of course Marco Polo DID bring pasta to Europe from the Orient..

On the other hand - Pasta has eggs in it!! Really! I've made homemade ravioli and cappellini (angel hair) and spaghetti

Oriental noodles tend to have rice as the main flour - of course Marco Polo DID bring pasta to Europe from the Orient..

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Okay okay.

We'd better get this straight, for DMiller's sake as well as for my own sake. My friend, "Chef" Bizzarro, may have been acting like an "offended Italian American by saying; "Noodles are made from eggs!". But now, Doojable, an Italian American with unassailable character says that there is also flower (albeit rice flour) in Chinese egg noodles, which does in fact make sense, for, how could their be a "dry hard" noodle to soften in boiling water without some kind of flour as a base for consistency? In fact, now that I think of it, since eggs are referred to sometimes by chefs and cullinary artists as "the glue used in cooking" to keep things "together", it would make sense to me that even old fashioned Italian pasta would also have eggs in it. Would have to have eggs in it. And if so, why are Chinese egg noodles then called "egg noodles"? Because they have like, a huge percentage more "egg" in them?

Now, I do know that North Dakota wheat, known as "durham" wheat, is marketed primarily for the making of pasta. And naturally in the Old Country, there was some other kind of wheat used for pasta, unless the Durham seed came from the Old Country, and was used here in North Dakota for instance. I htink that the kind of wheat grown down in Kansas is used more for the making of bread. I forget what that is called. And now, after all of the questions engendered in my mmind, when I have time, I am going to look the answers to all of this on the Net.

But regardless of what Chinese noodles are made from, apparently it is an insult to call pasta "noodles". In fact, I remember my Mom and Dad arguing over this very point, with my Dad getting really mad at my Mom for insisting on calling certain pastas "noodles". And now, my wife insists on calling certain pastas "noodles", I think though, just to get my goat.

And so Doojable! Is there ever a time to call any tubular or flat shaped pasta a "noodle"?

Edited by Jonny Lingo
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Jonny dear,

Pasta literally means "dough" referring to the what it looks like before it is shaped.

All macaroni and spaghetti and ravioli are technically called "pasta"

Now there are hand shaped pastas and machine shaped pastas.

The tubular (Ziti, penne etc) and shell shapes (et al) are "macaroni," while the long stringy things are "spaghetti" but only loosely. There are as many names as Carter has pills - fettuccini, ( close to those Noodle things you're referring to) linguine, spaghetti, and capelletti are all in this category and refer to the width of the pasta.

BTW I do believe that the egg noodles that are fried and the egg pasta that the Chinese use are basically the same as the pasta Italians use(maybe the egg to flour ratio and the flour is different). Italians use Semolina wheat. I do not think that semolina was available to the Chinese - but I haven't checked the history.

I'm a bit of a "foodie" dontcha know.....?? Before picky kids I used to be quite a gourmet - I can't wait until I can cook up a storm again. They are asking questions about all those books on the shelves in my kitchen....

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While we are on the subject of pizza.....

The pizza in Italy doesn't even closely resemble what we 'mer'cans call pizza. It's light and not loaded with cheese in every nook and cranny. Even the toppings are less abundant. I think that they believe that less is more.

Have you ever asked yourself WHY we need to stuff a crust with cheese and then make the darn thing two layers with cheese in between????

That was popular a year or so back - heart attack waiting to happen...

Edited by doojable
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