‘Like noodles, but not noodles’

Gan si (soya bean noodles). Made with soya bean curd pressed with a little wheat flour. Pale yellow in colour, the thickness of a wire coat-hanger, they are popular in vegetarian dishes as their protein content is very high. They are softened in a mixture of baking soda and water and then rinsed before serving, often in cold dishes.

Yang fen (seaweed noodles). Quite similar in appearance to mung bean vermicelli, but thinner and more gelatinous and of a different nature, being ‘threads’ of agar-agar, a seaweed which occurs naturally in filamentous form.