Hot Pasta and Noodles

Pasta or noodles come in many forms in China, Japan and Southeast Asia. I need only name the various types of Japanese pasta to illustrate: harusame, hiyamugi, kishimen, malfun, ramen, shiratake, soba, somen, udon. These are made from wheat, rice, buckwheat, bean threads or yam threads. Throughout these areas, pasta is eaten in the form of noodles, wontons and pasta wrappers. These foods have been a part of the diet of this region for many hundreds of years. All pasta is characterized by subtle variations of texture and colour, absorbent receptivity to sauces and congeniality to other foods, plus excellent nutritional values. Its universal popularity is therefore not surprising. The word ‘pasta’ is, of course, an Italian word. I use it because it has entered our language as a generic term meaning unleavened dough, rolled out and formed into different shapes. One regional difference is that some oriental pastas are made from rice flour rather than wheat.