SC - Estrella War XVI: Cooks invitation

[Stefan li Rous]

"Alderton, Philippa" wrote:
> 
> Seanas asks:
> 
> >How similar and different are Chinese noodles, and Italian pasta which
> developed from it?
> 
> Never mind that there is a school of thought that thinks Italian pasta was
> developed independently, the main difference between Italian pasta and Asian
> pasta is that the Asian types only have a few different shapes, maybe 4 or
> 5, but are made out of almost anything. while the Italian types are made
> almost entirely with wheat, but have a zillion different shapes.

Never mind, in addition, one of the primary documentations in support of
a link to Chinese pasta being Marco Polo, roughly contemporary to
several English, let alone Italian, pasta dishes. If MP brought pasta
back to Europe from the East it spread very quickly indeed, and appears
to have actually travelled backwards in time.

IIRC, the earliest known Chinese pasta references I've seen are from
roughly the 9th century C.E., albeit from secondary sources because I'm
illiterate. I'm pretty sure there are recipes for various boiled dough
sheet dishes (tracta) in Cato's De Re Agricultura. Possibly a bit coarse
and heavy by today's standards, but then most of the medieval Italian
pasta was too, and no one disqualifies that as pasta.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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