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Noodles in Chinese cuisine

Chinese noodles vary widely according to the region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation. Noodles were invented in China, and are an essential ingredient and staple in Chinese cuisine. They are an important part of most regional cuisines within China, and other countries with sizable overseas Chinese populations. Chinese noodles can be made of wheat, buckwheat, rice, millet, maize, oats, soybeans, mung beans, yams, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and meats such as fish and shrimp. There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed in China today, with tens of thousands of noodle dish varieties prepared using these types of noodles. Chinese noodles have also entered the cuisines of neighboring East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan, as well as Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Nomenclature of Chinese noodles can be difficult due to the vast spectrum available in China and the many dialects of Chinese used to name them. In Mandarin, miàn (; often transliterated as "mien" or "mein" ) refers to noodles made from wheat flour, while fěn ([[wikt:粉) or "fun" refers to noodles made from other starches, particularly rice flour and mung bean starch. Each noodle type can be rendered in pinyin for Mandarin, but in Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong it will be known by its Cantonese pronunciation ("meen" or "mien" for wheat noodles, "fun" for non wheat). Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and many other Overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia may use Hokkien (Min Nan) instead (e. g. "mee" for wheat noodles, "hoon" or "hun" for non wheat). Wheat noodles, for example, are called mian in Mandarin, mein in Cantonese, men in Japanese, mee in Thai and guksu in Korean. Sometimes, the principal ingredient used in the preparation such as wheat, buckwheat, rice, potato, corn flour, bean, soybean flour, yam flour, mung bean starch, sweet potato, cassava, etc. may also form the basis of naming noodles.

Noodles may be cooked from either their fresh (moist) or dry forms. They are generally boiled, although they may also be deep fried in oil until crispy. Boiled noodles may then be stir fried, served with sauce or other accompaniments, or served in soup, often with meat and other ingredients. Certain rice noodles are made directly from steaming the raw rice slurry and are only consumed fresh. Unlike many Western noodles and pastas, Chinese noodles made from wheat flour are usually made from salted dough, and therefore do not require the addition of salt to the liquid in which they are boiled. Chinese noodles also cook very quickly, generally requiring less than 5 minutes to become al dente and some taking less than a minute to finish cooking, with thinner noodles requiring less time to cook. Chinese noodles made from rice or mung bean starch do not generally contain salt.

These noodles are made using various plant starches. Mung bean starch noodles will often be cut with tapioca starch to make them more chewy and reduce production costs. Common English name Characters Pinyin Cantonese Hokkien Description Winter noodles 冬粉 dōng fěn dung1 fan2 tang hún Very thin mung bean starch noodles, similar to vermicelli Bean threads 粉絲 fěn sī fan2 si1 ? Thin cellophane like noodles Mung bean sheets 粉皮 fěn pí fan2 pei4 hún phê Wide, clear noodles made from mung bean starch Liang pi 凉皮 líang pí loeng4 pei4 ? Translucent noodles made from wheat starch left from producing gluten Silver needle noodles 銀針粉 yín zhēn fěn ngan4 dzam1 fan2 ? Spindle shaped wheat starch noodles, ca. 5 cm in length and 3–5 mm in diameter老鼠粉 lǎo shǔ fěn lou5 sy2 fan2 niáu chhú hún Suān là fěn 酸辣粉 suān là fěn syn1 laat6 fan2 ?Chongqing hot & spicy sweet potato starch noodles

In China, particularly in western Inner Mongolia and Shanxi province, oat (Avena nuda) flour is called yóu miàn (莜面), and is processed into noodles or thin walled rolls, which are consumed as staple food. The process of making oat noodles relies on twisting them on a marble plate to ensure the dough will not stick on it, and turning them into strips and thin rolls. It can be boiled or steamed, then served with different sauces to eat.

The oldest archaeological evidence of noodles shows that they came from China and were made from millet, which is an indigenous crop to northern China. In 2005, a team of archaeologists reported finding an earthenware bowl that contained 4000 year old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site. These noodles were said to resemble lamian, a type of Chinese noodle. Analyzing the husk phytoliths and starch grains present in the sediment associated with the noodles, they were identified as millet belonging to Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica.