From Ramen To Rotini Following the Noodles of the Silk Road

"Popular lore has it that the Italian merchant Marco Polo was responsible for introducing the noodle to China. This legend appeals to Italians, but if you ask the Chinese, they may beg to differ."

"In her latest book, On the Noodle Road, author Jen Lin-Liu chronicles a six-month journey along the historic Silk Road from eastern China, through central Asia, Turkey, Iran and eventually arriving in Italy in search of the true origin of the noodle."

"As Lin-Liu tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer, the myth of pasta traveling from west to east was first popularized by Macaroni Journal, the official trade journal of the pasta manufacturers of the U.S. In 1929, the journal had a story 'about how Marco Polo arrived at a destination that seemed more South Pacific than Chinese and came across natives drying strands of dough.'"