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Melba's Jammin'

In article >,
wrote:

> From the time I was born some 50 years ago, it was called spaghetti.
> My mother made it, we got it in the school cafeteria. we ate it in
> restaurants, and my relatives served it. It was always called
> SPAGHETTI. All of a sudden it seems the name has changed to pasta.
> What the hell is PASTA?
>
> I thought I was just over reacting and the word Pasta was just
> something used by the ultra-wealthy because they always seem to use a
> fancy name for something in order to raise the price, such as calling
> coffee, java. Everyone knows that java costs two, three or more times
> the price of a cup of coffee, and its the same darn thing.
>
> It was not until the other day when I went to the grocery store and
> asked this 20ish looking store employee where to find the spaghetti
> sauce. He looked at me and said "what's that"? I was shocked and
> felt like telling the idiot to find a different job if he dont know
> what the #$%^ spaghetti sauce is, but I did my best to remain calm and
> say "pasta sauce". He knew right where that was.......
>
> Has the word "spaghetti" been banned for some reason? Is there some
> sort of politically incorrect sexual connotation to that word that
> offends the religious right, or what? Or does it just cost more
> because they now call it pasta?
>
> JB

Fifty years ago, huh? Fifty years ago *spaghetti noodles* were the most
common kind of pasta in the supermarket, I'll bet (I'm not including
short flat pasta called egg noodles). Ring noodles and shell mac and
elbow mac, too, but, I don't think there was so much rigatoni,
canneloni, ziti, fusilli, penne, vermicelli, bow ties, capellini,
linguine *in your average generic supermarket.* Creamette makes at
least two kinds of boxed spaghetti (noodles/pasta), regular and thin
(not to be confused with vermicelli).

Pasta's not a fancy word, it's the name of a group of 'noodle' products.

Fifty years ago there weren't seventy-eleven cooking shows on television
touting recipes to use the various kinds of pasta available. It was a
different time. If I tell my family we're having spaghetti for dinner
they know what they're getting. If I say we're having spaghetti with
bolognese sauce, they'll ask what that is.

Don't be too hard on your grocery clerk -- what you call spaghetti sauce
can dress other pastas besides spaghetti. :-) Changing times and all.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.jamlady.eboard.com - Fair baking