Noodle, as ubiquitous staple food worldwide, has been evolving to various shapes and types made from diversified ingredients in history. More than that, noodle has played the role of a country’s cultural symbol, representing people’s dietary habits and the basic philosophy of living. Owing to this week’s reading materials, I have taken a close look at how noodle has worked as a cultural symbol in both China and Italy from the past to the present.
In China, different types of noodles are eaten by people due to various regional characteristics, and cultural traditions. To begin with, noodles can reflect climates in different parts of China. For example, the birthplace of Dan Dan Noodle, Sichuan Province, has an extremely hot and humid climate; therefore, people there tend to eat spicy food in order to sweat out the dampness inside the body and cool down the body temperature; as a result of which, most Sichuan cuisines, including Dan Dan Noodle, are made of chilis, chili oil, and spicy preserved vegetables. Another province where people love eating spicy food is Shaanxi Province. As a province covered by the Huangtu Plateau in northwestern China, it has such cold weather that people need to keep body temperature by eating spicy food, especially during wintertime. Thus, we can observe that the Saozi Noodle shown in the video “The Story of Staple Food” included a red soup base, tasting sour and spicy. Also, the ingredients of noodles also indicate the local climate. In northern China, noodles are made from wheat flour since the dry climate and longer sun time are suitable for growing wheat. On the contrary, in southern China where rice is the staple crop due to the moist climate, rice noodles, such as the Crossing-the-Bridge Noodle, appear on people’s dining-tables. Besides, as Chinese culture is relatively conservative and Chinese people seldom express their love and care directly by language; as a result of which, noodle, as the main staple food, is used to express their love and care. The beautiful story of Crossing the Bridge in Noodle just reflects the use of the noodle in expressing people’s love and wish. Furthermore, Chinese noodles usually reflect the pursuit of harmony in Chinese culture. We can see the examples, Beijing fried bean sauce noodles and Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles, in the article Noodles: Traditionally and Today. These two types of noodles are both made of vegetables, meat, and seasonings that balance the flavors. The combination ensures that necessary nutrition can be taken by our body, and the balance between different flavors is always used as an analogy of our life. Different feelings and emotions experienced by us in our daily life are similar the five tastes; just like balancing different flavors can make the food delicious when cooking, adjusting to balancing all those emotions can help us to live a better life. The way of cooking noodles and all the other Chinese cuisines just represents people’s wisdom and philosophy of living of all ages.
Similarly, Italian pasta also works as a cultural indicator which reflects the country’s history and culture. The untold kinds of pasta give us a glimpse of the continuous foreign invasions suffered by this peninsula in history. Immigrants from various foreign countries brought their own food culture to Italy continuously until the country was finally united in the 19th century. The complex history has contributed to the dazzling pasta we see today. Although Italian pasta seems quite simple to cook, the important rules of using traditional tools and fresh ingredients make pasta delicate with the simple cooking methods. This just indicates the important principles in Italian food culture—simple and freshness. Unless people follow these principles from the production to the cooking process, they would not be able to taste the authentic and qualified pasta otherwise. Moreover, since there are so many kinds of pasta and countless methods to cook them, each Italian family has their own preferred way of cooking pasta. Because of this, as we learned in class, eating homemade pasta is a linkage to the family ancestors and history, not only yourselves’ but also other families’ history. In other words, pasta is a linkage to people’s spiritual world in Italy.
The reason that the noodle plays such an integral in food culture in both Italy and China can be explained from nutritional and economical aspects. In the article Noodles: Traditionally and Today, the author mentioned that noodles can “avoid the disadvantages of a high energy, high fat, and low carbohydrate diet”. Also, the book Truth About Pasta tells us that pasta is a “slowly digesting carbohydrate food” which “offers a steady source of energy”. Noodles and pasta, together with other ingredients, sauces, gravies, and soup bases, offers essential nutrition and energy to the human body. From an economical point of view, noodles are mainly made from ground wheat and eggs, which are common in people’s life. The sauces, gravies, and soup bases can be made from simple ingredients like tomatoes or beans. Other ingredients like vegetables and meat are usually minced, pickled, or sliced. In general, the cost of a bowl of noodle is relatively low compared to many other dishes, and people can choose their own way to make it, depending on their financial situation; therefore, noodles are affordable to most families. Therefore, the characteristic of providing necessary energy with the lowest cost makes noodles such a common food in people’s lives in the history in both countries, and then make noodles so important in both food cultures.
To define the noodle, from my point of view, it’s better to begin with the clinical definition— a food that is made from ground wheat, rice, or cereals, boiled in water, and served with soup bases, gravies, or sauces. As noodles are made into countless shapes, including shapes in the definition would make it not broad enough. Besides the clinical definition based on ingredients and the way of cooking, the cultural definition of noodle cannot be ignored. Noodle, as one of the most common staple food worldwide, is a symbol that reflects traditions and history in many food cultures.
