Thursday, August 25, 2005
Hit & Run Rice Noodles
Last night, at the last moment, I decided to go to a concert to see a young bluegrass group from Colorado. Their name is Hit & Run, and they're fresh from winning first place in a national bluegrass competition in Nashville, Tennessee. According to the concert description, Hit & Run plays authentic, yet contemporary bluegrass and has been compared to Alison Krauss and Nickel Creek--two young bands that I have been waiting to see. They ended up sounding even better than I expected. Hit & Run's lead singer, Rebecca Hoggan, has a strong, spirited voice that probably is among the top five female voices that I have ever heard. Besides that, she (mid 20s, blonde) is seriously hot. Other strong points are the band's polished vocal harmony and their excellent dobro guitar, mandolin, and flatpick guitar playing. What an enjoyable evening!
I promised to finish the story about 米 線 mai2 sin3 (rice noodles) in Hong Kong:
Yunnan Province has more varieties of rice noodles than Hong Kong does. The production of rice noodles can be divided into two large categories. With one type, before the rice is ground into flour, it first goes through fermentation. That type, which is popular in the area around 昆 明 Kunming, feels softer, carries a sour taste, and is called 酸 獎 米 線. The other type doesn't go through fermentation and is called 乾 獎 米 線. It feels firmer and is the type most commonly eaten in Hong Kong today. Formerly, there were some shops in HK that sold the first type. However, only Yunnan people like the sour flavor. HK people wouldn't accept it. Rice noodles spoil easily, and there wasn't any way to maintain the business catering to the few Yunnan people in HK. That's the reason why you can't find the the first type (酸 獎 米 線) in HK today. Yunnan people use 紅 米 (red rice), 黑 糯 米 (black sticky rice), 紫 米 (purple rice), etc. to make rice noodles. However, noodles made with 白 米 (white rice) have the smoothest feel and are best known.
There are even more ways to cook rice noodles than there are rice noodle varieties. Of the ten most common methods, 過 橋 go3 kiu4 (cross the bridge) is the most common. Besides that, there's also 小 鍋 siu2 wo1 (small pot--the rice noodles and other ingredients are placed in a pot and cooked, thus causing the rice noodles to pick up the flavor of the ingredients), 酸 辣 (hot and sour), 涼 拌 (cool tossed), etc.
Although rice noodles have a long history in Yunnan, they have only become popular in HK within the past ten years. It used to be that HK people did not know what rice noodles (米 線) were, and all the ingredients had to be brought in from Yunnan Province. Perhaps the oldest rice noodle shop in HK started in the old section of 荃 灣 chun4 waan1 Tsuen Wan, where rents were cheaper and quite a few new immigrants from Yunnan had settled down. As more people came to try the rice noodles, it attracted more competition. Within a ten-year period, not only did more than ten shops appear in the area, but there were five alone on short 路 德 園 lou6 dak1 yun4, turning it into a special rice noodle district (米 線 區).
The rice noodle business in HK isn't as good as it once was, in part because the younger generation isn't willing to take over the grueling work. Interestingly enough, the HK health authorities have forced a change in the traditional rice noodle cooking methods. In Yunnan, the ingredients to make 過 橋 米 線 are cooked by placing them raw into hot soup stock. (Note: that's the way I had it recently in Vancouver.) In HK, however, the health authorities have insisted that the ingredients be pre-cooked in soup stock, and that's the way that HK rice noodle shops make 過 橋 米 線. There may be some HK shops that follow the traditional method, but they are subject to prosecution by the health authorities.
According to the article, the following are two of the best shops for rice noodles:
雲 南 過 橋 米 線
地 址: 荃 灣 亨 和 街 96 號 地 下
電 話: 24902013
彩 雲 南
地 址: 銅 鑼 灣 信 德 街 18 號 地 下
電 話: 28818992
Isn't that more than you ever wanted to know about rice noodles? ¶ 9:00 PM
I promised to finish the story about 米 線 mai2 sin3 (rice noodles) in Hong Kong:
Yunnan Province has more varieties of rice noodles than Hong Kong does. The production of rice noodles can be divided into two large categories. With one type, before the rice is ground into flour, it first goes through fermentation. That type, which is popular in the area around 昆 明 Kunming, feels softer, carries a sour taste, and is called 酸 獎 米 線. The other type doesn't go through fermentation and is called 乾 獎 米 線. It feels firmer and is the type most commonly eaten in Hong Kong today. Formerly, there were some shops in HK that sold the first type. However, only Yunnan people like the sour flavor. HK people wouldn't accept it. Rice noodles spoil easily, and there wasn't any way to maintain the business catering to the few Yunnan people in HK. That's the reason why you can't find the the first type (酸 獎 米 線) in HK today. Yunnan people use 紅 米 (red rice), 黑 糯 米 (black sticky rice), 紫 米 (purple rice), etc. to make rice noodles. However, noodles made with 白 米 (white rice) have the smoothest feel and are best known.
There are even more ways to cook rice noodles than there are rice noodle varieties. Of the ten most common methods, 過 橋 go3 kiu4 (cross the bridge) is the most common. Besides that, there's also 小 鍋 siu2 wo1 (small pot--the rice noodles and other ingredients are placed in a pot and cooked, thus causing the rice noodles to pick up the flavor of the ingredients), 酸 辣 (hot and sour), 涼 拌 (cool tossed), etc.
Although rice noodles have a long history in Yunnan, they have only become popular in HK within the past ten years. It used to be that HK people did not know what rice noodles (米 線) were, and all the ingredients had to be brought in from Yunnan Province. Perhaps the oldest rice noodle shop in HK started in the old section of 荃 灣 chun4 waan1 Tsuen Wan, where rents were cheaper and quite a few new immigrants from Yunnan had settled down. As more people came to try the rice noodles, it attracted more competition. Within a ten-year period, not only did more than ten shops appear in the area, but there were five alone on short 路 德 園 lou6 dak1 yun4, turning it into a special rice noodle district (米 線 區).
The rice noodle business in HK isn't as good as it once was, in part because the younger generation isn't willing to take over the grueling work. Interestingly enough, the HK health authorities have forced a change in the traditional rice noodle cooking methods. In Yunnan, the ingredients to make 過 橋 米 線 are cooked by placing them raw into hot soup stock. (Note: that's the way I had it recently in Vancouver.) In HK, however, the health authorities have insisted that the ingredients be pre-cooked in soup stock, and that's the way that HK rice noodle shops make 過 橋 米 線. There may be some HK shops that follow the traditional method, but they are subject to prosecution by the health authorities.
According to the article, the following are two of the best shops for rice noodles:
雲 南 過 橋 米 線
地 址: 荃 灣 亨 和 街 96 號 地 下
電 話: 24902013
彩 雲 南
地 址: 銅 鑼 灣 信 德 街 18 號 地 下
電 話: 28818992
Isn't that more than you ever wanted to know about rice noodles? ¶ 9:00 PM
Comments:
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thanks for introducing the best from my hometown. Rice noodle definitely has become a phenomenon in Hong Kong (but very Hong Konglized).
It's a dish you can never get sick of when the soup is good, noodle fresh, ingredients right. My great aunt in Kunming always have rice noodle for lunch, almost since birth.
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It's a dish you can never get sick of when the soup is good, noodle fresh, ingredients right. My great aunt in Kunming always have rice noodle for lunch, almost since birth.
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