Getting your Asian noodles straight can be difficult, and menus are often unhelpful. When you don’t know what you’ve ordered, you may spend the meal eyeing your neighbor’s lo mein enviously, pushing around your own undesired plate of thick noodles (or vice versa). We here at Street sympathize, so we’ve put together a basic guide on some of the most popular noodles to help clear things up.
Wheat Noodles
Mein (Chinese): Generally thin and round, often made with egg. Depending on your location, Chow Mein and Lo Mein are composed of either steamed or crispy wheat noodles.
Udon (Japanese): Thick, round wheat noodles often served in hot soup or chilled with dipping sauce.
Rice Noodles
Banh Pho (“rice stick”) (Vietnamese): Flattish and rectangular, soft and chewy.
Rice vermicelli (throughout Asia): White, very thin and round. Used in many different soups, stir fries, and salads. Often a staple ingredient of Pho, a hot soup.
Ho fun (throughout Asia): Wide, often flat, white, elastic. The backbone of Pad See Ew, Drunken Noodles (Thai) and Chow Fun (Chinese).
Other
Soba (Japanese): Thin, round buckwheat noodles served much like Udon noodles.
Cellophane (throughout Asia): Thin, round, translucent noodles made from starch (often mung bean) used in various soups, stir fries, and spring rolls.
