When you are with Maya, you should give Paint FX a try. You can generate PFX very quickly and convert them to poly. There are presets for noodles and grass and such, and you can play with the brush settings.
^Haha @Mark Dygert To be fair, houdini is amazing for procedural stuff like VFX, but I agree, I can't see how houdini is "the modern way" for modelling etc.