The Next Replacement for Plastic Straws Is...Freakin’ Bucatini?

Would you like some bucatini with that iced coffee?

Remember 2018, when everybody was freaking out about how plastic straws would ruin the world (instead of, say, the planet’s largest rainforest burning down)? Well, here’s a better-late-than-never solution to that plasticky problem of pollution: straws made with pasta. Food & Wine unearthed two separate companies (one from London, another from Malibu) that are trying it: they’re basically straw pasta, or bucatini, for your drink.

It seems like a plausible idea in comparison to its competitors: many of the compostable paper straws out there get soggy and nasty after brief use. Meanwhile, a pasta straw won’t get mushy in a cold drink (although it will soften up after about an hour). The companies also like to point out that the straws are edible, although that seems like a stretch, since crunching down on hard pasta is not many people’s idea of a good time. Yet they’re still compostable, and pretty light on flavor, if you can handle a dash of wheat starch seeping into your Long Island Iced Tea. Plus, you could even branch out and use different types of pasta for different drinks — you could suck up some bubble tea through a very long piece of rigatoni. Watch out, Big Paper?

And in other news...

• The producer behind a previously unaired Anthony Bourdain-EP’d documentary about Detroit is looking for somebody to air it. [Detroit Free Press]
• Gird your loins: McDonald’s is planning to dip a mayo-coated toe into the chicken sandwich wars next month, as if they haven’t tried already. [Insider]
• PBS show America’s Test Kitchen has reached a settlement with its former host, Christopher Kimball, after Kimball left the company and started a suspiciously similar project, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. [NYT]
• Motley Crue drummer and hat-wearer Tommy Lee says he was booted from chef Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans restaurant Delmonico, because he was cursing after being asked to take off his hat to fit the strict dress code (meanwhile, the restaurant says he left voluntarily). [Page 6]
• Here’s the slightly depressing tale of how the dairy lobby convinced 29 states to make milk their official beverage. [Mel]
• After pledging to stop taking their tips (but not yet actually doing it), DoorDash has increased the minimum pay for its delivery workers from $1 to a hearty $2. [Fast Company]
• Dunkin’ is attempting to diversify its offerings with new burrito bowls on its menu; one early verdict is that they’re “criminally gross”. [NJ.com]
• Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has been tapped by the British government to review reportedly not-so-good hospital food in the U.K. [BBC]
• A tale of two customers at an Australian cafe who entered into an intense game of one-upmanship over who was the store’s best customer. [Guardian]
• A moment of levity for your Friday (don’t watch this at work if your employer would be upset by a man dabbing olive oil onto his nipple area). [Twitter]

• All AM Intel coverage [E]