The Noodle Bowl

You’ve got a couple of weeks to carbo-load in true team spirit before the annual USC-UCLA football showdown. The Pasta Shop, which makes just about every shape of pasta imaginable (anyone for cheesy snowman noodles?), is tugging at the sleeve of every Bruin and Trojan fan with its rival college shapes. Some call it macaroni, we say Bear-oni or Tommy-celli.

The pasta can be found at many gift shops, but at CJ’s Gourmet Emporium, neutral at least on the surface in the cross-town rivalry, a wide selection of USC and UCLA dishware by Pfaltzgraff is available too.

Pasta, $2.95, and dishware, $10.95 to $40, at CJ’s Gourmet Emporium, Pasadena.

Organic Culture

In its small way, Straus Family Creamery over the last couple years has changed the way a lot of us think about milk. Its organic, non-homogenized (but pasteurized) milk tastes closer to true farm-fresh milk than anything else you’ll find in the market and comes with a cap of amazing cream (which in some homes gets stolen for the family coffee-drinker’s morning cup before the rest of the household can get to the milk itself). Lately, the Northern California-based family-run company has introduced other dairy products to Southern California stores. Our new favorite: Straus’ nonfat yogurt. Somehow, the company has gotten the rich flavor of thicker (and fattier), more traditional ethnic yogurt in its nonfat product. And there are no thickeners, stabilizers or gelatins added.

Available in 16-ounce ($1.79 to $2.22) and 32-ounce ($2.49 to $3.67) cartons at Vons, Bristol Farms, Pavilions, Trader Joes, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, La Brea Bakery and many independent health food stores.

Blue Planet

It’s not enough these days to sell a super-hip guarana soft drink--it’s made in part with the Brazilian guarana berry, which many think of as a stimulant and aphrodisiac--you’ve got to have cool packaging too. We’ve seen this before. We’ve still got a few blue Tynant water bottles hanging around as flower vases, and our unopened Orbitz beverage bottles (with floating flavor nodes) haven’t lost their suspended-animation charm.

Available at Vicente Foods in Brentwood, Bristol Farms and Beverage Warehouse locations and at Higher Grounds Coffeehouse in Newport Beach and Soleil D’Or in Redondo Beach. From $1.25 a bottle in markets to $2.25 in coffeehouses.

Stove-Pot Dressing

The Italians have long made coffee in stove-top moka pots, which are slimmed-down percolators of sorts. You’ve probably seen cinch-waisted stainless-steel versions of the pots in vintage stores or in old pictures. But the Lavazza coffee company wants to keep the moka pot modern. Its “Fantasy Line” dresses the moka pot in bright blue, yellow, red or green.

Three-cup ($50) and six-cup ($65) pots are available by mail through Lavazza, (888) 271-1872.