Pasta Fazool

[DonRocks]

You are so right. I'm guessing that Frankie Boy, the super's son is still hanging out at the bar drinking Ballantine Ale.

When I lived there, Arturo's, which had already been there forever, didn't have a beer and wine license, but if they knew you, you could get red wine served in old diner-style coffee cups with saucers, to have with your pie or calzone. There was a little family-run café on the south side of Prince between Sullivan and Thompson that had a pink and black color scheme decor, where I often used to go to get the cheapest thing on the menu--pasta fazool--with heaps of fresh grated cheese stirred in.

I just learned that Pasta Fazool was actually a word; I only knew it from some cartoon character (maybe Pepe le Pew?) trying to woo some woman with it. "Ah, my leetle pasta fazool."

(NB - has anyone but me ever noticed that it seems a bit ... what's the word ... "disparaging?" ... to associate French people with a skunk? I mean, granted, they tend not to shower or use antiperspirant as much as we do, and yes, the metaphor is devilishly funny, but I'm surprised nobody has gotten their feathers ruffled over the decades. )

[DanielK]

I just learned that Pasta Fazool was actually a word;

Clickity

[Steve R.]

I just learned that Pasta Fazool was actually a word; I only knew it from some cartoon character (maybe Pepe le Pew?) trying to woo some woman with it. "Ah, my leetle pasta fazool."

We often joke about how the pronunciations (& spellings) of Italian words/phrases got bastardized in Brooklyn and Queens into "Eyetalian". So mozzarella became "mutzerelle" and prosciutto became "proshoot". A lot of it had to do with the regional dialects of those immigrating from Italy as they combined with the street slang habits in early 1900s NYC. In the case of "pasta fazool", although it's pretty much accepted throughout the USA, it's correctly "Pasta e fagioli". That'll teach ya to listen to a skunk.

Nice write-up here: http://en.wikipedia....Pasta_e_fagioli

[JuneBacon]

Yes but Pasta e fagioli is NOT pronouced FAG EEE OH LEE, it is more like Fa-'giole', which said fast is Fa-jole, so said fast by an Italian, it could sound like Fazool.

[DonRocks]

"What-a make-a Mussolini boss of Italy?"