What it is
Yi mian (意麵) is a Taiwanese egg noodle sold both plain and deep-fried. The dry version (乾意麵) uses the plain noodles, which are thin and flat, boiled briefly and served with no soup. A spoonful of garlicky, faintly sweet minced pork sauce (肉燥) goes on top with a few slices of pork and some bean sprouts. Yanshui, in northern Tainan, is the town most associated with it.
Where it came from
The name is often traced to yi mein (伊麵), the Chinese fried egg noodle, through a slip in pronunciation. The link is doubtful, because Taiwanese yi mian looks and cooks very differently, fried or not. The first makers of yi mein in Taiwan were mostly from Shantou.
Yanshui claims to be the birthplace. A local food history by the field researcher Hsu Hsien-ping (許獻平) says a Fuzhou man, Huang Chung-liang (黃忠亮), began selling the noodles there in 1923. The district farmers' association also credits a Fuzhou migrant, and points out that 'Fuzhou yi mian' cannot be found in Fuzhou. It explains the name with a legend: the dough was first called 'strength noodles' (力麵), and makers let out a grunt of 'yi' as they leaned into the rolling pin.
Diaries suggest the noodle is older than 1923. Huang Wang-cheng (黃旺成) wrote of eating yi mian in 1919. In 1940 and 1941 the diarist Wu Hsin-jung (吳新榮) ate it at Tainan's West Market, which points to cheap everyday food.
How it is made
Yanshui noodles use duck eggs in place of hen's eggs, which gives them a richer aroma. Strong flour, eggs, water and salt are worked into a dough and rolled thin. The Yanshui farmers' association still sun-dries noodles the old way, for two to three days in a greenhouse-like room that keeps off dust. The thin noodles need only 20 to 30 seconds in boiling water. For the dry bowl they are drained and topped with meat sauce made to each shop's own recipe.
How to eat it
Toss the noodles and sauce together before eating, and add chilli if you like heat. Shops usually offer the noodles dry or in soup; ask for 乾意麵 for the dry kind. Common partners are herb-braised side dishes (滷味), fried pork and fish-paste rolls (炸肉燕) and a soup of meatballs and braised egg (丸蛋湯).
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Food guides send visitors to Yanshui's 'four A's': A San (阿三), A Miao (阿妙), A Tung (阿桐) and A Chi (阿姬). Elsewhere in Tainan the fried form goes into guo shao yi mian (鍋燒意麵), a noodle soup cooked in a small pot.
