Yi mein or yimian is a variety of flat

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

noodles made from

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...

. They are known for their golden brown color and chewy characteristics. The slightly chewy and slightly spongy texture of the noodles is due to the lye water used in making the dough, which is then fried and dried into flat patty-like dried bricks.

Preparation

The yi mein noodles available at grocery stores were pre-cooked by machines the same way as the modern

instant noodles Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash-frying cooked noodles, which is s ...

are made. The noodles may be cooked a number of ways. They are boiled first, then can be

stir-fried Stir frying ( zh, c= 炒, p=chǎo, w=ch'ao3, cy=cháau) is a cooking technique in which ingredients are fried in a small amount of very hot oil while being stirred or tossed in a wok. The technique originated in China and in recent centuries ...

, or used in soups or salads. Good noodles maintain their elasticity, allowing the noodles to stretch and remain chewy.

Dishes

''Yi mein'' noodles can be consumed directly or used in various dishes: * Plain ''yi mein.'' * Plain ''yi mein'' with Chinese chives (韮黃). * Dried fried ''yi mein'' (乾燒伊麵), often comes with Chinese chives and shiitake mushroom. *

Crab meat Crab meat, also known as crab marrow, is the edible meat found in a crab, or more specifically in its legs and claws. It is widely used in global cuisines for its soft, delicate and sweet flavor. Crab meat is low in fat, and provides about o ...

''yi mein'' (蟹肉伊麵). *

Lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

''yi mein'' (龍蝦伊麵), sometimes served with

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. * ''Yi mein'' with black mushrooms and eggplant. * ''Yi mein'' in soup. * '' I fu mie'', fried ''yi mein'' noodles served in sauce with vegetables, chicken or prawns.

History

Yi mein is traditionally credited to the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

Yi Bingshou ''Yī Bǐngshòu''; 1754–1815), who is taken to be their namesake ("Yi-style noodles") and who is also credited with popularizing

Yangzhou fried rice Yangzhou fried rice, also known by several other spellings and names, is a popular Chinese wok- fried rice dish. There are many varieties but it most properly describes egg fried rice with mixed vegetables and two forms of protein, typicall ...

Traditions

When yi mein is consumed on

birthday A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many religion ...

s, it is generally referred to as long life or longevity noodles or sau mein (壽麵/寿面). The Chinese character for "long" (長壽麵/长寿面) is also added as a prefix to represent "long life". Usually it is consumed with

longevity buns Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth is the same ...

on such occasions. Yi mein is also a popular

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

dish. Tradition holds that the chef cannot cut the noodles, and each strand should be eaten whole.

Gallery

File:Yi mein dish by peach yeung.jpg, Fisherman style fried yi mein File:Cheese cream sauce baked with lobster.jpg, Western and Chinese style yi mein with lobster File:A bags of Yi Fu noodles from Siu Kee store.jpg, A bag of yi mein at a store in Yuen Long, Hong Kong File:Shrimp powder with yi mein in chinese noodles shop.jpg, E-Fu noodle with ground dried shrimp at a Chinese noodle restaurant in Yuen Long, Hong Kong

References

External links

E-fu noodles
from The Cook's Thesaurus site {{Portal, Food Cantonese cuisine Chinese noodles Hong Kong cuisine Longevity