Now I really want pasta. Damn you, Dayo.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:20 (ten years ago) link
"Papardelle, I don't know the diff between this and tagliatelle but these are my first choice when it's time for pasta"
mine too!'
For non long pasta my favorite is orecchiette.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:22 (ten years ago) link
There was a place in London's West End called the Centrale that did absolutely incredible simple pasta for something like £4 or £5 a head. A teacher took my scholarship group there on an outing, and I ate two whole chillis in an act of, how you say, braggadocio. The restaurant was notable for sheltering and feeding the homeless without comment - with tacit enthusiasm, even.
Of course, it didn't stay in business. I feel lucky to have caught the tail-end of what was clearly a long and doomed glory.
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:23 (ten years ago) link
I think Pollo is gone now. I always preferred Presto, which was just up the street, and used to have Derek Jarman as a regular customer BITD. They're both gone now, but they were both dirt cheap and really, really great.
God, I can get so sad thinking about Presto and how it's not there anymore. They did the most amazing sauté potatoes and chicken valdostana.
― i was a downy lad, and twee (stevie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:24 (ten years ago) link
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/prestospecial.htm
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/pollo_special.htm
― i was a downy lad, and twee (stevie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:25 (ten years ago) link
^^^ my hauntography
The area bounded by the four Circuses (St Giles, Oxford, Piccadilly, Cambridge) is rapidly becoming just another standard-issue British city centre: a dreck strip reeking of piss, blighted by St*rbucks, and heaving with feral packs of drunks.
A lousy pulsing puke puddle at the heart of the third-world capital of Europe.
ok I like this website, despite a certain lack of subtlety
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:26 (ten years ago) link
it's a myth that fresh pasta is better imo, it's too mushy, you lose that al dente texture
also, i would probably only pay like $15 myself, still seems excessive since we cook pasta all the time at home. my in-laws go out to fancy Italian places a lot and since they're paying, I don't think much about the price
― marcos, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:27 (ten years ago) link
'third-world capital' needs explaining maybe but it's right about the market forces flattening the centre into a streamlined cash extraction engine
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:28 (ten years ago) link
I sometimes wish that someone who really knew pasta would take and feed me pasta so that I understood what people got so amazed about. Because I'm amazed that people can get so effusive about something I effectively consider to be gooey slop. And I am quite ready to be convinced that the fault is in me, not in pasta as a foodstuff.
― Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:30 (ten years ago) link
ha Stevie - I definitely ate at Pollo with Jenny J :)
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:33 (ten years ago) link
Re: fresh pasta, there was a Jamie Oliver-inspired "fresh pasta is great!" and then a "al dente is better" kick-back but I maintain that fresh pasta, when boiled properly (barely) and dusted with breadcrumbs is superior to even the most perfect spaghetti
― faghetti (fgti), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:35 (ten years ago) link
Noodles that really benefit from being fresh are Chinese noodles
Not surprising though that an Italian xerox of a Chinese invention loses something in translation and only benefits after going through a process bearing remarkable similarity to the production of particle board
Oops, did I just give away my position here
― 龜, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:36 (ten years ago) link
Hmmm. Which actually makes me realise something, which is that I will totally and happily seek out noodles in Chinese food, Japanese food, Thai food, East Asian fusion kinda food and eat them with relish. And I don't know if it's the "kind of preparation" involved with Asian as opposed to European noodle cooking. Or if I just don't like "Italian" (i.e. a particular British 70s interpretation thereof) food.
― Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:40 (ten years ago) link
I think the Italians win the noodle battle (but Chinese cuisine wins the war because rice is better than any noodle)
― faghetti (fgti), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:40 (ten years ago) link
Think there are plenty of Chinese who would disagree with you on rice being better than the noodle
― 龜, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:41 (ten years ago) link
But that was very much swayed by the term "bowl of pasta" while if you said "bowl of noodles" I'd pay £20-£25 (well, I would, if I had a job and ate out regularly again) for really well prepared vegetarian noodle dishes? That's odd, and I hadn't thought about that.
― Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:42 (ten years ago) link
EastAsian fusion w/ relish, huh. the brits really have a panache when it comes to culinary crime xxxp
― Simon H., Friday, 22 August 2014 13:43 (ten years ago) link
I bet, ENBB - did she ever take you to the glorious cheap pizza place Lorelei? That closed last year :((((
― i was a downy lad, and twee (stevie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:43 (ten years ago) link
I mean, if you added "rice noodles" to the mix, like, rice is my favourite carbohydrate and you adding the amazing of rice to noodles, which is the best thing ever, obviously.
Ha! You making a pun. I meant, "eat with delight" but also, if we're talking about this odd place my friend and I always go to (near the British Museum?), well I could mean "relish" in the bowls of pickled condiments of obscure origin which are amazing on noodles.
― Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:45 (ten years ago) link
pasta is one of the most efficient means of getting parmesan into my system and that's why i love it
― i was a downy lad, and twee (stevie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:45 (ten years ago) link
Dayo where do you stand on rice vs. noodle
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:47 (ten years ago) link
Hm I don't know the national origin of soba noodles but I would walk two hours for soba, and def prefer it to 90% of Italian pastas
― faghetti (fgti), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:48 (ten years ago) link
In the end, with rice but is a very hard decision to make
― 龜, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:48 (ten years ago) link
I would have gone with noodles, no question, until I ate all the rice in Taiwan. Still a very hard decision and so I'm just gonna refuse to take a stan(d).
