Hot dry noodles
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| Alternative names | 热干面 |
|---|---|
| Type | Noodles |
| Course | Breakfast |
| Place of origin | China |
| Region or state | Wuhan |
| Main ingredients | Alkaline noodles, soy sauce, sesame paste, pickled carrots, garlic, chili oil |
Hot dry noodles (simplified Chinese: 热干面; traditional Chinese: 熱乾麵; pinyin: règānmiàn), known in Chinese as reganmian,[1] also transliterated as dried and spicy noodles,[2] is a traditional dish of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China.[3] Hot dry noodles have an 80-year history in Chinese food culture; they are unique because the noodles are not in a broth like most other Asian-style hot noodle dishes.[4] They are the most significant, famous and popular breakfast food in Wuhan, often sold by street carts and restaurants in residential and business areas.[5] Breakfasts such as hot dry noodles are available from about 5 am, and usually appear at Wuhan's night markets as a late-night snack. These noodles can be prepared within minutes and are affordable, so they are a popular breakfast. There are hot dry noodle restaurants all over the city.
Typical hot dry noodle dishes contain soy sauce, sesame paste, pickled vegetables (carrots and beans), chopped garlic chives and chili oil.[6] Hot dry noodles, along with Shanxi's knife-cut noodles (刀削面; 刀削麵; dāoxiāomiàn), Liangguang's yifumian, Sichuan's dandanmian, and northern China's zhajiangmian, are collectively referred to as the "top five noodles of China" by People's Daily, and in a 2013 article titled "China's Top 10 famous noodles" Business Insider reported that CNTV rated reganmian the top Chinese noodle dish.[7][8] The specifics of the preparation of hot dry noodles is discussed in Wuhan author Chi Li's novel Cold or Hot, It's Good to Live (冷也好热也好活着就好).
Cooking method
[edit]The recipe for hot dry noodles differs from cold noodles and soup noodles, as the dish is served hot without broth.
The fresh noodles are mixed with sesame oil and cooked in boiling water. The cooked and cooled noodles become pliable. Before eating, the noodles will be cooked again the same way, and dressings including spring onion and sauce are added.[9] While preparing hot dry noodles, the noodles are placed into a cone-shaped strainer, dipped briefly into boiling water, and then swirled and drained. The noodles are poured into a paper bowl, sesame paste, salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, chive and pickled radish are added, poured on top and stirred.
Noodles Preparation
The noodles need to be prepared at first. In order to make the noodles tender, alkali is the key ingredietnt. Put alkali into water before the day of making noodles. After that, mix the alkali water and some salt with flour in a ratio of 2:1:250. Knead and split the dough into noodles. During the process, making sure that the diameter of each noodle between 1.5 and 1.6 mm which would gain better flavor when boiling.
Then, dredging the noodles with a large pot and high heat. Put the raw noodles in the pot before the water is boiled. Repeat the procedure of stiring up with chopsticks which prevent noodles form into clumps. Also repeat the process of adding cold water after boil and lid up until boiling. After noodles become transparent, taking out the noodles and putting it into colander to drain the water in the noodles. After draining, quickly placing the noodles into a bowl. Add prepared sauce directly into it and add some spring onions. Then it is done.
Sauce Preparation
The sauce need to be prepared at the firsthand. Mix soysauce, balsamic vinegar, pepper, MSG, sesame paste, sesame oil, red and white radish cubes, chives in the proportion of 20:8:1:1:15-18:5:4:5. Also add sugar in the soy sauce in a proportion of 1:50.
Origin
[edit]Summer in Wuhan is extremely long, and the high temperature causes food to deteriorate rapidly. Consequently, in the past people added dietary alkali into noodles to slow deterioration; this evolved into reganmian.
Bao Li
[edit]According to a widely circulated version of the origin story, in the 1930s, there was a small food stand on Changdi Street operated by Bao Li, a hawker who made a living by selling bean noodles and noodle soups in the Guandi temple area in Hankou. Due to the hot weather, business was bad and many noodles were not sold. There were no refrigerators at that time. If these noodles were sold the next day, they would definitely go bad and be inedible. What to do? Li Bao was very worried. Suddenly, Li poured sesame oil onto his noodles accidentally; he boiled them and added shallot and other condiments the next day, and sold them the next morning. His noodles became very popular because of their unique taste, and customers asked Bao Li what kind of noodle it was; Bao Li answered "hot dry noodles".[10]
From then on, Bao Li specialized in hot dry noodles, which caused a sensation in Wuhan with many customers. Many cooks learned from him and specialized in making hot dry noodles. However, most people considered Bao Li as the inventor of the way of making such noodles. His version of hot dry noodles has huge difference compared to the hot dry noodles nowadays.
