<p>greenwitch my dear, I will totally send you one! PM me of some neutral address if you can not trust me, donno, PO box? UPS or Fedex depot? Greyhound station?
I think Barilla makes pastina but, you know, they are never the Ronzoni’s. Points of the stars are not quite pretty.
Did you try stores around Italian turf in Downtown Baltimore? I have eaten some good pastina with broth some grandma cooked at home there. Maybe Ronzoni have migrated?
Go check it out when you drop off your D.
Whole wheat linguine is a great substitute for buck wheat noodle recipe, it is cheaper and more filling than real thing when feeding nice understanding non Japanese guests who are not authenticity freak (A.K.A. snob)</p>
<p>Ohhh character pasta! I think they are made out of gummy stuff, like sillybanz to keep them in shape, and maybe made in the same way; huge long rod of the shape first, slice, repeat.
I like the bunny shaped one. cheese tastes better and the little bunny tail on the side of the box to push it open. It has healthy alternative recipe on it, too. Same people make Arthur the aardvark mac cheese. They are gummy but mold shape is great, you see his eyeglasses and all.
so I am a sucker ( of commercialized mac cheese scheme) after all.</p>
<p>We have Muellers, Ronzoni, Barilla, probably all have equal shelf space, and of course generic. I usually buy whatever is on sale (buy one, get one free), but D and H are not crazy about the whole wheat versions of anything. D will not miss any particular food, as she doesn’t really like the traditional southern food (grits, biscuits and gravy, sweet tea, okra, etc. famm is right, it’s all pretty homogenous. There is a restaurant the next town over that sells stuff like frog legs, gator fritters and such, but we very rarely go there.</p>
<p>Funny how food becomes so important for memories…like the Ronzoni pastina…2nd generation Italian neighbor makes it for my daughter and gets free cat sitting in return for pasta stars with olive oil and garlic. I think D will always have the stars as her comfort food too. ME…I went back to England for the first time in years…my sister laughed…I went straight out to buy pork pies, branston pickle and battenburg cake…she says my mother does the exact same thing when she visits. You close your eyes…take a bite of cake and you feel 6 years old again. Amazing. </p>
<p>S says he will miss my curries (weekly) and Ecuadorean soups (almost daily to satisfy husband’s need of calories and tradition). He certainly will miss anything with flavor given my observations of the extremely bland food at CMU.</p>
<p>Ugh this thread is making me empty-nesty and blue…right now my S is out with his gma looking for xl twin sheets for dorm. She almost went without him, but I figured it would do them both good to do it together. She loves to shop, and loves him, he hates to shop but loves her…</p>
<p>I keep thinking about all the stuff he doesnt know how to do, but then I remember all the stuff I didnt know how to do until I had to do it… change a tire, drop a class, change majors, laundry-mat, banking…He at least knows how to feed himself, wash his own clothes…</p>
<p>Bears, thank you for the lovely offer. I pester my mother in law and she brings me pastina occasionally (she lives on LI) and I still have two boxes left. I’ll let you know if I run out! I found it once in South Carolina of all places. I think since there was no local pasta manufacturer, they imported Ronzoni from NY.</p>
<p>I will definitely check out Baltimore too. I know they have some big, old, covered markets, like Reading market in downtown Philly. That’s probably where all the good, fresh food lives. I’m sure I’ll be able to find an Italian market somewhere. Fammom, I’ve heard great things about Pittsburgh’s ethnic foods too. Maybe your S can walk to some of it from CMU. He’ll come home raving about Polish and Czech food.</p>
<p>Now I have to look for pastina! Sounds good! We can get radiatore from Big Lots from time to time. Both of my kids called them “radiators”! And the rotelle (“wagon wheels”) were always a favorite.</p>