Biang biang noodles

Biáng biáng noodles (Chinese: 麵) are a type of noodle popular in China's Shaanxi province. A noodle is food made from unleavened Dough that is cooked in a boiling liquid China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National ( Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess The noodle is called biáng biáng miàn in Mandarin. The noodles, touted as one of the "ten strange wonders of Shaanxi" (陝西十大怪), are described as being like a belt, due to their thickness and length. The "Noodle King" chain in Beijing (梆梆麵北京連鎖店) serves biáng biáng noodles.

About the noodle

The Chinese character biáng

The character for biáng in calligraphic regular script

Phonetic substitution

Made up of 57 strokes, the Chinese character "biáng" is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage, although the character is not found in modern dictionaries or even in the Kangxi dictionary. The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( The Kangxi Dictionary was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries Due to the fact that the Chinese character for "biáng" cannot be entered into computers, phonetic substitutes like 棒棒麵 bàng bàng miàn or 梆梆麵 bāng bāng miàn are often used.

Mnemonics for how the character is written

There are a number of ditties familiar to Shaanxi residents used as mnemonics to aid recall of how the character is written. ( Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess

One version runs as follows:

一點上了天		A dot rises up to heaven,
黃河兩道彎		and the yellow river has two bends.
八字大張口		The character "eight" [八] opens its mouth,
言字往進走		and the character "speak" [言] walks in.
你一扭我一扭		You make a twist, I make a twist,
你一長我一長		you grow, I grow,
當中加個馬大王		and we add a horse king in between.
心字底		The character "heart" [心] forms the base,
月字旁		the character "moon" [月] stands at the side,
留个钓搭挂麻糖		a hook at the right to hang sesame candies,
坐着車車逛咸陽		and we ride a carriage to tour the streets of Xianyang. This article is related to a city for the airport located in the city see Xi'an Xianyang International Airport Xianyang ( Sienyang Hsienyang

In simplified characters:

一点上了天，黄河两道弯，八字大张口，言字往进走，你一扭我一扭，你一长我一长，当中加个马大王，心字底月字旁，留个钓搭挂麻糖，坐着车车逛咸阳。

Origin of the character

Restaurant specializing in Biang Biang noodles

The origins of the biang biang noodles and the character biáng are unclear. In one version of the story, the character biáng was invented by the Qin Dynasty Premier Li Si. Not to be confused with the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China Li Si ( (ca 280 BC - September or October 208 BC was the influential Prime Minister (or Chancellor of the feudal state and later of the dynasty of Qin, between However, since the character is not found in the Kangxi dictionary, it may have been created much later than the time of Li Si. The Kangxi Emperor ( Mongolian Enkh Amgalan Khaan, May 4, 1654 &ndash December 20, 1722) was the third Emperor of

In the 2007 season of the TVB show The Web (一網打盡), the show's producers tried to find the origin of the character by contacting university professors, but they could not verify the Li Si story or the origin of the character. Television Broadcasts Limited ( commonly known as TVB, was the first over-the-air commercial Television station in Hong Kong. It was concluded that the character was invented by the noodle store.

External links

• (Chinese) CCTV Forum Discussion on Biang Character
• (Chinese) Sunny Days blog post on biang biang noodles
• Blog post by Dan Washburn on biang biang noodles
• (Chinese) CCTV writeup on the ten strange wonders of Shaanxi
• (Chinese) "Origins of biang biang noodles" in the Cultural Origins Blog
• Pictures of Chinese sign with "biang" characters [1] [2]