Cai Mingwei
[edit]In 1929, 17-year-old Cai Mingwei was a pharmacist at Tianbaohe Pharmacy on Huaqing Street in Hankou. Because he had been sick since childhood, weak and had difficulty walking, and had suffered from smallpox and had a disfigured face, Cai Mingwei could neither engage in agricultural labor nor enter the entertainment industry. He had no choice but to be an apprentice in the pharmacy under his father's "persuasion" and strive to become a skilled doctor in the future.
Unfortunately, his fate was unfortunate. In 1931, a flood occurred in Wuhan, and a heavy flood flooded Tianbaohe. The pharmacy business was bleak and was forced to close. Cai Mingwei had to "pack up his bags and go home to work as a long-term worker." After returning home, he learned the skill of making oil noodles in a small workshop. From then on, he had an indissoluble bond with noodles in his life.
After learning the skill (1932), he returned to Hankou and sold oil noodles in the area of Manchun Road for 6 years. In six years, a lot of things happened in the country. The Japanese entered the three northeastern provinces. Chairman Chiang did not resist and was determined to suppress the bandits. Several young and middle-aged people hiding in the mountains ran around, but all this seemed to have nothing to do with Cai Mingwei. All he wanted was to sell his noodles well, marry a wife, and have children. Fate once again slapped him in the face: in 1938, the Japanese army occupied Wuhan, and Cai Mingwei was captured by the Japanese to do coolie. During the labor, the first two joints of the index and middle fingers of his right hand were crushed, resulting in lifelong disability.
Pockmarks on the face, disability of two fingers, and difficulty walking, all of this seemed to be nothing in the eyes of poor Cai Mingwei. In 1939, the war of resistance entered a stalemate stage, and the situation eased. Cai Mingwei took up the burden again and started a noodle business. Wuhan had many rainy days, and Cai Mingwei had poor eyesight. He often fell down while carrying a load to sell noodles at night. Under the persuasion of neighbors and friends, he moved to sell noodles at the gate of St. Peter's Primary School on Changdi Street.
It was the experience of selling noodles at the gate of St. Peter's Primary School that made Cai Mingwei invent "Ba Zi Noodles", which is also the predecessor of hot dry noodles. There are naturally more chattering children at the gate of the primary school. These students, regardless of anything, will surround the stall to eat noodles and leave after eating. This commotion made people very busy. In order to deal with this situation, Cai Mingwei thought of a way: boil the noodles until they are 80% cooked, scoop them up and pour them into a basin of cold water, then use the right hand to quickly wrap the noodles soaked in water around the four fingers of the left hand to form a handle, and then put them in a colander to cool for use. When the students came the next morning, he put the noodles in a colander, blanch them in boiling water, shake them twice, scoop them up and mix the seasonings, and the students can eat them. Cai Mingwei called this kind of noodles "Ba Zi Noodles" and taught the production method to his fellow villagers for free.
Cai Mingwei put the effort of preparing medicine into making noodles: in terms of color, the noodles are white, so you can add soy sauce, pickled red and white radish cubes, and chopped green onions, which will make people appetizing; in terms of taste, the noodles should be chewy and refreshing, and you should pay more attention to the technique when dusting the noodles, and you can also solve it by mixing the seasoning. But this last fragrance stumped Cai Mingwei. In the end, he remembered that when he was an apprentice, the boss would add a spoonful of sesame oil every time he ate noodles, and the noodles would be fragrant. Similarly, buying sesame oil to pour on the noodles is a bit expensive (previously, noodles were mostly made of cheaper vegetable oil or cotton oil), but the fragrance problem was solved, which could attract more diners.
In order to buy sesame oil, Cai Mingwei went to Wuhan Shengyuanfang to buy sesame oil. At that time, sesame oil was not ground by machine like it is now, but was "simmered" from sesame paste and boiled water. Looking at the sesame paste dripping on the oil tank, Cai Mingwei turned his mind, reached out and dipped a little into his mouth, and the problem that had troubled him for a long time was solved!
