FOOD HISTORIES: Noodles- Chinese History
Dear Foodie Fam,
It’s National Noodle Month!
Noodles. They’re all over the world. You can find them in cheap and in expensive dishes. They are such familiar, delicious friends… but do we know about their history?
Read on to learn about noodles according to my research!
Chinese Origin?
The oldest noodles ever found! SOURCE: Nature/KBK Teo/E Minoux et al
The bowl pictured doesn’t look so great, but it’s a very important bowl of noodles!
In 2005, a bowl of noodles was found preserved inside an overturned bowl. Judging by the wreck found around this archaeological site in Lagia, China, the bowl was buried under ten feet of sediment during an earthquake or some sort of sudden catastrophe. The noodles were 4,000 years old! The Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Houyuan Lu said it was “the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found.”
After studying microscopic mineral particles, it was announced that these old noodles were made at a time that wheat wasn’t too common in China. Wheat was foreign to the Chinese before travels on the Silk Road brought the knowledge of milling. Instead of the wheaty pasta one might associate with noodles, these Chinese noodles consisted of two kinds of millet. Millet was a staple grain indigenous to China which was ground into flour, made into dough and probably pulled into shape. To this day, some rural communities in China with no access to wheat still use millet to make noodles in a similar way.
In 2013, ex-foreign journalist and founder of Beijing’s award-winning Black Sesame Kitchen Jen Lin-Liu wrote On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta. After embarking on an eater’s dream (an edible tour through China, Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, Italy, and Greece), she discovered that “the earliest Chinese noodles were shaped into little bits, formed from bread dough.” That noodle still exists in China, today and it’s called main pain.
Mai fun, rice vermicelli. SOURCE: MR.PATCHARAPHON/Shutterstock
SOURCE: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters
More Chinese Noodle History:
I found Chinese noodle history fascinating!
A venerably old ode written by poet Shu Shi in about 300 BCE mentions noodles. Because poetry at that time was used to enshrine cultural topics, one can theorize that noodles must’ve been a fixture of the Chinese home at that time.
By the Han Dynasty (汉代) in early 200AD, noodles were seen all over Chinese culture. It was known as cake (饼) and appeared commonly as sheets or strips. As time passed, Chinese noodles started being made with wheat flour, rice flour and sometimes mung bean starch. By the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), noodles were sold in noodles shops at all major Chinese cities and spread to Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries through Chinese influence.
The 4,000 year old noodles found in Lajia are said to look like lā miàn 拉麵 noodles, meaning they are the ancestor of ramen! This type of noodle was made during the Han Dynasty, and particularly prized for the artful way in which the dough was stretched lengthwise between both hands and folded over and over into a thin form. Long noodles -longevity noodles (长寿面)- are still valued in Chinese culture as a symbolism for long life: cháng shòu miàn.
Pulling LaMian 拉麵 noodles! SOURCE: Kenneth Chan. youngjediboy@hotmail.com
Noodles still play a huge part in Asian cultural celebrations, events and festivals. Chinese newly weds moving into their first home eat noodles with gravy (打卤面) to symbolize a “flavored life.” On lunar new year (called “dragon head (龙抬头)”, Chinese anticipate good weather by feasting on dragon whiskers noodles (龙须面).
Here’s some stories illustrating how noodles were used to strengthen community:
Seafood noodles (三鲜伊面) are interchangeably called dutiful son’s noodle (孝子面). The son of a chronically ill mother, Yi Yin (伊尹) steamed and fried a mixture of eggs and flour to make noodles and nurse his mother back to health.
Dandan noodles (担担面) stress prosperity through service. Peddlers carried pots and stoves on shoulder poles to cook and sell these noodles, exuding the epitome of hospitality and customer service.
Sister-in-law noodles (嫂子面) are named after a sister-in-law of a poor, orphaned scholar. The sister-in-law would make noodles for this scholar while he studied. The heartiness of his sister-in-law’s dish is credited for helping the scholar pass his provincial Chinese civil service examination… Since this wasn’t a repeatable result, the noodles were eventually called “sào zi”- ashamed son noodles!
Vinegar-pepper old friend noodles (老友面) reportedly came about when a Zhou teahouse owner realized one of his regular customers wasn’t coming in for tea, anymore. Upon checking on his friend, the owner found his regular sick. He nursed his friend back to health with these noodles.
Villagers usually dry noodles on sunny days in Panzhoujia Village, Jinhua City of east China's Zhejiang Province. SOURCE: Chinapic.people.com.cn
德兴馆 (De Xing Guan) : A Shanghai noodle shop chain. The original is in Shanghai and was opened in 1878 with rumored ties to Emperor Qianlong.
Today’s Chinese Noodles:
China is now the world's largest consumer of noodles, which are known as “mein”. Data shows that between 2007 and 2012, China's sales value of noodles increased from 8.6 billion yuan to 20.26 billion yuan. This spike was mainly attributed to the 1958 invention of instant noodles by Taiwanese–Japanese Momofuku Ando. China’s total consumption of instant noodles has been ranked first in the world since 2009.
Lo Mein SOURCE: Martin Rettenberger/Shutterstock
SOURCE: Rodney Chow https://www.flickr.com/photos/rodneychow/
Cheung fun SOURCE: Paul_Brighton/Shutterstock
Chinese noodles are stir-fried, steamed, deep-fried, boiled, or served in a soup- hot or cold. Thousands of noodle varieties float about China and are classified by composition (most are wheat or rice), size and creation process.
Today, the four signature Chinese-style noodles are dandan noodles in Sichuan Province, beef noodles in Lanzhou, zhaijiang or fried sauce noodles in Beijing and daoxiao or knife-peeled noodles in Shanxi Province. All these noodles are often still made by hand. A common way of making noodles is by stretching paste with both hands, whirling it and then laying it on a board to fold it over and over.
I took this photo is of Harry's Special Hong Kong Style Chow Mein at Harry’s Cafe, Sacramento.
I had so much fun learning about the current theories on the Asian origin of noodles! What is your favorite Asian noodle dish? Share it in the comments so I can try them!
Read on about the Western history of noodles (pasta) in my next blog post!
A Deeper Dive
THRILLIST: More about kinds of Chinese Noodles
SOURCES:
Na Zhanga, Guansheng Ma: Noodles, traditionally and today
Tori Avey: PBS
Justin McDonnell: The Atlantic
Corby Kumer: The Atlantic
John Roach: National Geographic
Jin Qian: Smart Shanghai
