Zheng Nan
Institute of Dietary Culture, Zhejiang Gongshang University
The Chinese nation has the age-old tradition of making noodles using many types of grain starch, such as millet, broomcorn millet, many kinds of wheat, rice, Chinese sorghum and different kinds of potato. Both refined and coarse grains are made into noodles. These noodles have extraordinary splendor and great variety. Today, wheat noodles and rice noodles are the most important kinds and are popular among the one billion Chinese. Although wheat became a staple crop in 7000 BC, wheat noodles appeared much later. Noodles from 4,000 years ago are the oldest noodles discovered to date in an archaeological excavation in Lajia of Qinghai, China. Those noodles were made from millet and broomcorn millet. Ancient Chinese civilization and Western Italian civilization together developed the noodles culture, and Islam culture was the bridge of communication. Today, noodles are genuine popular food. They are loved in many countries and regions in the world in several hundred kinds. In addition to the traditional manually produced noodles, modern industrial production technology is also increasingly updated.
This paper mainly discusses the history of noodles, traditional crafts, folk customs, and noodle processing technology. The paper compares the similarities and differences of noodles and noodle culture among China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Italy from the angle of cultural exchange, and also pays attention to the development of rice noodles. We think rice noodles will have a broader space for development and demand and production in the future.
(Presented in the 2012 Asian Food Heritage Forum: Harmonizing Culture , Technology and Industry, 20-21 August 2012, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Chinese Dietary Culture Institute, Zhejiang Gongshang University, and Ministry of Culture, Thailand)