Yueyang Rice Noodles 岳阳米粉

Yueyang Rice Noodles (岳阳米粉) are one of the favourite foods of people in Yueyang (岳阳), Hunan: flat rice noodles served in bone broth and topped with a freshly stir-fried topping, and Chinese Wikipedia describes them as wider and more tender to the bite than the rice noodles of Changsha (长沙).

Ingredients

Rice noodles in Yueyang come round or flat, and most people in Yueyang prefer the flat kind. In Yueyang, as in Changsha, Hengyang and other towns of eastern Hunan, the word mifen (米粉) normally means a wide noodle that holds more water than dried rice noodles elsewhere, closer to what other regions call hefen (河粉).

How it is made

The broth starts with marrow bones brought to the boil over high heat, then simmered over low heat for four to five hours until milky white. Sanxiang City Daily (三湘都市报) describes a noodle shop that uses only lean meat for its toppings and renders the trimmed fat into lard, which goes into the bowl with the noodles. Sanxiang City Daily calls the stir-fried topping the soul of Yueyang rice noodles: it is fried to order and laid hot on the noodles, still carrying the smoky heat of the wok. The same shop makes a topping of fresh beef tripe, bought the day before and flash-fried with chilli.

How it is eaten

Sanxiang City Daily sums up the Yueyang noodle habit as a stone step, a plastic stool and a steaming bowl of noodles. A New Hunan (新湖南) round-up recommends stir-fried beef tripe noodles, squid noodles and Dongting fish noodles (洞庭鱼粉), which use a broth of live crucian carp topped with mandarin fish from Dongting Lake (洞庭湖). Chinese Wikipedia also illustrates Yueyang noodles with wood-ear mushroom and shredded pork, and a version fried with egg.