211–220 of 333 posts
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And awkward as hell too. Maccheroni is a shape of pasta, but apparently all pasta is "enriched macaroni" in the US?
"Macaroni" is a very old synonym for "pasta". It used to have a different broader meaning than the shape.
I have never had bucatini, but of course thanks to this article now it's all I want.
Semi related: there was a major shift in pasta market during 2004 EU extension. To comply with EU regulations, companies from newly joining countries had to invest large sums to switch to a different type of wheat to keep producing. Malma (biggest Polish pasta company) took a big credit for this, unfortunately they took it in a subsidiary of an Italian bank, whose CEO was also a chairman of Barilla. The bank soon dem…
this story does not sound accurate. if Malma truly had good finances before this, it could simply take out another loan at a different bank, who would presumably look at Malma's true finances and ignore this fake immediate payment. it is standard for major companies to renew their loans at different financial institutions at different rates, and a single call bankrupting a company would mean that the company was alre…
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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.
It’s like they’re trying to sound so refined and particular that only one kind of pasta is worth eating, but it makes you think they know nothing about pasta, or cooking it.
Amazing, well-written, entertaining and informative. A worthy read. One takeaway: Barilla, which was once vilified for a perceived anti-gay stance (based on one offhand comment) has completely embraced human rights and now gets a perfect score from important institutions on LGBTQ issues. I'll buy their pasta again.
Amazing, well-written, entertaining and informative. A worthy read. One takeaway: Barilla, which was once vilified for a perceived anti-gay stance (based on one offhand comment) has completely embraced human rights and now gets a perfect score from important institutions on LGBTQ issues. I'll buy their pasta again.
It must be exhausting to shop. You have to analyze and scrutinize each brand and determine if they meet the current requirements of the day. Is there an up-to-the-minute app or hotline one can use to check every brand of every product one purchases in real time at the shop?
Similarly I quit going to Chick Fil A. At first I'd just ask the clerk "Is this a hateful message day? I don't want to be seen as endorsing your company's hateful message." But the poor clerk didn't know how to answer, so I just walk to another shop (next door) instead. Again, no effort.
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And awkward as hell too. Maccheroni is a shape of pasta, but apparently all pasta is "enriched macaroni" in the US?
Kiełbasa and Pierogi are whole classes of products but in US kiełbasa is a particular kind of Polish sousage and pierogi basically means ruskie pierogi. That's how foreign languages work. In Polish "rower" means "a bicycle" because british company Rover sold them here first :) In Russian and Ukrainian vogzal means "train station" because there was a famous train station in Vauxhal :)
Wait really?! I'm learning Polish and I was wondering about this.
Semi related: there was a major shift in pasta market during 2004 EU extension. To comply with EU regulations, companies from newly joining countries had to invest large sums to switch to a different type of wheat to keep producing. Malma (biggest Polish pasta company) took a big credit for this, unfortunately they took it in a subsidiary of an Italian bank, whose CEO was also a chairman of Barilla. The bank soon dem…
this story does not sound accurate. if Malma truly had good finances before this, it could simply take out another loan at a different bank, who would presumably look at Malma's true finances and ignore this fake immediate payment. it is standard for major companies to renew their loans at different financial institutions at different rates, and a single call bankrupting a company would mean that the company was alre…
The story is still more complex than this. Basically Malma had a few credits already, then Pekao proposed a unifying credit + to help with the IPO as a way to get funds for expansion, but the IPO never happened.
Perhaps the timing of all those things was bad and company was too ambitious with expansion plans. But there are a few details about the bank behavior that feel off. If the company was in hopeless situation, why the bank offered the credit at all? I guess we'll never know all the accurate details.
At 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…
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What I find most interesting is that the standard is defined in nutritional value, not in terms of ingredients (x percent flour, up to y percent egg, something like that). > Probably though, the solution is to not _completely_ demolish any standard of pasta and let the market solely decide, because we've seen what happens in a variety of other unregulated industries. A few relevant anecdotes on this topic: About a de…
Another anecdote: Subway bread cannot be technically called “bread” in Ireland because there is too much added sugar in it. Ruled by their supreme court: https://text.npr.org/919831116