The outdoor pasta was served in a New Jersey town last week, much to the chagrin of city workers turned busboys who had to clean up piles of macaroni dumped in the woods.
A public works crew picked up 500 pounds of discarded noodles in a wooded area of Old Bridge, on the banks of Iresick Brook, Mayor Owen Henry told NBC News on Friday.
«No sauce, no sauce, no cheese, just loads of macaroni» and spaghetti, Henry said.
The pasta is believed to have been dry and uncooked at the time it was thrown away, but then went al dente when rain fell in central New Jersey last week.
Approximately two inches of rain fell in the region on April 22 and 23 and the paste was collected on April 28.
Keith Rost, 33, recently moved into the neighborhood and was out for a walk and a smoke last week when he came across piles of pasta.
Word in the neighborhood, Rost said, is that the dried pasta was dumped by a man while cleaning the Hillyard Road home of his late parents, who apparently believed in having a fully-stocked pantry.
«I thought, ‘What was all this about?'» Rost said Friday. «I started reading the alphabet (pasta) to spell my name. I didn’t know what to think.»
As Mayor Owen laughed off the incident, he took a serious moment to ask the locals not to dump their unwanted goods in the woods.
«Old Bridge is very rural, so we have people going out and illegally dumping so much material in isolated areas, so we’re constantly going out and cleaning up,» Henry said.
«I mean it’s unfortunate because we can take a lot of this stuff to our recycling centers. There’s no reason to dump a mattress in the woods, there’s no reason to dump a refrigerator. We’ll come pick it up at your house. Electronics, rugs, padding, concrete, metal, there’s no point in throwing it in the woods.»
Although the pasta shooter could be cited, Henry said police will not actively pursue the case.
«It was illegal dumping, but it wasn’t dangerous at all. I mean, it’s pasta: flour, water, and eggs?» Henry said. «We’re not focused on that. There are more important and pressing issues that the detective bureau needs to get involved with. It’s not on the front lines.»
And the mayor pointed out that this illegal dumping service is not the worst he has seen.
«I’ll have pasta any day before tires,» he said. «I’ll have pasta any day on a mattress.»
Madelyn Urabe and steve strouss contributed.