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Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

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Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#171

Post by bookofjoe »

pjc50 wrote: post #38
Scoundreller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sometimes who gets to make the rules is far more important than what the rules are.

This is profound.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#172

Post by bookofjoe »

kilburn wrote: post #66
legerdemain wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fun fact: "pasta" literally means "paste" in Italian (and most languages from Latin).

Related: the part of cheese that's not the rind is called the paste.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#173

Post by bookofjoe »

Alex3917 wrote: post #164
rtx wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it's hard to write this well

It's not hard, it just takes a long time, which costs $$$. That's why it's very very unlikely to be sponsored, because no CPG company is going to spend 100k to commission a writer to spend several months working on an art piece. Except maybe Red Bull, but this isn't about Red Bull.

>It's not hard, it just takes a long time....

James Lord, biographer, to Alberto Giacometti, while watching the artist draw him: "It looks so easy." Giacometti: "It is easy. All it takes is a lifetime."

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#174

Post by exolymph »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #149
kqvamxurcagg wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how much experience you have working with business or government but what you'll find is that large corporates will have 'access' to regulators and legislators who can legislate or enforce on their behalf. The senior people will know each other and get things moving. Medium sized businesses (up to $100m revenues) will find it very difficult even getting a response. Even getting their attention is a competiti…

What do you think "access" looks like? There is no "big pasta". There's like a handful of companies[1] that make it all. I'm sure the execs all own yachts but if you were to compare executive fleet displacement it's more of a Venezuelan navy than a French navy. They can't just call up their lobbyist who's already scheduled to golf with a congressman every other weekend and tell them to bring it up on their next trip.…

> There is no "big pasta". There's like a handful of companies that make it all.

Uh...

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#175

Post by elsjaako »

percivalPep wrote: post #143

Why does the FDA mix the metric and imperial measurement system (mg/lb)? Are there other examples (liters per mile?) that people know of?

No group of people uses the SI system 100%, everyone just uses what is convenient (scientists use lightyears, and europeans use km/h, not m/s). The same is true of how americans use their system. There isn't an old unit convenient for small weights of this scale, even carat is too rough, so they use mg.

I don't know of any other examples of it being mixed quite like this, but I do see pressures given in "mm Hg" sometimes.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#176

Post by thamer »

foton1981 wrote: post #12

I am afraid this article will resurrect shortage even if it ended lately: I never cared about pasta shapes, but now I want bucatini. With 52 hacker news points there goes national stock of bucatini.

I'm not sure why this article is being published now (dated December 28, 2020) if the shortage was really in March. It doesn't seem like it's still an issue. Amazon has tons of bucatini for sale, many available in a day with Prime: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bucatini

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#178

Post by bookofjoe »

ncmncm wrote: post #43

Bucatini I can frankly take or leave. But when gemelli disappeared for several months I was distraught. Nothing is better in mac'n'cheese. I make it in a cake pan, less than an inch deep, with sourdough cubes and grated cheese on top, toasted to a crisp. The mac really is just there to hold up the cheese toast. But that doesn't stop me from putting in chopped chili peppers (not too much, 2 oz is plenty!), nutmeg, and…

Chick-fil-A Mac'N'Cheese a solid stand-in if you don't have the energy...

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#179

Post by jiofih »

sam_goody wrote: post #97

The writing style is awesome, I literally laughed out loud. Beyond that, the article reminds us that in every industry there are powerful actors that protect their monopoly, and will coerce the government into helping them. I read an article about import taxes on sugar that were created to keep out competition, and as a result everything uses corn syrup. Other examples abound. Unfortunately, the solution of governmen…

I had the very opposite reaction. The snobbery of “the only pasta worth eating”, which is an insult to the diversity of Italian cuisine, deflated me right at the start. I know it’s supposed to be funny, but also that there is a hint of self-deprecating truth to it... think I’m getting old.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#180

Post by neltnerb »

fomine3 wrote: post #57
Scoundreller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Wasabi is impossible to get in the USA, my understanding was that this was because of Japan's rules rather than those if the USA. We just have horseradish with green food coloring in the USA.
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