Chinese noodles

Misua noodle making in Lukang, Taiwan

Chinese noodles are an essential ingredient and staple in Chinese cuisine. There is a great variety of noodles, which vary according to their region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation.

Chinese noodles are an important part of most regional cuisines within mainland China, as well as in Taiwan, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian nations with sizable overseas Chinese populations. Chinese noodles have also entered the cuisines of neighboring East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan (dangmyeon and ramen, for example, are both of Chinese origin), as well as Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Nomenclature

A Northwest hand-pulled noodle restaurant in Australia

Nomenclature of Chinese noodles can be difficult due to the vast spectrum available and the many dialects of Chinese used to name them. In Chinese, miàn (traditional Chinese: 麵; simplified Chinese: 面; often transliterated as "mien" or "mein" ) refers to noodles made from wheat, while fěn (粉) or "fun" refers to noodles made from rice flour, mung bean starch, or indeed any kind of starch. Each noodle type can be rendered in pinyin for Mandarin, but in Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong it will be known by its Cantonese pronunciation. Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and many other Overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia will use Hokkien (Min Nan) instead.

The character for miàn (wheat noodles) can be written a number of ways in Chinese. The standard Traditional character is 麵, while the standard Simplified character is 面. Variant characters include 麪, 麺, and 靣. The characters 面 and 麵 are separate characters in Traditional Chinese, the former meaning "face" and the latter meaning "noodles" or "flour". In Simplified Chinese, the two characters have been combined and both meanings are expressed by 面.

History

Although the Chinese, Arabs, and Italians have all claimed to have been the first to create noodles, the first written account of noodles dates from the East Han Dynasty, between 25 and 220 AD. In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were found at the Lajia site, in an excavation of a Qijia culture settlement along the Yellow River in Qinghai, China. The 4,000-year-old noodles appear to have been made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet.^[1] Millet is no longer a commonly used ingredient in Chinese noodles.

Ingredients

Typical bowl of Chinese noodle mixed with ingredients

Chinese noodles are generally made from flour made from either wheat, rice, or mung bean starch, with wheat noodles being more commonly produced and consumed in northern China and rice noodles being more typical of southern China. For noodles made from wheat flour, egg may also be added, giving the noodles a yellow color.

Production

To make noodles, flour is typically mixed with water, then rolled out, then cut to the desired width. The cut noodles may then be pulled and folded repeatedly to produce a thinner finished product. Noodles may also be extruded by use of a mechanical press with holes, through which the dough is forced.

Cooking

Noodles may be cooked from either their fresh (moist) or dry forms. They are generally boiled, although they may also be fried in oil until crispy. Boiled noodles may then be stir fried, served with sauce or other accompaniments, or served in soup, often with meat and other ingredients.

Unlike many Western noodles and pastas, Chinese noodles made from wheat flour are usually made from salted dough and therefore do not require the addition of salt to the liquid in which they are boiled. Chinese noodles also cook very quickly, generally requiring less than 5 minutes to become al dente and some taking less than a minute to finish cooking, with thinner noodles requiring less time to cook. Chinese noodles made from rice or mung bean starch do not generally contain salt.

Chinese noodle types

Signature Chinese noodle dishes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Chinese noodles

• Ban mian
• Beef chow fun
• Cart noodle
• Char kway teow
• Zhajiang mian
• Laksa
• Lo mein
• Re gan mian

External links

• Cook's Thesaurus: Asian Noodles
• Chow mein recipe (with photo)

Video

• Making of Guizhou-style noodles
• Knife-cut noodle making in a Beijing hutong

See also

• Noodle
• Chinese cuisine
• Korean noodles
• Japanese noodles
• Noodle soup

References

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