Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sun.Star Essay: Noodleous talk
By Erma M. Cuizon
IF you’ve had enough of bad news about typhoons, bombings, exam leaks, or politics, think noodles.
I read an interesting Saturday news item, a short note on noodles in China that could take you away from the horrors of life here to somewhere else. The news says China “turns out 46 billion packages of instant noodles every year.” Being made out of wheat as found in China, the upwardly appeal of the simple noodle to the Chinese (especially now in “instant” types) also affects happily the wheat production in China, using up to 1/10 of the harvest in a year. The noodle business accounts for sales of US$37 billion of the simple noodle pack.
The noodle, as you know, is a “narrow, ribbon-like strip” or string-like fresh or dried dough or pasta, with eggs or egg yoke and water---the fast food of yesteryears and still fast food today that you get quickly almost from any restaurant in malls all over the city or in a small food shops.
Noodles have good politics, and I mean something that is interactive and expedient. From China or wherever it started, the noodle has fitted easily into any lifestyle throughout the ages. The Chinese had these small shops in stalls or “handcart restaurants” in side streets selling noodles.
The noodle has a connection with people, as in the early times in Taiwan when they were served in small food shops, for a quick lunch like now in small servings that feel like a full one---cheaper in a people-friendly, noisy space.
Noodles are what they call the “combination-friendly food.” You have noodles with meat or with vegetables. Besides the Chinese, the Italians, too, have the macaroni (as noodle-based). The Germans and the Dutch call it “nudel.”
Millions of noodle eaters have spread around the world (whether Marco Polo was bearer of the good noodle news or not). It’s like people imitating each other, cooking noodles with just a difference or two, like all the noodles they’ve tasted and cooked---wheat noodles, rice noodles, bean or potato-starch noodles, and corn millet.
They boil, steam or stir-fry noodles which come in all shapes and sizes, cooked in many ways but are noodles---beef noodle, noodle soup, pot noodle, Indian noodle, cup noodle, there’s even the cellophane or glass noodle (thin, transparent noodle), they surely all taste familiar.
Today, the noodle fits the word “instant” as a friendly meal you can get almost from anywhere. In Western countries, they may not be as available as in Asia. In Miami, Florida, for one, you’d have to drive far to get to a Chinese restaurant but as a Pinoy, you do just that to eat the noodle for its nostalgic zing because it reminds you of home, or because you believe, with your grandma, that eating pancit means having long life. Or you go to a pansiteria, if any, for the fried noodle fish, to more than double your life?
Noodles probably had another name when the cooking was first discovered during the East Han Dynasty in China, as claimed. Although Arabs and the Italians say the noodle was first discovered in their country, the oldest noodles were recently found along the Yellow River in China. It was inside a buried pot whose radiocarbon dating is 4,000 years old, according to a BBC news bit. It was dough in 50 cm.-long yellow strands.
In a recent business gathering in China, officials urged noodle makers to keep up with the traditional taste of noodles even while improving on the new, such as adding nutrients and minerals.
Noodles in the West are usually made with wheat flour, in Asia rice.
From the memory of Chinese dough in strands, now come the instant noodles you quickly heat and eat to finish just before you rush out to your job. Or you can boil one at home and you know how to deal with it---where to put fresh or dried noodles, refrigerate or keep in a cool, dry place.
There’s a taste that could last a lifetime for some people, or an era, and more, and transcends racial identities. It’s more interesting not just to eat noodles but also to know how noodles have influenced the world over, a string or strip of feelings that unites peoples.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 15, 2006 issue)
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