Brown rice instant noodles

Dried rice noodles, also known as rice sticks in English and pai mi fen in Mandarin, are available in nearly any Asian market, and in many American grocery stores in either the international foods sections or the health food aisle. Widely used in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, dried rice noodles come in a myriad of sizes and shapes.

The best dried rice noodles are made only of rice and water. These will have the best texture; the ones which have cornstarch or other starches added are of inferior quality, and will be more likely to have a mushy texture when cooked. They are, in my opinion, not worth the money you pay for them.

Before cooking rice noodles, they must be soaked in water to soften them. Even if you are planning on boiling the noodles or serving them in soup, they must be soaked to the proper texture before you attempt to cook them. For wide or thick noodles, very hot to boiling water is used to soak them; for very thin or rice vermicelli, use warm to cold water. The length of time you have to soak the noodles will depend on how warm the water is; the hotter the water, the less time it takes for them to soak. (However, remember, if you use boiling water on rice vermicelli to soak it-you may wind up overcooking the very thin, fine noodles instead of soaking them to the proper texture-so be forewarned!)

Before we are finished discussing the basics of dried rice noodles, I have to mention that a classic way of serving rice vermicelli is as a crispy garnish or appetizer, deep fried. To fry them, the noodles need only be separated while dry, and then dropped into a wok filled with hot oil. There, they puff up dramatically into snowy-white crispy nests. These are used as garnishes atop stir fries, or as a bed for a spicy stir fry or are mixed into a dry fried beef dish which is eaten as an appetizer in Sichuan province wrapped in lettuce leaves.

Those are the basics about dried rice noodles. Fresh rice noodles are another topic altogether, which I will treat at length in a later article. For now, I hope your appetite is whetted for the rice noodle recipes to come.