Oodles of Noodles
When it was my time to write a blog post, I went online to see what celebrations are designated for the month of March. The list was quite long, with a number of unexpected and even what some might consider funny, topics. Three of the more amusing ones were National Celery Month, National Umbrella Month and National Noodles Month. After agonizing for about a minute, I decided to recognize National Noodles Month; celery is too pedestrian and although umbrellas might be a fascinating topic, I assumed that there would not be much material available in the library on them, or they would all be checked out. (Yes, that was a lame joke.)
Noodles have been around for a very long time, most cultures have them and most people have eaten them at one time or another. Noodles exist in just about every cuisine from the most exotic Asian dish to your Italian grandma’s favorite pasta recipes. Noodles come in a very wide range of shapes, sizes, lengths, textures, colors and ingredients. A few examples are pasta’s various incarnations such as vermicelli and penne to rice noodles, udon, and Korean noodles.
There is much more to the lowly noodle than meets the eye, or fork, or spoon, or chop sticks. They are tasty, easy to make and, of course, one of America’s favorite ‘comfort foods’ is Mac and Cheese.
A number of countries have claimed to have invented them including Italy, countries in the Middle East, and China, but the latest evidence show that China wins. Our earliest written record of noodles is from between 25 and 220 CE in a Han Dynasty book, but the real ‘find’ was at an archeological dig in Lajia, China where an actual bowl of *4,000* year old noodles was unearthed.
For a more general overview on the history of noodles, you can check out this article from The Atlantic (a simple google search will give you even more links).
The library has quite a few materials on this topic. Try these two searchs to start your own culinary noodle journey:
MCLS Catalog Search for Noodles
MCLS Catalog Search for Pasta
Noodles have been around for a very long time, most cultures have them and most people have eaten them at one time or another. Noodles exist in just about every cuisine from the most exotic Asian dish to your Italian grandma’s favorite pasta recipes. Noodles come in a very wide range of shapes, sizes, lengths, textures, colors and ingredients. A few examples are pasta’s various incarnations such as vermicelli and penne to rice noodles, udon, and Korean noodles.
There is much more to the lowly noodle than meets the eye, or fork, or spoon, or chop sticks. They are tasty, easy to make and, of course, one of America’s favorite ‘comfort foods’ is Mac and Cheese.
A number of countries have claimed to have invented them including Italy, countries in the Middle East, and China, but the latest evidence show that China wins. Our earliest written record of noodles is from between 25 and 220 CE in a Han Dynasty book, but the real ‘find’ was at an archeological dig in Lajia, China where an actual bowl of *4,000* year old noodles was unearthed.
For a more general overview on the history of noodles, you can check out this article from The Atlantic (a simple google search will give you even more links).
The library has quite a few materials on this topic. Try these two searchs to start your own culinary noodle journey:
MCLS Catalog Search for Pasta
- Gary C., Ewing Branch
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