Noodles
Noodles in broth, in sauce and stir-fried, made from wheat, rice, buckwheat and starch. How the noodles are boiled, and whether they are rinsed, matters as much as the sauce. Basics to read first: Cooking Noodles: Salt, Starch, and Whether to Rinse
Mi Krop (Crisp Fried Rice Vermicelli in Sweet-Sour Glaze)
A Bangkok dish of dry rice vermicelli dropped unsoaked into hot oil so it puffs at once, then tossed in a sweet-sour sauce reduced thick. The name means "crisp noodles". The sour note often comes from the peel of som sa, a Thai citrus like citron.
Mì Quảng (Turmeric Rice Noodles in a Little Strong Broth)
A noodle dish from Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng in central Vietnam. Wide rice noodles go over raw greens and herbs, and a strong broth yellowed with turmeric is poured on only far enough to half cover them. Pork, prawns and quail eggs go on top, with roasted peanuts and a sesame rice cracker broken over, and everything is mixed before eating.
Guoqiao Mixian (Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles)
Yunnan's rice noodle soup: boiling chicken broth poured into a heated bowl under a cap of chicken fat and carried to the table, where the eater adds paper-thin raw meat, quail eggs, vegetables and rice noodles in turn and cooks them in the bowl. No flame; only the heat of the broth.
Garganelli (Comb-Ridged Egg Pasta with Peas and Pancetta)
An egg pasta from Romagna: a thin sheet cut into small diamonds, each wrapped round a thin stick and rolled over a ridged board like a weaver's comb, so the tube carries fine crosswise ridges. Served with peas, shallot and pancetta under plenty of Parmigiano.
Yoshida no Udon (Hard, Thick Udon with Cabbage and Simmered Meat)
Udon from Fujiyoshida in Yamanashi: thick, hard noodles you have to bite through, in a niboshi and shiitake broth seasoned with soy sauce and miso, topped with boiled cabbage and sweet-savoury simmered meat, with a fried chilli paste called suridane on the side.
Pizzoccheri (Buckwheat Pasta with Potato, Cabbage and Cheese)
A pasta from the Valtellina in Lombardy: mostly buckwheat flour with a little wheat, cut into short, broad strips. Potato and cabbage go into the same pot in turn, everything is layered with cheese, and butter fried with garlic is poured over. It all has to happen while it is hot.
Nishin Soba (Hot Buckwheat Noodles with Sweet-Simmered Dried Herring)
Hot buckwheat noodles in broth topped with a whole fillet of dried herring (migaki nishin), soaked back and simmered sweet and salty. A speciality of Kyoto and Hokkaido, and a dried fish that is soaked and simmered rather than grilled.
Morioka Jajamen (Flat Noodles with Meat Miso, Finished as Egg Soup)
Noodles from Morioka in Iwate: flat noodles like flat udon under meat miso, cucumber and spring onion, seasoned at the table with chilli oil, ginger, garlic and vinegar. When the noodles are gone, an egg is cracked into the bowl and the noodle cooking water poured in to make a soup called chītantan.
Izumo Soba (Dark Buckwheat Noodles in Stacked Lacquer Dishes)
Soba from Izumo in Shimane, made from buckwheat stone-milled with its husk, so the noodles are dark and strongly fragrant. It comes in three stacked round lacquer dishes: the tsuyu is poured straight onto the noodles, and what is left goes down to the next dish.
Ise Udon (Thick, Soft Udon with Tamari Sauce)
Udon from Ise in Mie: thick noodles boiled for more than 25 minutes until very soft, served with no broth, just a spoonful or two of dark sauce made from tamari and bonito dashi, mixed through at the table.
Inaniwa Udon (Thin, Hand-Stretched Dried Udon in Hot Broth)
Dried udon stretched by hand in Inaniwa, Akita. Pulled rather than cut, it is thin and flat, and tiny air pockets inside make it slip down smoothly. Served hot in a clear dashi broth with nameko mushrooms and spring onion.
Fregola with Clams (Toasted Semolina Pearls Cooked in the Sauce)
A Sardinian pasta of semolina rubbed into small pearls and toasted in the oven. It is not boiled in water: it goes straight into a clam and tomato sauce and cooks by drinking the clams' liquor, and the toasted grain is what gives the sauce its depth.
