Enping Rice Noodles

Enping Rice Noodles

　　 During the Mid-Autumn Festival, residents in the northern part of Enping County traditionally eat rice noodles as their staple food. Though easy to eat, making these noodles is quite challenging. The process, from selecting ingredients to preparation, is fairly complex and requires the combined labor of several households. First, high-quality October rice is chosen, milled into powder, and sun-dried for later use. When making the noodles, water is boiled and the rice flour is added and cooked (the ratio of rice flour to water varies depending on the quality of the flour, but it’s generally best to ensure the flour is fully moistened), then mixed with raw starch, and vigorously kneaded into a column-shaped dough. The quality of the kneaded dough is determined by pressing it with a finger — if the indentation remains without cracking and the dough bounces back to its original form when released, it is considered qualified. Noodles made from qualified dough are seamless, soft, chewy, refreshing, and smooth. Those made from unqualified dough are hard, rough, and sticky, losing the distinct flavor of rice noodles. Thus, kneading the dough is the most critical step. When the water boils, the noodle mold is placed over the pot with long benches supporting both ends. The kneaded dough is placed into the mold holes, a wooden stopper is inserted, and then one end of a wooden lever is inserted through the mold and pressing hole while several people push down on the other end to squeeze the noodles out through small holes at the bottom of the mold and into the pot. Once cooked, the noodles are scooped out, rinsed in cold water, and drained. Before eating, they are blanched with hot water and mixed with a savory broth to become the distinctive rice noodles. If sugar and rice wine are added, they take on another unique flavor. In recent years, some people have modified old diesel engine cylinders into noodle molds, adding screws to the pistons so that only one person is needed to operate it, making the process much more efficient than the old method. People no longer need to gather a crowd just to enjoy rice noodles. (Jiangmen)

　　Rice noodles are a beloved and well-known snack among Cantonese people. In places like Kaiping and Enping, locals also regard them as a traditional Mid-Autumn Festival treat. The entire process, from ingredient selection to production, is quite intricate and typically requires the joint effort of several households. Simply put, rice flour dough is placed into a wooden noodle mold that sits over a pot of boiling water, and the noodles are extruded through the holes in the mold — producing long, chewy, smooth, and silky strands. Hence the name “rice noodles.”