It’s electric orange. That means it’s good for you!

Though the food in Italy is really great, sometimes I just get tired of healthy, natural-tasting stuff. For this reason, whenever I go home to the USA, I always bring back a suitcase full of American goodies such as A1 Sauce, Hamburger Helper, Nerds Candy, Country Time Pink Lemonade Mix, and brown sugar (which oddly, you can’t find in Italy). Oh yeah, I also always bring back lots and lots of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese!

The Cheesiest!

So, one evening, back in the days when I lived in Bologna, I decided to organize a dinner with my Italian roommates and some American friends that were also living in Italy at the time. The star of the show was to be Kraft Macaroni & Cheese! I don’t remember exactly what form the macaroni had, but it was definitely one of those fun shapes like Sponge Bob, Scooby Doo, or Spider Man.

The excitement began even before the dinner was served as my Italian friends looked with horror upon the meal I was preparing. I think the best way to sum up this culinary adventure is to just provide you with some contextual quotes from the evening (obviously not uttered by my American friends):

• Oh my goodness! Why is the pasta shaped like a dog?
• There’s a packet. Why is there a packet in the box?
• How long are you going to boil the pasta for? It’s already way past al dente!
• You’re adding more butter into the pot than I have ever seen or consumed in my entire life!
• What is that orange powder!!?!? Is it an insecticide?
• What flavor does “orange” taste like?

After withstanding all of these insults and exclamations, it was finally time to eat. We all sat down together and I plopped out scoopsful of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for my now-speechless Italian dinner guests.We used plastic plates, because we didn’t have enough mis-matched ceramic ones to go around. However, even if there had been a complete dinner service in our apartment I think I still would have stuck with plastic plates just the same… it helped to add to the “drama” of it all.

At this point, I was thinking to myself, “ok, so they pre-judged my Kraft Macaroni & Cheese before even trying it because of its aesthetic aspects, but now I’m going to bowl them over with cheesy flavor!”

Well, they hated it and I ended up getting angry because I felt as if I has wasted my precious stock of American food on their unappreciative and snobby Italian taste buds.

But, after having the same thing happen again in Milan with a different group of Italians, I’ve learned my lesson. I just wait untill a night when I know my boyfriend is going to get home late from work and I haven’t made plans with any of my friends. Then I make myself a “guilty pleasure” box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, to be enjoyed all by myself …. I may even cut up some hotdogs and throw ’em in, if I’m feeling frisky!