Bún Bò Huế (Lemongrass Beef Noodle Soup with Shrimp Paste)
The beef noodle soup of Huế in central Vietnam: beef bones, shank and pork knuckle simmered with lemongrass, seasoned with fermented shrimp paste (mắm ruốc) and finished with a red chilli oil. The rice noodles are thicker and rounder than the ones in pho.
Shivit Oshi (Dill Noodles with Suzma and Meat Sauce)
The green noodles of Khiva, in Uzbekistan's Khorezm. Dill is ground into the dough and turns it pale green; the boiled, rinsed noodles are tossed in suzma, a thick fermented milk, and topped with qayla, a braise of meat and vegetables. It runs the usual order for a delicate herb backwards: the dill boils with the noodle, so what it leaves is not a bright top note but colour and a quiet background.
Cincinnati Chili (Spiced Meat Sauce over Spaghetti)
A thin meat sauce scented with cinnamon, allspice and clove, spooned over spaghetti, from the immigrant-run restaurants of 1920s Cincinnati. The mince is never browned: it is broken up in cold water before any heat reaches it, so it sets as separate grains and the sauce has no lumps in it at all. What browning would have given is made up by the spice. The toppings stack up by number, as "ways".
Bún Riêu Cua (Rice Noodles in a Crab Broth with Crab Curds)
Northern Vietnam's crab noodle soup. Paddy crabs are pounded shell and all, worked into water and strained, and the crab liquid is heated slowly until the crab's own protein sets and rises. That floating mass is the riêu, and it is the solid part of the bowl. It is the raft a cook makes with egg white to clear a broth and then throws away, formed here by the ingredient itself and kept. Tomato and tamarind sour the broth, and shrimp paste goes on the side.
Bun Dau Mam Tom (Rice Noodles and Fried Tofu with Shrimp Paste Dip)
A Hanoi spread: pressed rice-noodle cakes, just-fried tofu, boiled pork and fresh herbs, all dipped into mắm tôm, fermented shrimp paste. The mắm tôm is never cooked. The same kind of paste that other dishes toast or fry to drive off its sharp smell is served raw here, beaten with lime juice and sugar until it foams.
Reganmian (Hot Dry Noodles with Sesame Paste)
Wuhan's breakfast noodle, hot with no broth at all. The noodles are boiled the day before, tossed in oil and fanned cool, then dipped for ten seconds in boiling water and dressed with sesame paste. Oiled noodles normally shed sauce, but that assumes a water-based sauce, and sesame paste is not one.
Pancit Bihon (Stir-Fried Rice Vermicelli)
A Filipino stir-fried noodle in which fine rice vermicelli is softened in cold water and then finished in a measured amount of fully seasoned stock that it drinks to the last spoonful. There is no pot of boiling water anywhere in it, so that stock is the noodle’s only chance at seasoning — which makes its quantity and its salt the whole recipe.
Luosifen (River Snail Rice Noodles)
Rice noodles from Liuzhou in Guangxi, named after river snails that are simmered with pork bones for hours and then lifted out. What defines the bowl is suan sun, bamboo shoot fermented in water. Strong ferments are usually rinsed or cooked to tame them; luosifen does neither, and the smell is the point.
Kuaitiao Ruea (Boat Noodles in a Blood-Thickened Broth)
A Thai noodle bowl whose pork-bone broth is thickened by pouring pig’s blood into it. Where sundae puts blood in so that it will set, this dish needs it never to: once the blood is in, the broth must not boil again.
Passatelli (Breadcrumb and Parmigiano Pasta in Broth)
An Emilia-Romagna pasta of breadcrumbs, Parmigiano and egg, pushed straight into chicken broth. There is no flour, so no gluten holds it together; the egg does, setting as it meets the hot broth. That is why it is pressed directly into the simmering pot, cooks in two minutes and cannot be made ahead.
Mee Rebus (Yellow Noodles in Sweet Potato Gravy)
The noodle dish of Johor: yellow noodles under a thick, sweet brown gravy thickened by mashed sweet potato rather than a slurry, roux or reduction. Sweet potato brings its starch already gelatinised inside intact cell walls, so the rules for added starch do not apply; but the thickener is also the sweetener.
Liangpi (Cold Wheat-Starch Noodles, and the Gluten That Came Out of Them)
Xi'an's cold noodle, made by rinsing a wheat dough apart into starch and gluten and eating both. Wheat starch is what is left when flour is washed free of gluten, and liangpi does that washing at home. The settled starch is steamed into sheets cut into noodles; the gluten becomes a steamed sponge, mianjin, on top.
