Remember That San Francisco Treat?

Rice-A-Roni! I still have that jingle in my head from decades ago as a child. We didn't have Rice-A-Roni often at home, because my mom mostly cooked everything from scratch. I think we had it a few times, but I don't recall the taste that much. It's mostly the television commercial in my head with happy smiling people riding the cable cars. It made me want to visit San Francisco, which I did actually. A few years ago. But I still haven't been on one of those cable cars.

Why am I writing about this? Not so coincidentally, NPR's series Hidden Kitchens by The Kitchen Sisters has the story of Rice-A-Roni called Birth Of Rice-A-Roni: The Armenian-Italian Treat. Here is a portion below.

When the DeDomenicos moved into a place of their own, Lois often cooked Mrs. Captanian's Armenian pilaf. At a family dinner one evening, after a long day at the pasta factory, Tom's brother Vince stared at his dish of pilaf and said, "This would be great in a box."

Check out the whole story here.

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