If I had to choose to eat one meal for the rest of my life it would honestly be pasta! I even have to limit how much I put in my bowl because I can easily eat the entire pot!
It's National Spaghetti Day AND National Trivia Day. So let's celebrate with some spaghetti trivia!
1.Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning “thin string” or “twine.”
2.Contrary to popular belief, Marco Polo did not discover pasta.
3.The ancient Italians made pasta much like we do today.
4.Marco Polo did write about eating Chinese pasta at the court of Kubla Khan, he probably didn’t introduce pasta to Italy.
5.There’s evidence suggesting the Etruscans made pasta as early as 400 B.C. The evidence lies in a bas-relief carving in a cave about 30 miles north of Rome. The carving depicts instruments for making pasta – a rolling-out table, pastry wheel and flour bin.
6.Further proof that Marco Polo didn’t “discover” pasta is found in the will of Ponzio Baestone, a Genoan soldier who requested “bariscella peina de macarone” – a small basket of macaroni. His will is dated 1279, 16 years before Marco Polo returned from China.
7.The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5,000 B.C.
8.They may have the same shape as spaghetti, but they aren’t the same thing. Noodles are the Eastern version of the Italian dish. They’ve been eaten in China for more than 4,000 years and are usually lighter, thinner, and aren’t made from durum wheat.
9.January 4th is National Spaghetti Day.
10.In the year 2000, over 1.3 million pounds of spaghetti were sold in American grocery stores. If all of those packages were lined up, they could circle the Earth nine times.
11.April 1 in 1957, the BBC made everyone believe that spaghetti grows on trees. At the time, spaghetti was considered by many as an exotic delicacy. The spoof program explained how severe frost can impair the flavor of the spaghetti and how each strand of spaghetti always grows to the same length. This is believed to be one of the first times television was used to stage an April Fools Day hoax.
12.The fastest time to eat a bowl of pasta is 26.69 sec, and was achieved by Michelle Lesco (USA) at Oregano's Pizza Bistros, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA on 18 September 2017. Michelle made her record-breaking attempt as part of Oregano's Pizza Bistros annual "Carbs for a Cause" charity food drive.
13.The longest strand of pasta measured 3,776 m (12,388 ft 5 in) and was achieved by LAWSON INC. (Japan) at Time 24 Building, Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo , Japan, on 20 October 2010. The whole pasta was cooked.