Noodles of the Philippines

Although Filipinos have developed their own highly interesting ways with noodles—hence this special box for them—their debt to China (and to a lesser degree Spain) is obvious. The generic name for noodles is pansit (also spelled pancit), which comes from the Hokkien pianesit, which means ‘something that is conveniently cooked’. The names of the different types of noodle are still the Chinese names, or derived from them: thus, bihon (rice vermicelli), miswa (fine, dried wheat noodle), sotanghon (bean thread), miki (fresh wheat noodle with egg), Canton (pre-cooked wheat noodle with duck’s egg).