"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:45:30 -0700, "Julie Bove"
> > wrote:
>
>> One thing I ate a lot of when growing up was spaghetti red. My mom
>> always
>> made it with macaroni though. Only reason I can figure is that perhaps
>> in
>> those days the macaroni was cheaper?
>
> You're younger than I am, but I remember when spaghetti was considered
> exotic foreign food and my father (who worked in Chicago) taught us
> how to twirl it around our fork.

My dad made us furious by cutting ours into little pieces. We wanted to
twirl it and we couldn't! I could see chopping it up for a toddler, but not
for an older kid. I also hate it when people break it in half.

Now that I think of it, I remember as a kid having spaghetti, macaroni,
shells, and egg noodles. If there were other things available, we never had
them. I don't think I ever had lasagna until I was an adult. The only
ravioli I knew of was canned. Although I did make my own from scratch and I
made egg noodles too. My mom made manicotti for the first time when I was
in Jr. High. I had a friend over to do some homework and she was invited to
dinner. Then she freaked when she saw what the food was. Not only did she
refuse to eat it but insisted on being taken home right then and there so
she didn't miss her own dinner. Talk about rude!

Apparently people in this area at the time did not vary much from what they
ate for dinner. We were known for serving weird food. Like the manicotti,
black eyed peas and hominy. I did eat at a lot of other people's house.
They typically had vegetables from a can, a piece of some kind of plain meat
and a form of potatoes. Also bread or rolls which was something we only had
when company came (invited ahead of time) or for holidays.

Then I was contacted by a guy that I went to school with. I've known him
since we moved here. Never had a problem with him although we were never
really friends either. We got to talking about food. He said that seafood
was his favorite and I said that I didn't like it at all, perhaps because we
never had it at home. And he was like... Wha? But everyone eats it here
We had it almost every night! And perhaps it is common but the people we
hung out with didn't seem to eat it very often. We used to go clamming with
the neighbors and we always gave our clams to them. My parents do eat clam
chowder but I can't see my mom ever popping a clam open to cook it. And we
had friends who invited us over for salmon. My parents would eat that from
time to time but I don't think it was a favorite for either.


Anyway... I disovered new shapes and flavors of pasta when I struck out on
my own. I do remember getting Popeye spinach noodles as a small child. I
loved them and they discontinued them. I don't think we could get any other
spinach noodles at that time.

My favorite pasta was some bulk stuff that I got at the Fred Meyer's health
food section. I can't remember what they called the shape. The pieces were
big and almost cone shaped. There was plain, spinach, tomato and beet. I
loved the taste, texture and shape of it but every time I ate it, I got a
stomach ache so after about the third time of trying it, I gave up.

I do think some people get into a rut because they buy the same things every
time and won't try new things. Although my mom will sometimes try new
things, she also seems very frightened of them. So this may have limited
our food when I was growing up.