What it is
Chicken shred noodles (雞絲麵) are very thin wheat noodles wound into small cakes and fried so they keep. Once cooked, the strands look like chicken breast pulled into threads. The name describes that look, not an ingredient. They are cooked in soup or served dry, and often go into pot-cooked noodles and small hotpots.
Where it came from
Nobody knows exactly who first made chicken shred noodles. They seem to have appeared late in the Japanese colonial period, combining two older ideas: red noodle thread (紅麵線) dried by baking, and fried yi fu noodles (伊府麵), a Qing-era frying method. A restaurant menu from 1924 already lists a chicken shred yi mein (雞絲意麵).
The earliest documented maker is Qingji Ice Shop (清記冰果室) in Yuanlin, Changhua. It opened in 1946 and began selling the noodles around 1951, and its founder, Tai Hsieh Yueh-feng (戴謝月鳳), is regarded as their inventor. They soon spread from country towns to cities across Taiwan.
Some writers call them a forerunner of instant noodles. In 1958 Chang Kuo-wen (張國文), a Taiwanese man from Pingtung, filed an instant noodle patent in Japan. Chinese Wikipedia says the method of another Taiwanese pioneer that year, Chen Jung-tai (陳榮泰) of a Tokyo trading firm, was essentially the same as chicken shred noodles. Momofuku Ando, also from Taiwan, gained his instant noodle patent in 1960. The fragile cakes broke easily and did not keep long, and once instant noodles arrived they lost much of their place.
How it is made
Thin noodle thread is wound into small discs and deep-fried. Lard was the original fat; cheaper vegetable oil later replaced it. The oil has to be hot enough to brown the noodles without burning them. The cakes are drained, then aired and sun-dried for about a day before packing. One Tainan noodle family adds duck egg, which keeps its hair-fine strands springy and hard to break. A-Tsai in Kaohsiung uses its own mix of hen and duck eggs.
How to eat it
At home the cakes are simmered in stock seasoned with bonito flakes and fried garlic or shallots, with an egg and a few greens, sometimes seafood or hotpot items. They are a common choice for pot-cooked noodles (鍋燒) and small hotpots. At dry-noodle shops, regulars add a plate of sliced side dishes and a soup, such as pork tongue soup.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Pot-cooked yi mein became an everyday main meal in Tainan after the Shakaliba food market made it popular. One local noodle family fries its own white noodle thread into chicken shred cakes, with duck egg in the dough.
- Kaohsiung
- In Yancheng, A-Tsai Chicken Shred Noodles (阿財雞絲麵) makes its own noodles and sells them dry or in soup. The dry bowl, the usual order, comes with chicken shreds and greens and smells of fried shallots and lard. Regulars add a braised egg.
- Central
- Qingji Ice Shop (清記冰果室) in Yuanlin, Changhua, is the earliest documented maker of chicken shred noodles. It began selling them around 1951.
