6th October Noodle Day

October is Pasta Month! Today is Noodle Day! I haven't written about this before because I have written about pasta and dumplings on their celebratory day. Spaghetti has a day of its own too, on 4th January, but as it's in the school holidays, I thought today might be a good time to revisit noodles and spaghetti.

Can you believe that noodles have been around for over 4,000 years? Noodles are popular all over the world and range in shape from flat, to round, to twisted, to sheets, to tubes, and many more. The oldest historical mention of noodles appears in a dictionary from the third century A.D. in China. 

Regardless of where the noodle originated one of the most alluring things about noodles is how varied they are. In China, you have chefs that pull the thinnest of noodles called la mian, while in Italy, you have broad flat pasta layered with bolognese and béchamel sauce, better known as lasagna. And both are noodles!

It is very easy to put together a display of picture books for this topic. Use key words such as noodles, pasta, spaghetti and dumplings in your library catalogue search and you'll be surprised. 

Start with some newer ones such as:

• The Story of Pasta  by Steven Guarnaccia

• Pasta!  by Felice Arena and Beatrice Cerocchi

• The Great Pasta Escape by Miranda Paul and Javier Joaquin

• Rigatoni the Pasta Cat  by Michael Rosen and Tony Ross

• Spaghetti Hunters  by Morag Hood

• My Spaghetti ABC  by Deborah Niland

• Spaghetti! An Interactive Recipe Book by  Lotta Nieminen

• I Want to Be Spaghetti by Keira Wright-Ruiz

Then for fun search out

• Spaghetti With the Yeti  by Adam and Charlotte Guillain and Lee Wildish 

• Noodle Bear  by Mark Gravas

• Noodlephant  by Jacob Kramer and K-Fai Steele

And my favourite:

• Noodle Magic  by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and Meilo So