Hunan Rice Noodles

The Hunan habit of eating rice noodles in place of wheat noodles traces back to the Qing dynasty: under the early-18th-century 改土归流 resettlement, Hui/Uyghur migrants near Jinshi, finding no wheat noodles in this rice-eating region, substituted local rice noodles for their beef noodles; Changde's round, fine noodle is separately credited to the Yunnan Hui officer Ma Rulong, who brought 过桥米线 technique to Changde in 1874 — the fresh rice noodle was a southern alternative to the wheat noodle dominant north of the Yangtze. Each city has its own broth style: Changsha goes light and clear; Changde uses a heavier beef stock with flowing chili oil.

Changsha and Changde breakfast institution since the early 1900s — fresh round or flat 米粉, never dried. Changsha runs clear and pale; Changde 牛肉粉 uses heavier beef stock with a slick of red oil. Noodle blanches 15 seconds, broth on, served in under a minute or it goes mealy.

Round or flat rice noodles in a clear pork-bone broth, topped with a 「码子」 — your choice of stewed beef brisket, pork-rib, fried minced pork, or pickled-mustard-and-pork. Pickled chili, chopped scallion, sometimes a spoon of hot oil go on at the table. Breakfast food, eaten standing or hunched on a low stool by 7 a.m. The broth must read of bone, not bouillon cube.

The 「码子」 is cooked separately and ladled on at the moment of service — the broth and noodle together must take less than a minute or the rice noodle goes mealy. The noodle is fresh, never dried, and is only blanched fifteen seconds in a side pot before going into the bowl. A dried-noodle version is recognizable instantly: it tastes of starch, not rice.