Sesame paste is sweet and sticky, and it makes you feel full after eating it. Mixing sesame paste into noodles can not only solve the problem of color, aroma and taste, but also make "satiating noodles", killing two birds with one stone! Cai Mingwei brought the experimental "satiating noodles" to customers, and the response was really good. There were also songs such as "Ma Ge's noodles are really delicious; convenient and cheap; sweet and sticky in the mouth, and the stomach is quite full after eating..."
"Satiating noodles" is the original appearance of hot dry noodles. Cai Mingwei started by making oil noodles with others, and then explored on his own, and successively made water-cut noodles, satiety noodles, and hot dry noodles. He also went from a street vendor to a stall merchant to a shop owner.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the Cai family hung up the sign "Cai Lin Ji" at the intersection of Manchun Road to open a shop. Why is it called Cai Lin Ji? According to legend, there are two tall neem trees in front of the store. Some people say that the two old neem trees symbolize that you will eventually get a good harvest after suffering hardships, and also imply that you, the two brothers Mingwei and Mingjing, will form a forest of trees. Third, Cai Mingwei has two sons, so good things come in pairs. The name Cai Lin Ji can bring good luck. Cai Mingwei was very happy and paid ten dollars to ask Lu Da, a famous calligrapher in Wuhan, to write the three words "Cai Lin Ji". This golden signboard has gone through wind, frost, rain and snow and is still in use today. It is also deeply engraved in the hearts of the people of Wuhan.
A few years later, a man named Cai opened a hot dry noodle shop at the corner of Manchun Road, Zhongshan Avenue. He named it "Cai Lin Ji", which means the rich source of money, and became a famous shop in Wuhan. Later, it was moved to Zhongshan Avenue opposite Hankou Water Tower and renamed Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles.
Hot dry noodles is Wuhan people's first breakfast choice, we do not have to expend words for its importance to Wuhan people. Those who came to Wuhan from other places remembered Wuhan again mostly because of hot dry noodles. For Wuhan people and those who stayed at Wuhan for a while, hot dry noodles is no longer just a snack, but a feeling that you will miss your hometown if you do not eat, but when you eat it, you will never forget the taste of it.
Reganmian stalls are almost everywhere in Wuhan. The earliest formal store is "Cai Lin Ji". After a hundred years of washing and training, the refreshing and delicious taste of Cai Lin Ji's hot dry noodles is deeply appreciated by the general public, and become the signature of Wuhan snacks. But in recent years, they took a bad turn, which estimated to be associated with the ubiquitous hot dry noodles stand and their bad development.[11][12][13]
Variety
[edit]During the development and spread of the technique of making hot dry noodles, people in Xinyang, a city in Henan Province, developed their own special way to make them, which became a variant of hot dry noodles eventually.[14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Dong, M.Y.; Goldstein, J.; Goldstein, J.L. (2006). Everyday Modernity in China (Studies in Modernity and National Identity; A China Program Book). A China program book. University of Washington Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-295-98602-9.
- ^ Zhou, K. (2017). China's Long March to Freedom: Grassroots Modernization. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-351-52872-6.
- ^ OotTheMonk. (2012, Feb 20). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-and-Dry-Noodles-Re-Gan-Mian-/
- ^ Hubei Tourism Bureau. (2012, 04 21). Hot dry noodles . Retrieved from "Hot Dry Noodles". Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
- ^ Yu , J. F. (2006, 10 13). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://wuhanstories.blogspot.ca/2006/10/needless-to-say-hot-dry-noodle-is-most.html
- ^ Hot dry noodles. (2004, 09 03). Retrieved from Hot Dry Noodles
- ^ ""中国十大面条"出炉热干面居首 你吃过几样". 人民网. Archived from the original on 2014-01-17. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
- ^ "IT'S OFFICIAL: Here Are The Top 10 Kinds Of Chinese Noodles". Business Insider. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
- ^ Xu, X. (2008). Re gan mian (hot-dry noodles). Retrieved from "Re Gan Mian (Hot-dry Noodles)". Archived from the original on 2012-11-13. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
- ^ 不详. "热干面的起源故事". 炎黄风俗网.
- ^ wuhanews. "武汉的热干面的来源 热干面的由来的故事". 武汉热线 (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2021-04-28.
- ^ Anderson, E. N. (1990/09/10). The food of china. (1st ed.). Yale University Press. Retrieved from "Food Culture - Kaleidoscope". Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
- ^ 湘水散人. (2009, 09 03). Hot dry noodles [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://www.3us.com/thread-3991-1-1.html
- ^ "Xinyang Hot Dry Noodles". henan.sina.com.cn. 2013-01-11. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21.
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