Sunday, June 01, 2008
Peace in the thematically-Middle East
It can't be, but it is: the semester's papers are all in. I'm on summer pseudo-vacation, which means 'only' teaching, but after a semester of not not thinking about work for two seconds, the finite work of lesson-planning and teaching for three hours a day, every weekday, really does feel like a vacation. Today, Jo, my parents, and I checked out the the Israel parade, where we were not blown up or anything. There was just a touch of security for the event, just a little bit. Yesterday was also Middle Eastern-themed. Jo and I got lunch at the fabulous Zaytoons, then shopped at Sahadi's, which has amazing olives, spices, and so forth, but also (listen, fellow grad students) slightly cheaper pasta than most other establishments. And infinitely longer lines; could be that we were not the only grad-students to have noticed the 50-cent-per-box-less-than-Key-Food De Cecco. The scruffy, late-20s crowd ahead of us on line suggested we were not.
"I got lunch at the fabulous Zaytoons, then shopped at Sahadi's, which has amazing olives, spices, and so forth, but also (listen, fellow grad students) slightly cheaper pasta than most other establishments. And infinitely longer lines; could be that we were not the only grad-students to have noticed the 50-cent-per-box-less-than-Key-Food De Cecco."
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you're too poor to afford an apartment.
Why buy De Cecco's when most markets have off-brand Italian pastas like Luigi Vitteli's for 79 cents a pound? It's honestly just as good.
I've tried generic-brand pastas and have not found them just as good. And I am 100% sure it's not De Cecco keeping me out of the West Village.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly don't want the generic brands. But there are a couple of widely available off-brand Made in Italy pastas that are perfectly edible. Country of origin is the touchstone here.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you go through 20lbs of pasta a day, that price differential can certainly make the difference between being able to afford a nice place in the West Village and not being able to do so.