Yunnan noodles

I have made the fundamental mistake of breaking my blackberry whilst in Kunming. The good thing is that I will have to kick my crackberry habit, but the bad thing is that I can't take any photos right now, and all the photos I did take before are stuck on the memory card. I've been wanting to do a post on Yunnan noodles for a while, and have been diligently recording my noodley efforts, but I've had to cheat and google some pics here instead. But at least you'll be treated to good quality pictures for once.

You can't avoid noodles in Yunnan, it's appears to be the premier choice of snack here, and when I first got here, it was frankly a bit boggling. If you go to one of the local places, the 'menus' are only taped to the wall, and are highly unhelpful - normally just stating what how much a small or big bowl of whatever your choice of noodle is, no idea what comes with it.

Anyway, here is my little guide to Yunnan's noodles, with the caveat that I probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

First off, the easiest of all is the 麵條, which is the most recognisable for those of you used to Sharwood's back in Blighty. A simple yellow wheat noodle, often containing egg, often round, with a slightly chewy texture. Made well, I consider this still the king of the noodle:

Next up is what Kunming is noticeably famous for, the 米線, literally rice threads, made of rice flour, and round in appearance. Texture is very soft, and often likened to overcooked spaghetti - not very exciting in my opinion, but the most oft eaten noodle in Kunming:

Next up is the 粉片, flakes/squares of wheat flour, kind of like eaten wonton skins without any filling. Ironically, my homestay mum made it for me one day, with minced pork in the soup, which was just a bit like eating wontons that had unwrapped themselves:

卷粉, literally rolled noodles, is wide rice noodles, very like the 河粉 we have in Hong Kong, to the extent that I'm wondering whether they are actually the same thing:

The next one I really haven't seen anywhere else, and is apparently a Dali specialty - the 餌絲, which I really can't translate. It's actually long shreds of a big rice cake 年糕 (imagine a big round of rice flour cake), making the texture really quite stodgy, such that you feel as though it will get stuck in your teeth. The Kunmingese like to have it stir-fried as well as in soup, but I haven't really been converted:

Finally, there is what the Kunmingese call 粉, which appears to be very transparent rice noodles, slightly thicker than 米線, but even less chew in the texture. It normally appears as part of a 酸辣粉, sour and hot noodles, which I think is from Chongqing 重慶:

I have noodles every day here, sometimes for more than one meal, but my absolute favourite thing to eat at lunch is the humble 餛飩, or wontons! I found this little local stall on 文林街, round the corner from my university, which make the most incredibly simple but incredible 酸辣餛飩, wontons in a sour and hot sauce. I've never really had wontons that are not in soup before, but what they do here is to put the wontons quite a thick sauce, it's highly, highly addictive:


I watch them make it everytime I have it, and still haven't quite figured out what is in it. Something like chilli oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame seeds, 韭菜 Chinese chives, and some special dark thick sauce that I can't figure out. I've tried this exact dish in other places, but nowhere does it quite so well. The woman laughs at me now when I go there, mainly because my pronounciation of 餛飩 is less than perfect, I need to take her back to London with me for this dish.

Only one more little week left in Kunming! I am starting to get sad :(