Rice and noodles 米.面.粉

Rice and noodles are staple fare in the Chinese diet. They are versatile; you can mix it with just about anything to make a wide variety of tasty nutritious dishes. Plain rice is most often served with dishes of meat, fish and vegetables. Pour curries over plain rice make a simple yet delicious meal, transform leftover ingredients and rice to a plate of fragrant fried rice, or simply make sushi rolls with nori seaweed and a layer of rice wrapped around a core of vegetables or other fillings.

Chinese noodles come in all sizes and shapes, from round to flat to wide and thin. Like the rice, you can virtually cook it any way you like. Stir fry or crisp fry them, make it a soup dish or tossed the noodle in a mixed sauce making it “dried noodle”. Noodles are the Chinese symbol of longevity and it is a tradition to serve long and uncut noodles on birthdays.

The noodles fall broadly into two categories. The most common are wheat flour noodles, called 面 (miàn) in Chinese, which can be made with or without eggs. Rice noodles, called 粉 (fěn) are made from rice flour and water. A thinner variety of rice noodle is rice vermicelli 米粉(mi fěn). There are also flat rice sticks, kway teow, lai fun, hor fun, loh shee fun, flat rice paper wrappers, all made from rice flour and come in different shapes and thickness.

On average, I cook noodles two to three times a week and the remaining days I'll cook rice or porridge with dishes. We are still very much rice eaters, even in a western country. I can't imagine eating sandwiches and breads everyday for lunch and dinner. Breads only appear at breakfast in the beehive.