Can I help you a little today? Today's puzzle - "noodles on this" - is not too vague in terms of what it means, but has some tricky words to find all the same.

Below we've compiled some useful tips for Strand#85 and the answer to that. We'll start with a few clues before building the full answer for Strand #85, so read on if you need a bit of help.

Warning: Spoilers are ahead for Strand #85.  

The official theme of NYT Strand #85 is:.. "Noodles to this".

And here is an unofficial tip from me: "Carbo loading".

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give those valuable clue tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram will give you tips about connecting words. Today, it starts with 'P' and ends with 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

IT'S PASTASHAPES.

So what is Strand's answer today for game #85?

Drum roll, please...

...And the spangram was pasta.

tips: 0

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hi chain. A bit of a fake start on this, because I was originally looking for a kind of hat (for some reason I associate the head, not the pasta, not the "noodles"), but as soon as I grabbed the wheel and bowtie in the lower right corner, I was away on the actual theme.

NEXT THERE IS a SHELL IN THE UPPER RIGHT corner, AND THE PATH TO THE letter PASTA BELOW IS cleared. I FOLLOWED A ROUND OF BOARDS AND CAME UP WITH A SPANGRAM OF PASTASHAPES.

The ribbon and tube completed the lower half of the puzzle, which left me with two to find in the upper section. Thankfully, I found the spiral very quickly because I'm not really familiar with elbow pasta... But it was the only possible answer to conclude the puzzle, since only the letters in the corners remain.

Are you reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article of yesterday's Strand answer for game #84 right here.