Daoxiaomian (Knife-Shaved Noodles)
The Shanxi noodle shaved off a block of dough held on the forearm, straight into boiling water. Kalguksu is rolled and cut and lamian is stretched; here one stroke of the blade sets thickness and width at once. Each piece is a wedge, thick in the middle and thin at the edges, so one noodle has two doneness levels.
Orecchiette (Hand-Dragged Pasta with Turnip Tops)
A pasta from Puglia made one piece at a time from durum semolina and water, with no egg. A rope of dough is cut into cubes, each cube dragged across the board with a knife and then turned inside out over a thumb — and the dragging leaves the inside rough. That roughness is the point: the sauce that always goes with it is nothing but olive oil and boiled turnip tops, with no body at all, so the only thing holding it is the surface.
Khanom Chin (Fermented Rice Noodles Pressed into Boiling Water)
Thai rice noodles: rice soaked for days until it sours, ground into a dough and pressed through a perforated plate straight into boiling water. This one can only be extruded, because rice has no gluten and so a rice dough cannot be stretched or folded into a noodle. Starch from part of the dough, cooked first, holds the strands.
Lanzhou Lamian (Hand-Pulled Beef Noodle Soup)
The beef noodle soup of Lanzhou, in which one lump of dough is folded and stretched over and over until it is hundreds of strands. Every fold doubles the count, so eight folds is 256. What separates it from a rolled and cut noodle is not the absence of a knife but that the dough has to be taken in the direction of stretch rather than spring. And the broth has to stay clear, which is exactly why these noodles are boiled apart from it and rinsed.
Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles)
Indonesia's national noodle dish: boiled yellow noodles thrown into a hot wok with a ground spice paste and sweet soy. The same seasoning over rice is nasi goreng — but noodles, unlike rice, go on drinking the sauce. Undercooking them, oiling them and keeping the time in the wok short is the whole trick, and it is the only one.
Wonton Noodles (Prawn Wontons over Thin Egg Noodles in Clear Broth)
Prawn wontons and very thin egg noodles in a clear broth, from Guangdong. Two rules make it Cantonese rather than generic: the noodles boil for only 20-30 seconds and are shocked in cold water to set their spring, and the wontons go into the bowl first so the noodles sit above them, out of the soup.
Khao Soi (Coconut Curry Noodles)
Chiang Mai's curry noodles, and the shape of the dish is two noodle states in one bowl: boiled beneath, deep-fried on top. The crisp nest is not a garnish but half the point. The paste is unlike other Thai curries too — turmeric and curry powder rather than galangal and lemongrass, a lineage that comes over the Burmese border.
Curry Laksa (Coconut Curry Noodle Soup)
Malaysia's coconut curry noodle soup, built on a spice paste fried until the oil breaks out of it. Two opposite splits govern the dish: in the paste you force the oil to separate, and in the finished soup you must never let the coconut milk do the same.
Beef Noodle Soup (Red-Braised)
Taiwan's beef noodle soup: shin simmered over two hours with doubanjiang, whole spices and tomato, poured over thick wheat noodles. Parboiling the beef from cold water and skimming, then never letting the pot boil again, are what decide how clear the broth ends up.
Dan Dan Noodles (Sichuan Noodles in Chilli-Sesame Sauce)
Sichuan noodles built over a spoonful of sauce — sesame paste, soy and chilli oil sitting in the bottom of the bowl — with dry-fried minced pork on top, tossed at the table. It is not a soup: the sauce goes under the noodles rather than over them, and that arrangement is the dish.
Soba (Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Dipping Sauce)
Buckwheat noodles boiled, washed in cold water, drained on a bamboo tray and dipped into chilled tsuyu. Rubbing the surface starch off the cooked noodles under cold water, and having the tsuyu made and cold in advance, are what let the buckwheat itself come through.
Kongguksu (Chilled Soy Milk Noodles)
Summer noodles in chilled soy milk: soaked beans boiled briefly, skinned, then blended smooth. Not overboiling them and slipping the skins off are what give a fine broth with no astringency — and whether it is seasoned with salt or with sugar splits along regional lines.
