Home > Food > Rice & Noodles

Rice & Noodles

Green pepper shredded meat rice

In reality, in the rice-growing parts of China, rice not only provides a high percentage of daily calories for the bulk of the population, it is the focus of the meal. It serves as a kind of backdrop for a small amount of vegetables or even smaller amount of fish and meat. Sometimes this is necessary as certain braised dishes can be so rich that they are almost impossible to eat without a great deal of rice. But this practice requires that the rice offers taste and aroma, and this is sadly less and less often the case. The most popular rice in China is polished long-grain rice, so polished that it loses nutrients contained in the husk, and also loses flavor. That said, for some, the more neutral the rice backdrop, the better the flavors of the savory dishes come through.

What is frequently referred to as steamed rice is in fact boiled rice, and most Chinese kitchens possess a rice cooker dedicated to achieving perfect rice every time. Steaming rice takes far longer than boiling it, though the texture might be a little fluffier.
Steamed rice, in any event, is boiled for a few minutes first. For those who use a pan for boiling rice rather than a cooker.

Egg-fried Rice can almost represent a meal in itself. It is an excellent way to use up yesterday's leftover boiled rice, often combined with other leftovers, although fresh prawns, chopped Cha Siu and scrambled eggs often appear in the mix, in addition to vegetables or meats. At least as many Chinese who eat rice daily eat noodles, whether these are made from wheat flour, rice flour or bean flour. Noodles can be fresh, dried or semi-dried. There are a number of key ways to prepare noodles, ranging from soup noodles to fried noodles, braised noodles in a thick gravy, lightly tossed noodles and cold noodles.

Fried noodles

Noodles are almost always boiled or soaked in hot water first, then set aside and combined with other ingredients later. Dan Dan Mian from Sichuan Province is one of the most famous noodle dishes in China, while Singapore Noodles is a great example of a dish that left China with Chinese emigrants, underwent some transformations, but still retained its home spirit. Dishes like chop suey or chow mein are usually heavily Westernized versions of Chinese noodles.

The process of preparing noodles can be a great spectacle. Blocks of fresh wheat flour noodle dough are brilliantly separated through swinging the dough by hand into super--long, thin noodles. Chefs also expertly hand cut noodles straight from the block into a pan of boiling water.