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Crossposts: http://telophase.livejournal.com/2726852.html

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potato potato

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Years ago, one of you was aghast that I didn't have a store of pasta in the house for emergency dinners. This may explain why:

I come solidly from Potato Europe on both sides. Pasta is not a default. (I don't even like pasta that much.) Give me a potato, and I can produce dinner, give me pasta and I just go "meh."

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LOL. Potato Europe all the way, baby! Nearly every non-breakfast meal that I ate at my maternal grandparents' house had potatoes in it in some form.

I have to admit my mom served funny spaghetti (our name for red sauce and whatever pasta shape was on sale) as one of her "I don't want to cook" meals, but I just never internalized pasta as a default for a meal like I did with potatoes. Probably because that was almost the only way we had pasta, while we had potatoes in many different forms.

I of course come from Ricelandia, so I was surprised both by Potato Dinner and Pasta Dinner households. That being said, potatoes are delightful; colcannon is one of my favorite dishes.

Hmm, even though my ethnic makeup is definitely all potato, I tend to eat pasta and rice (especially rice) much more often than potatoes. I do have instant mashed potatoes in the house, but almost never have real potatoes sitting around unless I've bought them for a specific purpose.

As a kid my mom and I ate mostly TV dinners, so I don't have a strong "this was our go-to quick meal" association with pasta, potatoes, or rice. (Though if you count instant food, I ate more mac and cheese and chef boyardee than potatoes for sure...)

One side of my family is (mostly) tomato Europe. The other side is solidly potato Europe.

I'll take your share of the pasta. You can have my share of the potatoes.

Deal!

I had a college friend whose family was Russian on one side and Italian on the other. Her immediate family's test for boyfriends brought home for the first time was to serve spaghetti and see if the guy ate it without a mess. If he didn't, he was not approved.

(I think the test turned out to be: do you care enough about the guy to teach him to eat spaghetti non-messily before you bring him home.)

We mutts have a hoof in both camps.

I do have to admit that one of my mom's standards was pasta with red sauce. :D I didn't internalize the pasta as a standard basis for meals like I did potatoes, though.

Family legend has it that the first time my grandmother (born County Fermanagh) served spaghetti to my grandfather (born County Kilkenny) he said, (thick brogue here) "Where are the potatoes?"

And for the rest of his life he was served potatoes with spaghetti.

:)

When I was a kid, one of my friends was a girl whose mother was Lao. She made sticky rice every morning and served it with every meal. I have memories of sitting around the table eating corn dogs and sticky rice, and Mom and I now joke that it's the only appropriate side for corn dogs.

BUT SPÄTZLE

One of my favourites! Pennoni rigate, spätzle, & udon noodles.

And here in Cascadia, we have POTATO PESTO PASTA!

no really that's a thing, it's yummy

(My kitchen is a Japanese-Italian mix, which doesn't so much figure into this, but my red sauce does have mirin and shichimichi...)

The correct answer to this question is RICE (says the girl of Chinese descent).

I am of mostly Irish, Scottish, & British ancestry but I really much prefer pasta to potatoes! But I don't eat much bread either.

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