Above photograph: Vicky Wasik; others: Kevin Cox, unless otherwise notedThe world of Asian noodles is vast. Walk into any Asian market and you'll see aisles of noodles, each of different shapes, lengths, and textures. Noodles in Asia are more than a food—they're an essential part of culture with a 4,000 year history. Even the noodles' length has significance—they are often symbols of longevity in celebratory meals.
For the amateur noodle shopper, parsing through a grocery's many noodle options can be mindboggling. Similar styles of noodles come packaged both soft and dried from China, Taiwan, and throughout South East Asia. The number of varieties alone are overwhelming, heightened by the absence of any standardized noodle nomenclature, language, or even common classification. This makes it difficult to know which noodles are which, and how to choose between them.
Asian noodles can be made with rice, yam, and mung bean in addition to wheat flour, and even that wheat is a different variety than the durum wheat used in pasta. All of these differences in texture and flavor mean you usually can't substitute an Italian pasta for an Asian noodle.Most Asian markets group noodles by nationality: soba near udon and lo mein near misua. So think about the origins of the dish you plan to make, then seek out the corresponding country.
Rice noodles cook even faster than wheat—they soften in less than a minute in boiling water. Mung bean and yam noodles also cook lightning fast, and you may not even need boiling water to cook them—hot water should be fine.The broadest category of noodles, wheat noodles are made with some form of wheat flour, water, and sometimes egg, salt or other additives, such as lye-water . Wheat-based noodles are loosely referred to in Chinese cookery as"mien" .
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