Noodles

Noodles are long strips or strings made from unleavened dough that is rolled, cut, stretched or extruded. They are a staple in East Asian and Mediterranean cooking, and they form the basis of countless soups, stir-fries and cold dishes.

History

The oldest noodles known so far come from China. In 2005, archaeologists working at the Lajia site in Qinghai reported an earthenware bowl holding noodles about four thousand years old, made by the Qijia culture. They looked like today's lamian, although the analysis of husk phytoliths and starch grains, which identified millet, has been questioned by other researchers, who doubt the noodles were made from that cereal alone. The earliest written record is in a book from the Eastern Han period (25-220 CE), and from then on wheat noodles became a prominent food for the Han people.

Food historians point out that boiling strips of dough in water took hold in China long before it did in Europe, where baked and fried doughs dominated for centuries. The technique travelled along the Silk Road to Central Asia and reached Persia by around the fourth century. Arab influence then carried it westwards to Sicily. In 1154, the geographer al-Idrisi described mills near Trabia, close to Palermo, that produced hand-shaped pasta exported to other Mediterranean markets. That and other evidence places dried pasta in medieval Sicily and its later spread across the Italian mainland.

In Italy, the first references to sheets of dough go back to Roman times, with the lagănum, but the modern way of boiling and drying pasta took shape later. Horace, in the first century BCE, mentioned strips of fried dough or dough cooked in vegetable stews, though that method does not match today's pasta. Elsewhere in Eurasia, very similar noodle soups arose independently. Among Persian Jews and Arabs, the itriyya, a small soup noodle twisted by hand, is documented from an early date.

In Japan, wheat udon was adapted from a Chinese recipe as early as the ninth century, and in Korea, during the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), buckwheat and kudzu noodles were developed. Ramen, rooted in southern Chinese noodle dishes and named after the northern lamian, became popular in Japan after the Second World War. In Germany, documents from 1725 mention spätzle, and medieval illustrations suggest it is older still.

A painful documented episode concerns zacierki, a noodle from Polish Jewish cooking. It was part of the rations the Nazis handed out in the Łódź ghetto, the hardest hit by hunger. A young woman's diary from the city describes an argument with her father over a spoonful of these noodles, taken from the family's meagre weekly supply of 200 grams.

Culture

Noodles play a very varied role in everyday life. China alone has more than 1,200 common types, differing by region, ingredients, width and method of preparation. There is therefore no single Chinese word equivalent to the Western idea of noodles: miàn refers to doughs made from wheat and other grains, while fěn covers starch noodles such as rice or mung bean ones. Lamian, pulled by hand, is emblematic of Lanzhou, and daoxiao mian, cut with a knife from a thick dough, belongs to Shaanxi. In Southeast Asia, rice and egg noodles accompany meals from breakfast to dinner, as in Vietnamese phở with its broth and fresh rice noodles, or the stir-fried Indonesian mie goreng.

In Japan, buckwheat soba is often served cold with a dipping sauce, and the very fine sōmen is eaten especially in summer, while the thicker udon usually comes in broth. In Korea, buckwheat and kudzu naengmyeon belong to the summer table, and makguksu is the specialty of Gangwon Province. In Italy, durum wheat pasta has become a national emblem, and regional types such as the buckwheat pizzoccheri of Valtellina, served with melted cheese, show local variety. In Germany, spätzle is closely linked to Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.

Noodle soups are found in almost every culture, and cold dishes such as the Thai glass noodle salad show another way of eating them. Instant noodles, sold dry or frozen, are a widespread modern form of consumption. They sit alongside homemade fresh pasta and handmade noodles. Macaroni art, which means gluing dry pasta pieces into mosaics or sculptures, is also a common creative exercise in schools.

Trivia