Vermicelli
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Vermicelli (Italian, literally, 'little worms') is a type of pasta, round in section and somewhat thinner than spaghetti.
In 14th-century Italy, extra-fine spaghetti had varying local names. "Master Barnaba da Reatinis from Reggio Emilia notes that Tuscan vermicelli are called orati in Bologne, minutelli in Venice, fermentini in Reggio and pancardelle in Mantua." [link]
The first mention of a vermicelli recipe is in the book De arte Coquinaria per vermicelli e maccaroni siciliani (The Art of Cooking Sicilian Macaroni and Vermicelli), compiled by the famous Maestro Martino da Como, unequalled in his field at the time and perhaps the first celebrity chef, who was the chef at the Roman palazzo of the papal chamberlain ("camerlengo"), the Patriarch of Aquileia. In Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria, there are several recipes for vermicelli, which can last two or three years (doi o tre anni) when dried in the sun.
Vermicelli is known as shemai in Bengali and seviyan in Hindi and Urdu. The noodles are used in a number of dishes, including a dessert of fried vermicelli in sweet boiled milk.
The term rice vermicelli is often used to describe the thin, transparent rice noodles (米粉) popular in China, also known as bee hoon in Hokkien, mai fun in Cantonese, and Bun in Vietnamese.
The fideo is a type of noodle, popular in Mexican cuisine, often referred to in English as "vermicelli."
It is said that Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, preserved a vermicelli noodle in a glass case until the point where it, by some unexplainable means, began to move with voluntary motion. This experiment was mentioned during the classroom scene of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. (This is actually from Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein. Thats why its mentioned in Mel's parody. The actual experiment was not with vermicelli but some microbe with a similar sounding name. Mary was simply confused when she brought it up in her novel. Can someone else look up the sources for this. I found it in the Annotated Frankenstein)
Trivia
- Is the type of pasta/rice cooked to make "Rice-A-Roni"
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