Strangely, one of the first pasta casualties we noticed in Singapore was bucatini disappearing from the shelves here as well. Which has nothing to do with the FDA issue brought up in the article, but probably has to do with the comment in the article that pasta makers were reducing the output of less popular SKUs...hoping bucatini makes a comeback in 2021!
Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
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Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#52This was a rollercoaster. +1 Nicely written!
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#53Great. Reminds me of the start of a Murakami novel. "I was cooking pasta in the kitchen, and carefully preparing a simple salad, when I noticed the clock in the wall began ticking backward. That wasn't all, outside... "
What novel is that? Sounds very exciting.
oh I mean "reminds me of” as a term including "sounds like"... and was just copying what I think of as Murakami's style and some of his common tropes such as pasta, cooking, strangeness in mundane situations.
If you're interested in reading, I reckon it's safe to read his books in chronolgical order. You can see how his style and preoccupations develop over the years.
The first story I read was "on meeting the 100% perfect girl one April morning" out of a short story collection called "the elephant vanishes" which is not his first book. I was in a bookshop in early 2003 and just randomly looking for the shortest thing I could possibly read and this story got me hooked on Murakami. and then I think after reading that short story book the next thing I read was "hear the wind sing", his original short novel. And then "pinball 1973" and then I think "Norwegian Wood."
I like his sort of loose universe how similar characters and types of characters and tropes kind of return but the the recurrence is not necessarily central to any of the particular stories they're just kind of like motifs.
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#54The article mentions the fact that the FDA calls all legal pasta "enriched macaroni." The article also mentions trade groups pressuring the FDA to set arbitrary standards on pasta to keep out imports of Asian noodles. The article fails to mention what the FDA calls Asian noodle products. It calls them "alimentary paste."
That must be a formal legal term, although it is certainly appropriate:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alimentary
"Of, or relating to food, nutrition or digestion."
"Nourishing; nutritious."
(At least the first part; "extruded alimentary paste" would be a more precise description of noodles.)
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#55I'm glad someone else noticed it. During the height of the first pandemic wave in Canada, I literally couldn't find Bucatini anywhere, specifically De Cecco which IMO is superior to some other brands where I live. I went to dozens of supermarkets and they had every variant of pasta except Bucatini and I really couldn't understand what the heck was going on.
Looks like it's had pretty good availability on amazon.ca, but OOS for the last month: https://ca.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B07N21XB55 but like 5x the price on .com https://www.amazon.com/Molisana-Italian-Bucatini-oz-Pkgs/dp/...
I just bought some for pickup at target.com. Their Good & Gather brand Bucatini [1] is available in a couple of stores in the East Bay Area (Alameda, Albany). I hope you can find some locally.
1. https://www.target.com/p/signature-bucatini-16oz-good-38-gat...
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#56At the beginning of the article I was thinking surely there are more important things to write about, but it dives down a pretty absurd rabbit hole. Especially funny is when the pasta spokesperson begins commiserating that the reporter is making more work for them.
It's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? Differing regulations and standards between countries usually makes no sense and just harms the consumer. How is a Volvo made for the Swedish market unsafe on Canadian roads? EU and Canada recently signed a trade agreement so that they won't tariff eachothers' cars, but consumers still can't buy a car from a Eu…
That's the importance of regulatory harmonisation. Eg your laptop charger is probably covered in 20 different indecipherable logos showing compliance with every countries regulators, all of whom have standards at least 99.9% identical. The EU has harmonised regulations internally in order to make completely free trade work, so a single 'CE' logo is enough to show compliance for the entire EU.
Regulatory harmonisation is controversial though, especially here in UK. No matter that its usually boring stuff like agreeing fire retardant coatings on soft furnishings, the newspapers insisted this was a breach of sovereignty. Expect a new British safety standard (identical but with a different logo) to join the pack.
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#57At the beginning of the article I was thinking surely there are more important things to write about, but it dives down a pretty absurd rabbit hole. Especially funny is when the pasta spokesperson begins commiserating that the reporter is making more work for them.
It's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? Differing regulations and standards between countries usually makes no sense and just harms the consumer. How is a Volvo made for the Swedish market unsafe on Canadian roads? EU and Canada recently signed a trade agreement so that they won't tariff eachothers' cars, but consumers still can't buy a car from a Eu…
Regulation isn't made just by health/safety perspective, but includes cultural, social and others.
For example, Katsuobushi is the core part of Japanese food but it seems that exporting to Europe is difficult due to EU regulation. Another example in Japan would be K-car.
As a Japanese, I never want to give up Katuobushi for improving health. I suspect that maybe oppositely, European people also has food or culture that banned from other country .
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#58The article mentions the fact that the FDA calls all legal pasta "enriched macaroni." The article also mentions trade groups pressuring the FDA to set arbitrary standards on pasta to keep out imports of Asian noodles. The article fails to mention what the FDA calls Asian noodle products. It calls them "alimentary paste."
That must be a formal legal term, although it is certainly appropriate: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alimentary "Of, or relating to food, nutrition or digestion." "Nourishing; nutritious." (At least the first part; " extruded alimentary paste" would be a more precise description of noodles.)
The point isn't whether the word "alimentary" means anything. You probably know related words like "alimony." (Tangentially, the humorous novel Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera is a surprising early precursor to Fantastic Voyage and related stories of microscopic explorers inside the human body.)
The point is that calling any food product "alimentary paste" is hilariously unappetizing.
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
That must be a formal legal term, although it is certainly appropriate: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alimentary "Of, or relating to food, nutrition or digestion." "Nourishing; nutritious." (At least the first part; " extruded alimentary paste" would be a more precise description of noodles.)
The point isn't whether the word "alimentary" means anything. You probably know related words like "alimony." (Tangentially, the humorous novel Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera is a surprising early precursor to Fantastic Voyage and related stories of microscopic explorers inside the human body.) The point is that calling any food product "alimentary paste" is hilariously unappetizing.
'Paste' is an old word for pastry, too. It makes old recipes rather odd sounding [1]:
> make six or eight ounces of paste as No. 319, roll it to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, or a little more, put pudding-cloth in a basin, sprinkle some flour over it, lay in your paste, and then the meat, together with a few pieces of fat; when full put in three wineglasses of water; turn the paste over the meat, so as not to form a lump, but well closed; then tie the cloth
And who could resist paste pudding [2]?
Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
#60I jumped ship to Linguine, the flatness also holds more sauce than rounder non hollow pasta i find. Cooking Bucatini was proving too hard for me, and it doesn't drain well. Pasta was my staple, but has become sometimes-food now, its too easy to put on weight. De Niro is said to have wolfed down linguine to pork himself up for the La Motta role in "Raging Bull"
I'm very skeptical about the claim of bucatini holding more sauce, because the hole is on the inside, and the sauce is on the outside.