A cook holds down folded, steaming white rice sheets and cuts them into wide strips with a cleaver, a bowl beside them holds fine rice noodles topped with minced meat and scallions, and a bamboo sieve dries a few strands.
Pressed round, cut flat
Introduction
Strand-shaped foods made of rice, either round strands pressed out or flat ones cut from a steamed rice sheet.
Rice noodles are strand-shaped foods made mainly from rice. Round rice vermicelli and rice noodles are made by pressing rice into strands, while flat rice noodles are made by steaming rice batter into a thin sheet and cutting that into strips. Hefen is thin, white and slightly translucent, and can be stir-fried, boiled in soup or tossed. The class is set by material: a noodle whose main ingredient is rice is as a rule classed here, whatever the shaping; rice skins steamed from batter, cut into strips and dressed cold belong to steamed sheet noodles, and instant rice noodles to instant noodles.