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Chinese noodles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese cuisine includes many different types of noodles, called miàn (Traditional Chinese: 麺; Simplified Chinese: 面; often transliterated as "mien" or "mein" ). "Miàn" (麪) refers to noodles made from wheat while "fěn" (粉) or "fun" refers to noodles made from rice.
Unlike many western noodles and pastas, Chinese wheat noodles are usually made from salted dough and therefore do not require the addition of salt to the liquid in which they are cooked. Chinese noodles also cook very quickly, requiring less than 5 minutes to become al dente and some taking less than a minute to finish cooking.
Nomenclature of the noodles is difficult due to the vast spectrum available and the many dialects of Chinese used to name them. 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, while Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and many other Overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia will use Hokkien instead.
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The character for miàn (wheat noodles) can be written a number of ways in Chinese. The standard Traditional character is 麺; the standard Simplified character is 面. Variant characters include 麪, 麵 , and 靣. The characters 面 and 麺 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.
| Characters | Pinyin | Cantonese | Hokkien | Description | Western equivalent | Thai equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 面/麺 | miàn | min | mee | Medium wheat noodles | Spaghetti | |
| 幼面 | mee kiah | Thin egg noodles | Vermicelli | |||
| 面薄 | mee pok | Flat egg noodles | Linguini | |||
| 拉麺 | lāmiàn | lai min | Hand-pulled egg noodles; Japanese ramen |
Ba mee (เส้นบะหมี่) | ||
| 撈麺 | lāo miàn | lo mein | Stir fried wheat flour noodles | |||
| 米粉 | mífěn | mai fun | bee hoon | Thin rice noodles | Rice vermicelli | Sen mee (เส้นหมี่) |
| 米線/米线 | mǐxiàn | mai sin | Rice noodles; also called Guilin mífěn (桂林米粉) | Rice spaghetti | Sen lek (เส้นเล็ก) | |
| 叻沙 | lā shā | lik sa | laksa | Peranakan rice noodles | Rice spaghetti | |
| 瀨粉/酹粉 | lài fěn | laai fun | Thick round semi-transparent noodle made from sticky rice | Thick rice spaghetti | ||
| 粿条 | gǔotiáo | kwai tiu | kway teow | Flat rice noodles | Rice fettuccine | Sen yai (เส้นใหญ่) |
| 沙河粉/河粉 | shāhéfěn / héfěn | ho fun | hor fun | Very wide, flat rice noodles | Rice pappardelle | |
| 冬粉 | dōngfěn | dung fun | dang hun | Very thin mung bean starch noodles | Thin mung bean vermicelli | |
| 粉絲/綠豆麪 | fěnsī / lǜ dòu miàn | fun sze | Thin mung bean noodles | Mung bean vermicelli | Wun sen (วุ้นเส้น) | |
| 麺線/宮麺 | miànxiàn / gōngmiàn | min sin | misua | Thin salted egg wheat noodles (1 mm diameter) | Long and short very fine Vermicelli | |
| 伊麺/伊府麺 | Yīmiàn / Yīfǔmiàn | yee min / yee foo min | ee mee | Aka e-fu noodle (fried egg noodles) | ||
| 老鼠粉/銀針粉 | lǎo shǔ fěn / yín zhēn fěn | lóuh syú fán / ngàhn jām fán | Lao Shu Fen / Yin Zhen Fen (photo), literally "Rat Tail Noodle" / "Silver Needle Noodle". About 5cm long, 3-5mm in diameter, ans spindle-shaped. | |||
| 蝦子麺 | xiãzi miàn | ha tsz min | Shrimp roe noodle | |||
| 粗面/粗麺 or 上海粗面 | cū miàn or Shanghai cū miàn | Thick wheat flour noodles; similar to Japanese udon |
