NICHOLAS KEY: The Pasta Perfetto Fare

We had pasta at Pizza Hut for dinner after having dim sum for brunch at Tai Thong. Wow! We were eating out again. Salt, flour, sugar, pepper, bits of meat and the good old MSG. My mum used to collect promotional coupons whenever she comes across one while reading the newspaper. You see, that is another good point of reading the newspaper other than getting abreast with the current affairs in the country and int the world - to get promotional coupons, of course!

Since we had brunch, and with our incredibly superb digestive system, and also with the unused promotional coupons, we decided to have dinner at the nearest Pizza Hut outlet which is at Taman Maluri to taste their new menu. Uncle Erik joined us for dinner. Their new pasta menu was aired and publicized in the media with the tagline "Even the Italians thought it's theirs". There were so many diners already by the time we got there.

Ever thought of what is actually pasta? Well, pasta is a type of food made from the flour of various grains, water, and sometimes eggs, which is mixed, kneaded and formed into various shapes, and boiled prior to consumption. While the name comes from Italy, pasta is very popular all over the world. The English word pasta generally refers to noodles and other food products made from a flour and water paste, often including egg and salt. Less frequently, the term maccheroni (macaroni in English) is used for the same products, especially when in combination with cheese.

There are many type of pasta available throughout the world. Some of them are shown as below:

Anchellini
Short-cut pasta, suitable for vegetable or thin soups

Ballerine
Short cut pasta suitable for salads or soups

Capelli d'angelo
Very thin long-cut extruded pasta, usually nested or coiled, suitable for clear soups. Very popular shape all over the world.

Ciocchetti
Short cut pasta suitable for salads or soups

Fettuccine
Long-cut pasta with rectangular section, fresh or dry.

Pantacce
Short cut pasta suitable for soups or salads

Quadrettini
Short-cut pasta, suitable for vegetable or thin soups

Tortelli
Medium or large size, rectangular or square stuffed fresh pasta, filled with vegetables, ricotta, cheese or meat based filling

Pasta can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings. The word comes from Italian pasta which shares its origins with "paste", meaning "dough", "pasta", or "pastry" as in "small cake". As recently as 1918 the English word "paste" was used instead of or alongside the Italian pasta. Today the word "pasta" is reserved for Italian-style noodles in English-speaking countries, while the word "noodle" has a more general meaning.

Pasta is made either by extrusion, where the ingredients are forced through holes in a plate known as a die, or by lamination, in which dough is kneaded, folded, rolled to thickness, then cut by slitters. Fresh pasta cooks quickly and has a delicate taste, but spoils quickly due to its high water content. Dry pasta generally contains about 10% moisture, which makes it shelf stable for about three years.

Pasta was developed independently in a number of places around the globe (though some anthropologists dispute this). In each of these places, locally available grain was the primary starch source in the diet. Grains had, before the invention of pasta, been consumed as a gruel or grain paste, or rendered into flour and eaten as bread. Pasta noodles were likely developed as an alternative to gruel or bread. Pasta noodles can be created even where there is no oven, or not enough fuel to support an oven. In contrast, bread requires a great investment in time and effort to create.

The earliest known records of noodles in Europe are found on Etruscan tomb decorations from around 400 BC. Noodles dating back to about 2000 BC have been found near Lajia at the Huang He in Western China. Though the site was devastated by an earthquake followed by a flood, the yellow noodles survived in an upside-down clay pot underneath a thick layer of loess. Archeologist Houyuan Lu discovered the noodles and was able to take photos. Analysis showed that the noodles, with a length of approximately half a meter and a diameter of three millimeters, were produced from millet. Chinese noodles before the age of industrialized food production were always used fresh, and they are comprised of one giant noodle mass through the cooking process because it is considered bad luck in China to cut noodles before serving them to eat.

Alright, enough of introduction of pasta.

Let us continue to the main menu of our dinner:
1 Spicy Arrabbiata
1 Prawn Olio
1 Creamy Carbonara
1 Chickenball Bolognaise
1 Regular Hawaiian Chicken Pan Pizza
1 Regular Island Supreme Pan Pizza
1 pitcher of Pepsi
4 pieces of breadstix
6 soup of the day

Allow me to introduce the pasta that we had for dinner. We actually shared the pasta among ourselves - just to taste how Pizza Hut prepares them. In clockwise order, from top left:

[1] Spicy Arrabbiata - A spicy tomato sauce using the most exotic spices and cooked with chicken masala, roasted onions, capsicums as well as Shitake mushrooms, served with penne
[2] Creamy Carbonara - This pasta dish is made with creamy carbonara sauce, char-grilled chicken, Shitake mushrooms, onions and fresh green peas, served with fettuccine
[3] Chickenball Bolognaise - Tomato sauce simmered with minced meat, roasted onions, 2 meatballs and topped with grated Parmesan cheese, served with spaghetti
[4] Prawn Olio - Succulent prawns grace this classic Roman dish made primarily with garlic oil, onions, Shitake mushrooms and fried garlic. Dried chilies add a local twist to it, served with spaghetti

The bottom two are the mushroom soup and the Island Supreme pizza, from left to right.