How can you tell good dried noodles?

Quality noodles do not stick to the pot, do not cloud the cooking water and do not break into pieces. Here is how to judge them:

  1. Appearance: good dried noodles are tightly packed with neatly aligned ends, and when lifted upright they do not shed broken pieces.

  2. Smell: pull out a few strands and smell one end. A fragrant wheat-flour aroma — with no mustiness, sourness or off odour — indicates good noodles.

  3. Gluten strength: with top-quality noodles, hold one strand at both ends and bend it gently; it should flex more than 5 cm without snapping.

Ordinary dried noodles are made from wheat through mixing and kneading, ageing, rolling, cutting and hanging-and-dehydrating into a dried noodle product.

Hand-made dried noodles are produced from wheat flour using traditional hand-crafting methods.

“Specialty” dried noodles use wheat flour as the main ingredient, with added grains, eggs, meat and other ingredients.