Nanchang Rice Noodles 南昌米粉
Nanchang Rice Noodles is featured among the local specialties of Jiangxi.
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Nanchang Rice Noodles (南昌米粉) are the white rice noodles of Nanchang (南昌) in Jiangxi, and the base of two everyday Nanchang dishes: Nanchang mixed rice noodles (南昌拌粉) and Nanchang fried rice noodles (南昌炒粉). A bowl of mixed noodles with a clay-pot soup is the standard Nanchang breakfast.
How it is made
According to an Economic Daily (经济日报) report on a 2018 promotion by the Nanchang tourism commission, the noodles are made from good-quality late-season rice, which is soaked, ground to a slurry, drained and worked through several further steps. Nanchang noodles are expected to be especially springy: the raw strands are firm and translucent, and once cooked they turn fine, tender and white, and neither fall apart when left to soak nor break up when stir-fried.
How it is eaten
For mixed noodles, the boiled noodles are drained and tossed with seasonings until evenly coated; the same report says a bowl reaches the table in about three minutes. A home recipe in Chinese Wikipedia soaks the noodles in cold water for four or five hours, boils them for one minute and mixes in garlic, ginger, spring onion, dried chilli, pickled mustard greens or zhacai (榨菜), dried radish, pickled long beans, light soy sauce and sesame oil. Nanchang residents pair the bowl with clay-pot soup (瓦罐汤), and the Economic Daily report compares the pairing to Beijing's fermented mung-bean drink and fried rings.
For fried noodles, the noodles are boiled, drained and then tossed in hot oil over an open flame, usually with soy sauce, chilli powder, green vegetables and shredded pork. Chinese Wikipedia calls it the most common home-style dish in the Nanchang area.
Where it comes from
A story retold in Chinese Wikipedia credits mixed noodles to the landlady of a small Nanchang eatery more than a century ago. She mixed peanut paste, chilli oil and vinegar and stirred them into boiled noodles, and when a diner asked what the dish was called, she answered on the spot that it could be called 'banfen', meaning mixed noodles.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.