29 January 2009

Dear Manufacturers of Rice Noodles,

Don't you know that these days, the American palate is becoming ever so slightly more sophisticated? We now not only know what "al dente" means, we actually like it. You may incorrectly think that your product is primarily for some kind of Asian subset of the American public. These people grew up around rice noodles and just know what to do with them, you say to yourselves. No need for our preparation instructions to be accurate.

Um, sirs and perhaps madames, you are sadly mistaken. So please, if you know that your noodles will be al dente after three or four minutes in boiling water, do not write "6-8 minutes" on your packaging. I now feel confident enough in my cooking to know that the *rice noodles with cabbage and chicken that I prepared tonight would have been perfectly delicious, if only you would have admitted that Americans such as myself are up for a little resistance in their pastas, be they rice or otherwise.

There's no way for you compensate me for the time I spent laboring on this dish. Plus, I have to admit that my kids liked it. But I do feel the least you can do is label your packaging accurately.

Mushily yours,
Jamie

1 comment:

Sara said...

Lightning and I have always had different strategies to pasta and noodle cooking. I'm a watch it, taste for doneness several times kinda girl. Lightning is a feed the directions and then set a timer kinda guy. Usually my pasta comes out less mushy...more al dente.
But I can relate to your pain with asian noodles. We've had several attempts go all mush on us.