Chinese Cuisine: Rice Vermicelli (Bifun)

[JP] Rice VermicelliBifun
[CN] Rice Flourmǐfěn
[TW (POJ)] Rice Vermicellibí-hún

Overview

The Rice VermicelliBifun referred to here is a rice noodle, a rice noodle. It is not rice flourkomeko, which is powdered rice.

Rice vermicelli is made by soaking, grinding, and dehydrating rice to create a "rice slurry (rice slurrymǐjiāng)", which is then steamed into a block and extruded into noodles, or spread thinly, steamed into a sheet, and cut into noodles.

There are thick, thin, wide, and sheet-like varieties.

There are various ways to eat them, such as in soup, stir-fried, tossed, or as a finishing dish for hot pot.

The Japanese name "bifun" comes from the Taiwanese word bí-hún.

They are widely eaten throughout southern China and Southeast Asia. Names and types within China include mifenmifen, mixianmixian, mimianmimian, guotiaoguotiao, and hefenhefen. Outside of China, there are Vietnam's pho and bun, Singapore and Malaysia's guotiao, and Thailand's sen.

Since noodles made only of rice and water break easily, some include starch as a binder while others do not. Those with more binder are smoother and have a better texture when swallowed.

In Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, there are also slightly fermented rice vermicelli and mixian.

Legends and History of Rice Vermicelli

The history of rice vermicelli is unclear, and there are various theories about its origin.

It is said that during the Qin Dynasty, when the Qin attacked Guilin (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), soldiers from the north were not accustomed to eating rice, so they made noodle-like shapes out of rice that resembled their hometown dish "hele (helehéle)", which became known as Guilin rice vermicelli.

However, noodle consumption had not yet spread in the Chinese world during this era. While wheat itself had been introduced, the main crops were millet, broomcorn millet, and soybeans.

At this time, when milling technology was immature, food made from wheat flour, which required labor to mill, was food for the upper class, so it is hard to believe that ordinary soldiers were eating it. Even for rice vermicelli, milling is difficult.

Since millet and rice, the staples of the Qin era, would soften when boiled, there was no need to go to the trouble of turning them into powder. Furthermore, it would have been faster to mobilize soldiers from the adjacent rice-eating culture of Changsha Commandery than to mobilize soldiers from the north. Noodle-like foods first appeared in literature during the Eastern Han Dynasty. And Guilin rice vermicelli first appeared in literature in 1341 during the Yuan Dynasty (in the "Lingchuan County Place Name Records," a rice vermicelli shop in Lingtian Township).

There are other legends about various historical figures creating it, but no historical documents have been found, and they lack evidence.

Now, moving on from the Qin era, when ethnic minorities invaded the Central Plains in 316 and the Western Jin Dynasty fell, many of the upper class crossed the Yangtze River, fled to Jiangnan, and scattered throughout the south. The most credible theory is that people with high milling skills who fled to what is now Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces missed their hometown dishes and made noodles with rice flour instead of wheat flour.

The "Qimin Yaoshu," written at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, contains a description of the "powder cake method," and the prototype of rice vermicellibifun had spread to Shandong by the mid-6th century. It states that "yingfen" (powdered rice) is mixed with water, kneaded, shaped into "shuiyin" (a type of noodle), and boiled.

Also, the "Shici," written before or during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, contained a description of "can," but the original book was lost. Parts of it remain, cited in the "Qimin Yaoshu," "Shanfu Lu," etc. According to the "Qimin Yaoshu," "can" is made by mixing glutinous rice flour with water and honey, pouring it into a bamboo ladle with holes, and dropping it into boiling water to cook, which is almost the same method as today.

Now, while the origin of rice vermicelli is unknown, it spread throughout the south, giving birth to mixianmixian, guotiaoguotiao, hefenhefen, and others. It also spread to various parts of Southeast Asia, becoming, for example, Vietnam's pho and bun, and Malaysia's laksa. Guotiao spread throughout Southeast Asia and is called kway teow in Teochew or by similar pronunciations. There are various other types of rice vermicelli in Southeast Asia.

In Taiwan, Hakka people who migrated to Hsinchu in the late Qing Dynasty began producing rice vermicelli, which then spread, and it was industrialized during the Japanese colonial period. The Japanese word "bifun" comes from the Taiwanese word bí-hún.

In recent years, new dishes have been created and spread, such as Xinjiang stir-fried rice vermicelli, developed by people from Guizhou Province who moved to Xinjiang, where rice vermicelli is not a common food.

In Japan, too, the number of restaurants offering rice vermicelli from various parts of China is increasing.

Examples of rice vermicelli from various regions