Noodle

History

Origin

The oldest physical evidence of noodles was from 4,000 years ago in China. In 2005, a team of archaeologists reported finding an earthenware bowl that contained 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, made by the Qijia culture. 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. However, other researchers cast doubt that Lajia's noodles were made from specifically millet: it is difficult to make pure millet noodles, it is unclear whether the analyzed residue were directly derived from Lajia's noodles themselves, starch morphology after cooking shows distinctive alterations that does not fit with Lajia's noodles, and it is uncertain whether the starch-like grains from Laijia's noodles are starch as they show some non-starch characteristics. The earliest written record of noodles is found in a book dated to the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE). Noodles made from wheat dough became a prominent food for the people of the Han dynasty.

Serventi and Sabban, in Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food, noted that wheat-based pasta traditions were established in China long before they had appeared in Europe. Food historian Gil Marks documented that the practise of boiling strips of dough in water originated in China and that this tradition did not take hold in Europe until the medieval period. Previously, European dough recipes were generally baked or fried rather than boiled, with Moorish Spain being the exception. Marks wrote that noodles spread from China along the Silk Road to Central Asia and reached Persia by around the fourth century. The noodles through Arab influence spread westwards to Sicily and Spain from where they spread from Sicily to mainland Italy sometime after the tenth century.

A homogenous mixture of flour and water called itrion was described by 2nd-century Greek physician Galen. The Jerusalem Talmud describes itrium among Jews between the 3rd and 5th centuries; itriyya (an Arabic borrowing from Greek) referred to string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking, as defined by the 9th-century physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali. According to National Geographic, many Italian writers have insisted pasta was enjoyed in pre-Roman Italy because implements found in a tomb dated to the fourth century BC show some resemblance to pasta-making equipment. However, many food historians dispute this interpretation, point out the scarcity of Roman-era references to anything resembling pasta, and believe that the dish instead first arrived in Italy as a "result of extensive Mediterranean trading in the Middle Ages". References to pasta dishes only became increasingly frequent across the Italian peninsula starting in the 13th century.

Historical variations

East Asia

There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed in China today. They vary widely according to the region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation. Due to the vast diversity of Chinese noodles, there is no single Chinese word equivalent to the Western concept of "noodles," nor is the notion of "noodles" as a unified food category recognized within Chinese cuisine.

In Standard Mandarin, miàn (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵) means "dough" but can be used to refer to noodles made from wheat flour and grains such as millet, sorghum, and oats. Similarly, fěn (粉) means "powder" but can be used to refer to noodles made from other starches, particularly rice flour and mung bean starch.

Wheat noodles in Japan (udon) were adapted from a Chinese recipe as early as the 9th century. Innovations continued, such as noodles made with buckwheat (naengmyeon) were developed in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392–1897). Ramen noodles, based on southern Chinese noodle dishes from Guangzhou but named after the northern Chinese lamian, became common in Japan after World War II.

Central Asia

Kesme or erişte noodles were eaten by Turkic peoples by the 13th century.

West Asia

Ash reshteh (noodles in thick soup with herbs) is one of the most popular dishes in some middle eastern countries such as Iran.

The Latinized word itrium referred to a kind of boiled dough. Arabs adapted noodles for long journeys in the fifth century, the first written record of dry pasta. Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote in 1154 that itriyya was manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily. Itriyya was also known by the Persian Jews during early Persian rule (when they spoke Aramaic) and during Islamic rule. It referred to a small soup noodle, of Greek origin, prepared by twisting bits of kneaded dough into shape, resembling Italian orzo.

Europe

In the 1st century BCE, Horace wrote of fried sheets of dough called lagana. However, the cooking method does not correspond to the current definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product.

Italy

Some Italian writers argued that pasta in Italy dates back to fourth century BC in the Etruscan civilization. However modern historians dispute this claim and believe the first noodles were imported much later from the Arabs during the Middle Ages. Jeffrey Steingarten asserts that Moors had introduced pasta in the Emirate of Sicily in the 9th century. Historian Gil Marks documented in Encyclopedia of Jewish Food that pasta had subsequently spread from Sicily to mainland Italy sometime after the tenth century. Likewise, food historians Françoise Sabban and Massimo Montanari noted in Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food that the first noodles to appear in Italy occurred in the 10th or 11th centuries.

There is a legend about Marco Polo bringing the first pasta back from China however this is considered a myth by many historians. By the time Marco Polo has traveled to China during the Yuan dynasty in the late 13th century, pasta-like foods had already been well established in Italy.

Germany

In Germany, documents dating from 1725 mention Spätzle. Medieval illustrations are believed to place this noodle at an even earlier date.

Armenia

An Armenian variety of noodle, Arishta, is prepared from wheat, water and salt. It is thick and is usually eaten with matzoon, clarified butter and garlic.

Polish Jews

Zacierki is a type of noodle found in Polish Jewish cuisine. It was part of the rations distributed to Jewish victims in the Łódź Ghetto by the Nazis. (Out of the "major ghettos", Łódź was the most affected by hunger, starvation and malnutrition-related deaths.) The diary of a young Jewish girl from Łódź recounts a fight she had with her father over a spoonful of zacierki taken from the family's meager supply of 200 grams a week.

Types by primary ingredient

Types of dishes

• Baked noodles: Boiled and drained noodles are combined with other ingredients and baked. Common examples include many casseroles.
• Basic noodles: These are cooked in water or broth, then drained. Other foods can be added or the noodles are added to other foods (see fried noodles) or the noodles can be served plain with a dipping sauce or oil to be added at the table. In general, noodles are soft and absorb flavors.
• Chilled noodles: noodles that are served cold, sometimes in a salad. Examples include Thai glass noodle salad and cold udon.
• Fried noodles: dishes made of noodles stir fried with various meats, seafood, vegetables, and dairy products. Examples include chow mein, lo mein, mie goreng, hokkien mee, some varieties of pancit, yakisoba, tallarín saltado, and pad thai.
• Noodle soup: noodles served in broth. Examples include phở, beef noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, ramen, laksa, mie ayam, saimin, and batchoy.

Preservation

• Instant noodles
• Frozen noodles