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:50 (ten years ago) link
Choosing rice in the land of beef noodles, interesting
― 龜, Friday, 22 August 2014 13:51 (ten years ago) link
Rice is the greatest starch that exists
― faghetti (fgti), Friday, 22 August 2014 13:52 (ten years ago) link
i know that noodles originated from china but to call modern-day italian pasta a "xerox" of chinese noodles is bullshit. there have been a huge number of agricultural and culinary exchanges in the past 500 years in most cases various cultures have adapted foreign ingredients and incorporated them into their own cuisines. i love traditional mexican food but i'm never going to say that other countries using chilis or tomatoes are a sad "xerox". it's one ingredient. similarly peruvian lomo saltado may be an approximation of chinese stir fries but it transcends mere approximation and becomes something else entirely.
― marcos, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link
300 posts by midnight gmt
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link
no way am i reading this whole thread but i have no idea what terrible pasta experiences have led you to believe that this is true
― call all destroyer, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link
eh, my in-laws are sicilian and they all pretty much agree with me. not saying fresh pasta is bad by any means, just that it's not necessarily better. i think there are some exceptions with certain pasta types (e.g. various stuffed pastas) but generally i think it's a myth that fresh is better. it's often inconsistent and unreliable.
will agree w/ 龜 xp that chinese noodles may benefit more by being fresh
― marcos, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:44 (ten years ago) link
I guess this is where I feel slightly ashamed that my tongue in cheek post reeled another poster in by the cheek entirely
― 龜, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:46 (ten years ago) link
$20 if it's incredible pasta but $15 seems reasonable for a nice restaurant
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Friday, 22 August 2014 14:47 (ten years ago) link
well sure nothing would be necessarily better if it wasn't made right or cooked right, but it's like very easy to make and cook delicious al dente fresh pasta
― call all destroyer, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:50 (ten years ago) link
i just think fresh pasta tastes better.
― Scary Darey (dog latin), Friday, 22 August 2014 14:52 (ten years ago) link
btw i agree w/lamp, $25 is fine at a good restaurant
― call all destroyer, Friday, 22 August 2014 14:52 (ten years ago) link
my answer to this question is that 99% of the time if i'm in an Italian restaurant I would choose pizza.
― Scary Darey (dog latin), Friday, 22 August 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link
$15 but I've spent more. Tempted to say I should only spend >$15 in the small cities I've lived. Mid grade Italian restaurant food is the worst, but there seems to be a $$ threshold around here where it becomes a completely different thing.
― Peeking at Peak Petty (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 August 2014 14:57 (ten years ago) link
I have an irrational thing against ordering pasta in restaurants because it feels somehow like an overly marked up item, which is silly because all food in restaurants is overly marked up.
― 'arry Goldman (Hurting 2), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
we have one of those imperia pasta machines & you get really good pasta but it must not be worth the bother since it's been like a decade since we used it
voted $15 but that would only be in exceptional circumstances, great pasta's too easy to make at home to spring for it when out imo
― Euler, Friday, 22 August 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
It needs to have some rabbit ragu or some other special ingredient for me to pay mor than 16 or so.
― 'arry Goldman (Hurting 2), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:03 (ten years ago) link
I'm more happy paying $15+ if it's stuffed pasta or gnocchi, something besides what (even at good places) comes in a box
― Euler, Friday, 22 August 2014 15:10 (ten years ago) link
but some really wonderful things come in boxes
― Peeking at Peak Petty (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:18 (ten years ago) link
*gets down on one knee*
*restaurant goes silent**olive garden waitstaff gather*
― Peeking at Peak Petty (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:19 (ten years ago) link
*I think, 'thank god the chicken con broccoli was perfect tonight'*
― Peeking at Peak Petty (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:21 (ten years ago) link
there was a multicenturion thread about olive garden wasn't there
it does make me wonder if america wreaks the same godforsaken horrors upon 'pasta' that it does on 'pizza' but tbh the former is probably much more difficult
now i've lobbed that grenade, i'm going to run out amidst your zings
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 15:21 (ten years ago) link
I just want to know why they only made the least significant word Italian in 'chicken con broccoli'
― Peeking at Peak Petty (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 August 2014 15:23 (ten years ago) link
*calls over shoulder* it's not italian
― imago, Friday, 22 August 2014 15:24 (ten years ago) link
shit i made tonight was def worth $28 fwiw
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Saturday, 30 August 2014 06:46 (ten years ago) link
take it to the TMI thread, weirdo
― SEEMS TO ME (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 30 August 2014 07:25 (ten years ago) link
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/07/olive-garden-never-ending-pasta-casual-dining-restaurants/15139803/
http://i.imgur.com/N4HDaf7.png
― 龜, Monday, 8 September 2014 03:06 (ten years ago) link
But Spenchian says this Olive Garden promotion isn't about gorging but about fun. "We're trying to make our fans feel like VIPs," he says. That's one reason that up to seven guests who eat with the pass-holder will receive freebie Coca-Cola branded drinks, he says.
― 龜, Monday, 8 September 2014 03:08 (ten years ago) link