On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1082

MediterraneanworldlongbeforeMarcoPolo.
NoodlesinChinaDespitethefactthatwheat
was grown in the Mediterranean region long
before it arrived in China, the northern
Chinese appear to have been the first to
develop the art of noodle making, sometime
before 200BCE.Around 300 CE,ShuXiwrote
an ode to wheat products (bing) that names
several kinds of noodles and dumplings,
describes how they’re made, and suggests
their luxurious qualities: poets frequently
likened their appearance and texture to the
qualities of silk (see box, p. 572). In 544, an
agricultural treatise calledImportant Arts for
the People’s Welfare devoted an entire
chaptertodoughproducts.Theseincludednot
onlyseveraldifferentshapesofwheatnoodle,
most made by mixing flour with meat broth
andonemadewithegg,butalsonoodlesmade
fromriceflourandevenfrompurestarch(p.
579).


Chinaalsoinventedfilledpasta,the
originalravioli,inwhichthedoughsurrounds
andenclosesamassofotheringredients.Both
small,thin-skinned,delicatehundunor
wontons,nowusuallyservedinsouthern
soups,andthethickerchiao-tzuorpotsticker,
oftensteamedandfriedinthenorth,are
mentionedinwrittenrecordsbefore700CE,

andarchaeologistshavefoundwell-preserved
specimensthatdatetothe9thcentury.Over
thenextfewhundredyears,recipesdescribe
makingthinnoodlesbyslicingarolleddough
sheetandbyrepeatedlypullingandfoldinga
doughrope;andthedoughsthemselvesare
madewithavarietyofliquids,including
radishandleafjuices,vegetablepurees,juice
pressedfromrawshrimp(whichmakesthe
noodlespink),andsheep’sblood.
Noodles—mianormein—andfilled
dumplingsbeganinthenorthasluxuryfoods
fortherulingclass.Theygraduallybecame
staplesoftheworkingclass,withdumplings