Qifan Qi Micro Lesson: Check-in 7

Yangmi noodles are a food from my hometown and one of my favorite foods. Yangmi noodles are mainly produced in the Lujiang and Feixi areas of Hefei. My hometown is in Sanhe, Feixi. During the Chinese New Year, every family will have rice noodles. Some are made at home, and some are made from rice produced at home and asked to be made by others. Because it is rich in nutrients and easy to digest, women here in my hometown eat Yangmi noodles during childbirth and confinement. Children and the elderly also like to eat it.

Yangmi noodles are also found in other places, and are called "ho fun" in other places. I always feel that "pho" is not as delicious as rice noodles. "Pho" can't taste the thick and glutinous texture of Yangmi noodles, nor does it have the delicious taste of hometown. Yangmi noodles are basically served with old chicken soup. After a bowl of it, the blood flows throughout the body, and it will warm you up no matter how cold the weather is.

The method of making Yangmi noodles is not complicated. Traditional Yangmi noodles are all made by hand, but it takes a lot of effort. There are also machine-made ones now, but they are definitely not as delicious as hand-made ones.

The production process of rice noodles mainly includes seven steps: rice selection, rice soaking, grinding, steaming, drying, cutting and drying.

Select rice: When making Yangmi noodles, you must choose high-quality early rice. Only early rice will taste delicious. This is the result of many years of experience of the elderly in the family.

Soaked rice: To make Yangmi noodles, the early rice must be soaked first. Only when it is thoroughly soaked can the rice pulp be ground. I always feel that rice soaked in well water in my hometown is more delicious.

Grinding: The soaked rice needs to be ground into rice slurry using a stone mill. Nowadays, there are also machines specifically designed to grind rice slurry. Grinding rice pulp with a stone mill is more troublesome, but the resulting Yangmi noodles taste better. Nowadays, most machines are used to grind rice milk.

Steamed noodles: The ground rice milk should be placed in a mold, covered with a thin layer, and then steamed in a large pot. You can also use a large steamer to steam. After steaming, carefully pour the dough out of the mold (the dough is easy to tear, so be careful), and place them one by one on the prepared bamboo poles. Steaming noodles is very labor-intensive. It requires skill to spread the rice paste into a thin and even layer, and you have to remove it one by one after steaming.

Drying the noodles: Place the steamed dough on a bamboo pole and take it outside to cool down. After the dough is dry and has some elasticity, roll it up one by one and put it away.

Cutting: Cut the rolled dough into a width of about 7 mm. The cut dough is the finished product of Yangmi noodles.

Drying the noodles: In order to facilitate storage, the cut noodles should be taken outside to dry. After drying, you can put it in a bag or a larger bamboo basket.

Before eating Yangmi noodles, you must soak them in cold water overnight. It must be soaked until soft, otherwise it may not be cooked through and taste hard and lumpy.

Be sure to use old chicken soup. After the old chicken soup is simmered, pour the soup into the pot below. Then, put the soaked rice noodles into the old chicken soup and cook them together. After the soup is boiled, it is best to simmer it for a while to allow the Yangmi noodles to cook as thoroughly as possible. This way Yangmi noodles are more flavorful and softer. You can also add a few green vegetables and a little egg skin to make it taste better. Just add a little salt and seasonings as you like.

When eating, take a sip of chicken soup and take a deep breath. The feeling of satisfaction is indescribable. The rice noodles are very soft in the mouth and slippery in the stomach, so you basically don’t need to use your teeth. At the end of the meal, I drank the noodles and soup in one gulp, feeling refreshed all over my body, and a sense of happiness in my life emerged spontaneously.

I still remember that when I returned to my hometown when I was young, my grandmother would often sell rice and noodles for me to eat. At that time, life was not very affluent, and it was not always possible to eat rice noodles with chicken soup. At that time, Yangmi noodles were regarded as the highest standard for entertaining guests.

Now that I am middle-aged and my grandma passed away a long time ago, I still miss the taste of that time. It was the taste of my hometown.

Qi Fanqi’s third 28-day writing growth camp (7) has 1116 words, totaling 8121 words, (proposition: favorite food)