Yichun Bundled Rice Noodles 宜春扎粉

How it is made

The Yichun Daily describes the traditional process. Late-season rice is soaked overnight, then ground evenly into a fine slurry. The drained slurry is left to ferment slightly, which the Yichun Daily names as the key to the noodles' springiness. It is steamed into thin, even sheets, and drying is the delicate step: too dry and the noodles snap, too damp and they will not keep. Finally the noodles are tied by hand into small spiral bundles.

Because they are dried, the bundles store and travel well. Before cooking, the dry noodles are boiled and drained, or softened in warm water, and only then fried or finished.

How it is eaten

The best-loved way is fried. In the home version the Yichun Daily describes, lard is melted in a hot wok, garlic and chilli go in, then marinated shredded pork, then the softened noodles, which are tossed until glossy with sauce and finished with chopped spring onion. Locally this is called Yuanzhou fried noodles. At breakfast the usual question is whether to add pork or egg.

Compared with ordinary rice noodles, zafen made the traditional way is chewier, with a clear smell of rice.

Where it comes from

Zafen making in Yichun goes back to the Ming and Qing periods, when the noodles were an everyday staple. Stalls selling them grew common at markets in the old Yuanzhou prefecture, and bundles of zafen became a gift for visiting relatives. A local saying, "送扎粉，情意深" ("give zafen, and the feeling runs deep"), links the tied bundle to lasting friendship. Another, "一碗扎粉三碗饭" ("one bowl of zafen is worth three bowls of rice"), points to how filling it is. In lean years, the Yichun Daily adds, the long-keeping dried noodles served farm households as emergency food.