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Ask A Mexican Special YouTube Edición Part XVIII

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Letters From OC Weekly Readers

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Food

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Once You Find It, the Blackmarket Bakery in Irvine Will Merit Many Happy Returns

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Film

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Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson Join Forces In Woody Allen's Winning 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

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Music

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Arabian Prince's Electro Legacy Gives Gangstas Something 2 Dance 2-Again

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[CD Review] Syclops, 'I've Got My Eye on You' (DFA)

By HOBEY ECHLIN
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Machine-Cooked Pasta at Irvine's Pastagina

Posted by Edwin Goei in Monster Munching

March 9, 2008 6:00 PM

Permalink | Comments (0)

A robot vacuums our carpet when we aren't home. With a button push, a metal box in our kitchen turns a frozen, inedible block into a hot meal. We don't go bowling anymore. Instead, we mimic the motion with a handheld remote that sends a virtual ball hurtling towards virtual pins. And last night, I went to a restaurant called Pastagina where my pasta dinner was cooked by a machine.

That's right. A machine. One that was designed and built specifically for a single purpose: To transform dry pasta into perfectly al dente in the time it takes for a Cup Noodle to steep.

When I ordered, a chef (I use the term loosely) took a pre-measure