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| Today instant noodles are one of the most popular foods in China. Made from wheat flour, the rolled sheets of dough are cut, steamed, fried and dried in the shape of small noodle cakes. The product evolved from the first Chinese noodles introduced into Japan which the Chinese called la mien, meaning “stretched noodles” but actually something of a generic term for Chinese noodles. With the lack of differentiation between “l” and “r” sounds in Japanese, this became ramen. “The Taste of Old Hong Kong,” by Fred Schneiter |
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| In 2005 … the whole noodle origin debate was stood on its head by a discovery made in Lajia, the so-called Pompeii of China. There, at an archeology site on the Yellow River southwest of Beijing, a vessel of millet noodles was unearthed. Radiocarbon dating indicated the noodles were four-thousand-year-old, late-Neolithic period foodstuff—caveman stuff, essentially. “Noodles Every Day,” by Corinne Trang |
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| When eating noodles in Japan, it’s perfectly OK, even expected, to slurp them. This cools hot noodles, and many aficionados say it enhances the flavour. In fact, one of the best ways to judge a ramen restaurant is to listen for the sound of loud slurping! “Food Lover’s Guide to the World,” published by Lonely Planet |
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| The noodle is the premier food of the street. On every corner, down every alley, in markets virtually anywhere there are Thais, there is bound to be a stall selling noodles. They are the great leveling institution as all Thais, no matter what their class or wealth, will happily sit, precariously stooped, on wobbly plastic stools, to enjoy this favoured type of food. “Thai Street Food,” by David Thompson |
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| Asian Noodles: Though some Asian-style noodles are wheat-based, many others are made from ingredients such as rice flour, potato flour, buckwheat flour, cornstarch and bean, yam or soybean starch. “The New Food Lover’s Companion,” Fourth Edition by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst |
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| We sat on plastic stools in the heat of Hanoi in July and watched as steaming ladles of broth were poured into large white bowls that gleamed in the early morning sun. Here in Vietnam, street food is simply home cooking that has sprawled out onto the street. People open up their shop-front living rooms, put out more chairs and tables on the pavement, and serve from a stall set up by the entrance. As we sipped the pho, my mother commented on how soft the fresh, hand-made noodles were … And for the first time I understood the power of food to spark memories and make you feel at home. I saw how the cuisine carries the culture. “The Vietnamese Market Cookbook,” by Van Tran and Anh Vu |