Naengmyeon (Cold Buckwheat Noodles in Chilled Broth)
Korea's summer noodle dish: buckwheat noodles in a beef broth chilled almost to slush. Two things decide it — how cold the broth actually gets, and how thoroughly you rub the starch off the noodles in cold water. Cold blunts the palate, so it needs seasoning harder than any hot soup.
Mohinga (Fish Noodle Soup)
One of Myanmar's national dishes: finely flaked fish simmered with lemongrass and turmeric into a broth thickened with toasted chickpea flour, ladled over thin rice noodles. The contrast between soft noodles and crisp fritters, boiled egg, raw onion and lime is the whole point — and in Myanmar it's breakfast.
Chow Mein
Chinese stir-fried noodles — boiled noodles tossed over high heat with vegetables and meat in a glossy soy-based sauce, laced with smoky wok flavor. A 15-minute one-pan dish that's perfect for clearing out the vegetable drawer.
Kalguksu (Knife-cut Noodle Soup)
A comforting Korean noodle soup: chewy hand-cut wheat noodles simmered with zucchini in a milky anchovy-kelp broth. Humble but deeply savory, it's the bowl Koreans crave on a rainy day.
Pad See Ew
Thai stir-fried wide rice noodles tossed in dark soy sauce over screaming-hot heat for that smoky wok char. Chinese broccoli, egg, and meat make it savory and satisfying, with lightly charred edges as the best part.
Spatzle (Cheese Spatzle)
Southern German egg noodles scraped fresh into boiling water, then layered with melting cheese and topped with crispy fried onions — kasespatzle. Rich and cozy enough to be called German mac and cheese, and you don't even need special tools.
Pesto Pasta (Pasta al Pesto)
Fresh basil blended with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, and olive oil, tossed through hot pasta — the Genoese classic. It is never cooked, only warmed by the pasta, so the green color and aroma stay vivid in this fast one-plate dish.
Yakisoba (Fried Noodles)
Japanese stir-fried noodles with cabbage and pork in a Worcestershire-based sauce. Made with store noodles and odds of veg in one pan in 15 minutes — top with bonito and seaweed flakes for the real thing.
Udon (Noodle Soup)
Plump udon noodles in a clear dashi broth made from kombu and bonito. Dashi powder makes it even quicker, and sweet-savory fried tofu turns it into the beloved 'kitsune udon.'
Janchi-guksu (Banquet Noodle Soup)
Warm Korean noodles — thin somyeon in a clear anchovy-kelp broth with simple toppings. The name ('banquet noodles') comes from serving guests at celebrations like weddings. Once the broth is made the noodles cook in minutes — a comforting, slurpable bowl at home.
Bun Cha (Hanoi Grilled Pork & Noodles)
Hanoi's signature dish — char-grilled pork in a sweet-sour-salty nuoc cham, eaten by dipping rice vermicelli, herbs, and greens into the bowl. Yes, the bun cha Obama and Bourdain shared.
Bibim-guksu (Spicy Mixed Noodles)
Korean spicy mixed noodles — chewy somyeon rinsed cold and tossed in a sweet-sour-spicy gochujang sauce. With sour kimchi and cucumber, it's the quick summer dish for when nothing else appeals.
Jjamppong (Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup)
Korea's spicy Chinese-style noodle soup — a fiery chili-oil broth loaded with squid, mussels, shrimp, and vegetables over chewy noodles. Hot, briny, and bracing; the eternal rival to jjajangmyeon.
Jjajangmyeon (Black Bean Noodles)
Korea's beloved Chinese-style noodle dish — chewy wheat noodles under a glossy black bean (chunjang) sauce simmered with pork, onion, and cabbage. Topped with cucumber and mixed before eating; a takeout classic.
Ramen (Shoyu)
Japanese shoyu ramen — a clear kombu-bonito broth seasoned with a soy 'tare', chewy noodles, and toppings of chashu and a soft-boiled egg. The classic structure: build the tare and broth separately, then combine in the bowl.
Pho (Noodle Soup)
Vietnam's national dish — rice noodles and beef in a clear, fragrant broth simmered for hours with spices and charred onion and ginger. Finished at the table with sprouts, herbs, and lime to taste.
Pad Thai
Thailand's beloved street-food noodle dish — rice noodles stir-fried with shrimp, tofu, and egg in a tangy tamarind sauce. Bean sprouts and chives add crunch; peanuts and lime finish it bright and nutty.