Topic: Are noodles pasta ?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Just for a change this evening I forwent a curry and cooked instead a plain chow mien : two packets of instant noodles, par-boiled with sesame oil and a little left-over chicken stock concentrate, then fried with julienne of spring onion and one red chilli in groundnut oil, drizzled with a little more sesame oil and sprinkled with the contents of the allegedly "chicken" flavouring that comes in the packets.  And it was absolutely delicious : I didn't miss for one second the chicken (or whatever) that I might normally have added. 

And then I mentally compared my reaction to this dish with the reaction that I would have had had spaghetti been served in the same fashion.  "What, no bolognese sauce" I would have shrieked, and then either rushed out to the kitchen to cook some or thrown the spaghetti into the bin.

So what is it, I wonder, that makes Chinese noodles so good that they can be eaten almost by themselves, whilst spaghetti (for me, at least) needs a good meaty, tomato-ey sauce to make it edible ?

** Phil.

[fried]

Luckily for you , they even sell noodles and a sachet of sauce in a pot. Can't remember what it's called.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Luckily for you , they even sell noodles and a sachet of sauce in a pot. Can't remember what it's called.

Well, it can't be "pot noodles", because that is noodles with marijuana !

[GulfExpat]

How about some restaurant quality pasta recipes?

I ate pasta Arrabiata at an Italian restaurant that was as delicious and addictive as any curry I have eaten.

However, I've been unable to replicate the taste when trying to make the dish at home.

[beachbum]

Maybe the title of the thread should be "Is Pasta Noodles?" from the legend that Marco Polo got the idea from China, and that up till then the Italian pasta was a version of flat sheets of lasagne.

Noodle joints are becoming very popular hereabouts, especially the lunchtime establishments in the city, you front up to the counter where there is a big photo board of the different dishes on offer and you just order a no. 19 or a no. 16 like you used to do in the old days at Chinese restaurants, then they nuke your order in a big wok on a rocket-blast burner thing and you get it about 3 minutes later.

Can't seem to get the same taste at home. 

[Peripatetic Phil]

Noodle joints are becoming very popular hereabouts, especially the lunchtime establishments in the city, you front up to the counter where there is a big photo board of the different dishes on offer and you just order a no. 19 or a no. 16 like you used to do in the old days at Chinese restaurants, then they nuke your order in a big wok on a rocket-blast burner thing and you get it about 3 minutes later.

They were (possibly still are) popular over here as well.  In Greenwich, for example, Khanh & I used regularly to eat at Tai Won Mien, and very good it was too (and also very reasonably priced).  As to replicating the flavour at home, there are some variants that Khanh & I cannot match (particularly those that require the noodles to be singed from contact with the wok) but I do find that the packets of instants noodles, if cooked as described in the first message in the thread rather than as advised on the packet, produce a very acceptable and delicious meal that can easily be varied by the addition of (e.g.,) julienne of ginger, shredded chicken, and so on.  And Singapore rice noodles is a family favourite that Khanh cooks very well indeed (needs special curry powder : we use Vianco "Indian Chef Brand" 100% Natural Chat Tu Nhien, Bot Cary Hieu "Dau Bep An Do").

** Phil.

[Malc.]

I've never taste tested noodles and pasta side by side, but they are fairly similar. I would say that noodles generally have a nuttier flavour, but they are both more or less the same in terms of what they are.

In all honesty though, I doubt you'd taste the difference if the spaghetti had been used in place of the noodles, taste wise anyway.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I've never taste tested noodles and pasta side by side, but they are fairly similar. I would say that noodles generally have a nuttier flavour, but they are both more or less the same in terms of what they are.

In all honesty though, I doubt you'd taste the difference if the spaghetti had been used in place of the noodles, taste wise anyway.

Interesting observation. So in that case my willing acceptance of noodles without meat is more to do with the preparation (fried, drizzled in sesame oil) than the texture.  That does make some sense, because I do not show the same enthusiasm for boiled Chinese noodles (e.g., soup noodles).  Well, if I hadn't thrown our house-sitters' spaghetti away, I could have conducted an experiment !  On the other hand, instant noodles are very thin compared to spaghetti, and I do think that that is a part of their appeal.  The thicker Italian pasta is, the less I like it; in fact, anything much thicker than spaghetti and I won't eat it at all ...

** Phil.

[Malc.]

I'm fairly certain that if you treat the spaghetti in the same manor as your noodles, you'll definitely notice the difference.

I was intrigued by your comment about the thickness of pasta though, do you not like macaroni for instance? I used prefer thick ragu type sauces with pasta but now enjoy a variety of sauces some that can barely be called sauces too. One of JO's I once followed was just a some parmesan with raw whisked egg, mixed through freshly cooked pasta, that was delicious!

[Peripatetic Phil]

I was intrigued by your comment about the thickness of pasta though, do you not like macaroni for instance?

Yes, that's absolutely spot on.  I have been thinking about this, and I think that what matters most (for me) is what I think of as "the boredom factor".  The thicker the pasta, the greater the boredom : it is only too obvious that what I am chewing on is congealed flour and water, which I personally find a very unappealing thought (liquorice has the same effect on me now that I know from what it is made !). 

But to return to the Chinese noodles.  Tonight, as I had enjoyed them so much last night (and because I still had some left-over stock in which they had been cooked), I cooked them again, but this time rather than just a plain chow mien I cooked a chicken chow mien, using the same technique as I had used long ago, long before I got married -- that is, with very thin strips of free-range chicken (drumstick, in this case), briefly marinaded in ginger and garlic, then stir-fried with the vegetable before the par-boiled noodles are added to the wok.  And what I found interesting is that the noodles were no more (and no less) interesting than they had been last night -- i.e., adding the chicken did not have a significant effect on the quality of the final dish.  Now I admit that as I became full, I tended to search for the chicken rather than eat more noodles, but I think that that was more an ethical issue than one of flavour : I don't like to waste food that has cost an animal its life.  So overall I really do think that chow mien is an excellent dish, very quick and simple to make, and certainly something I shall cook more frequently again now that I have reminded myself just how good it is.

** Phil.