Alkaline noodles

Common card · No. 272335

Alkaline noodles or alkali noodles (Chinese: 碱面／碱麵; pinyin: jiǎn miàn) are a variation of noodles traditional to Chinese cuisine with a much higher quantity of alkali than usual. The addition of alkali changes both the flavor and texture of the noodles, and makes them feel slippery in the mouth and on the fingers; they also develop a yellow color and are more elastic than ordinary noodles. Various flours such as ordinary all-purpose white flour, bread flour, and semolina flour can be used, with somewhat varying results. The yellow color is due to flavones that occur naturally in flour, which are normally colorless but turn yellow at alkaline pH. The term "alkaline noodles" is sometimes used exclusively in English to refer to the noodles called "chukamen" in the Japanese-Chinese dish ramen, but this is inaccurate. Alkaline noodles are not a single type of noodle; rather, they form a broad category consisting of numerous noodle varieties found in China.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Kropsoq, CC BY-SA 3.0