Noodle

For other uses, see Noodle (disambiguation).

A noodle is a thin strip of pasta, usually cut or extruded from some kind of dough. It is the basic unit in dishes like spaghetti, linguine, soba, and udon. The term often refers to moist, cooked pasta, since it has connotations of curviness and slipperiness, but also to dried noodles that must be reconstituted by boiling or soaking in water. The word noodle derives from Latin nodus (knot), via German Nudel (noodle, pasta).

The Chinese, Arab and Italian peoples all claimed to have been the first to create this string-like food, though the first written account of noodles is from the East Han Dynasty between 25 and 220 CE. In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were found at the Lajia site (Qijia culture) 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]

Types of noodles by ingredient

• Egg noodles are usually made of a mixture of egg and wheat flour
  • Asian egg noodles, also known as ba mee (บะหมี่) in Thai, are common throughout China and South-East Asia.
  • Pasta - Italian egg noodles
  • Reshteh - Middle Eastern egg noodles

• Wheat noodles
  • Mee pok (麪薄)- flat, yellow Chinese noodles, popular in South East Asia
  • Lamian (拉麵)- hand pulled Chinese noodles
  • Chuka men (中華麺)- Japanese for "Chinese noodles", used for ramen, chanpon and yakisoba
  • Udon(うどん) - thick Japanese wheat noodles
  • Somen(そうめん) - very thin Japanese wheat noodles

• Rice noodles
  • Rice vermicelli - thin rice noodles, also known as mǐfěn or been hoon(米粉) or sen mee (เส้นหมี่)
  • Flat rice noodles, also known as héfěn or ho fun(河粉), kway teowor sen yai (เส้นใหญ่)

• Mung bean or potato starch
  • Cellophane noodles, also known as glass noodles, or bean vermicelli. fěnsī(粉絲) in Chinese, harusame(春雨) in Japanese, wun sen (วุ้นเส้น) in Thai.

• Buckwheat
  • Soba(蕎麦) - Japanese buckwheat noodles
  • Naengmyon - Korean noodles made of buckwheat and sweet potato starch. Slightly chewier than soba.

Types of noodle dishes

• Fried noodles - dishes made of noodles stir fried with various meats, seafood or vegetables. Typical examples include chow mein, mee goreng, hokkien mee, yakisoba and pad thai

• Noodle soup - noodles served in broth. Examples are beef noodle soup, phở, ramen, laksa and saimin.

• Chilled noodles - noodles are sometimes served in a salad. An example is the Thai glass noodle salad yam woon sen. In Japan, traditional Japanese noodles such as soba and somen are often served chilled with a dipping sauce.

See also

• Chinese noodles
• Instant noodles
• Cup Noodles/Pot Noodle
• Marco Polo
• Wai-Wai -- Indian noodles
• Spätzle -- Southern German noodles with yolk
• Reshteh -- Middle Eastern fresh egg noodle

Notes

1. ^ Oldest noodles unearthed in China, BBC News, 12 October 2005

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Noodle".