Using Your Asian Noodle
By now, it’s become a cliché: starving college kids subsisting from midterms to finals on cup after cup of instant ramen. But those poor students weren’t alone. For generations, the only Asian noodles Americans knew of came in penny-packets of crunchy, salty, fried ramen—and, perhaps, in a greasy chow mein container from the neighborhood Chinese takeout.
As a devoted fan of Asian noodles, it’s my pleasure to tell you: times have changed. Asian noodles are an outright sensation, fueling interest in a variety of chefs and concepts, from James Beard Award winner David Chang of Momofuku to casual-dining chains like P.F. Chang’s China Bistro. And supermarkets offer convenient noodle bowls and meal kits from the likes of Annie Chun’s, Simply Asia and Thai Kitchen. All boast a level of creativity unheard of even 15 years ago, and all are riding a wave of popularity that bodes well for the prospects of Asian noodles—and Asian cuisines.
“The tastes of the American consumer are expanding beyond Chinese and Japanese fare,” says Debbie Carpenter, senior marketing manager, foodservice and industrial, Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc., San Francisco.
And if you aim to initiate mainstream diners on the pleasures of Asian cuisine, you might as well start with noodles. “From the time they can eat solid foods, kids love pasta and noodles,” says Philip Chiang, co-founder, P.F. Chang’s, Scottsdale, AZ, and a continuing presence in its test kitchen. “It doesn’t matter what cuisine the noodles come from. Everybody loves them. They’re just really accessible to everybody no matter their culture.”
However, the more Asian noodles we have within our grasp, the more confusing their variety. “I could spend three lifetimes attempting to explore and master the magnitude of noodles in Asia,” says Robin Stotter, head of culinary research, P.F. Chang’s.
The wheat from the chaff
I’ve found it helpful to sort noodles into families based on size and shape, typical preparation, eating characteristics, national or cultural tradition—and, perhaps most effectively, main ingredient: wheat versus rice, mung bean versus sweet potato, and so on.
Let’s start with wheat. Most cultures in northern Asia have some sort of wheat-flour noodle, some of them, like traditional ramen, are enriched with egg (and although the ramen noodles in those familiar little packets at retail are fried, the light, hand-pulled noodles at the local ramen shop are not). These are your basic chow mein, lo mein and ramen noodles, and they come in different sizes, flat or round, fresh or dried. Their soft texture suits them to soups—thinner noodles work well here—while broader, coarser varieties show their stuff in stews, stir-fries and claypot casseroles.
Back when Asian wheat and egg noodles were hard to come by, we substituted Italian pasta. And this worked to a point, but Stotter underscores that “Asian noodles are lighter by nature than their Italian counterparts because of the flours and starches used.” This goes for wheat noodles, as well as those made from other ingredients. “They cook faster,” he says. “The texture is a little bit different—you get a different chew and a lighter feel.”
An exception to this lightness are the buckwheat-based noodles known as soba in Japan and naengmyon in Korea, the latter of which get a slight chew from potato starch. These are substantial noodles. In Korea, you might find naengmyon cold in a spicy sesame dressing with mirin (sweetened rice wine), sesame seeds, garlic, sugar and hot chile-bean paste. The classic Japanese treatment for soba is zaru soba: boiled, chilled noodles served with a soy sauce, mirin and dashi broth dip with a little wasabi and sliced green onion. Soba noodles also go into soups and stir-fries, where they inspired the common menu term yakisoba, or “grilled noodles.”
Two more wheat-flour varieties from Japan are somen and udon. Somen, thin, delicate and silken-textured, are a summer specialty in chilled salads and light soups. Udon are slippery, chewy and plump, appearing almost exclusively in hearty soups and stews.
“The texture of udon is such that it’s not really great for stir-frying,” Chiang says. “It can break up and stick, and it’s not easy to handle.” One non-soup prep is udon pan-fried pancake-style with a sauce poured over it.
