• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Better Asian recipes for home cooks

  • Recipes
    • Cuisine
      • Chinese
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
      • Taiwanese
      • Filipino
      • Indonesian
      • Malaysian
      • South Asian
      • Fusion
      • Street Food
    • Ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Seafood
      • Meat
      • Rice & Grains
      • Noodles
      • Vegetables
      • Tofu
      • Mushrooms
      • Bread
      • Eggs
      • Fruits
    • Course
      • Breakfast
      • Snacks
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
      • Drinks
  • Kitchen
  • Stories
  • Cuisine
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Thai
    • Taiwanese
    • Filipino
    • Indonesian
    • Malaysian
    • South Asian
    • Fusion
  • Main Ingredient
    • Poultry
    • Seafood
    • Meat
    • Rice & Grains
    • Noodles
      • Noodle Soups
      • Noodles Stir Fry
      • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
    • Vegetables
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Bread
    • Eggs
    • Fruits
  • Course
    • Breakfast
    • Snacks
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Main Courses
    • Side Dishes
    • Sweets
    • Drinks
  • Street Food
  • Kitchen Tales
  • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
You are here: Home / Kitchen Tales / Asian Noodles Shopping Guide

Asian Noodles Shopping Guide

Go to an Asian market or grocery and there’s bound to be an entire aisle (if not more) dedicated to noodles. That’s how important noodle is in Asian cooking.

fresh Asian noodles

It can be confusing enough for any Asian who’s just starting to learn to cook. For non-Asians, it can be a nightmare finding the right noodles for a dish. But there are tricks to get rid of a huge chunk of the confusion.

Forget the regional name of the noodle

So, you found a lovely noodle soup recipe and you’re sure you can make your kickass version IF ONLY you can find the right noodles in the grocery. The recipe says pho. You go to the grocery, there are so many noodles but you can’t find anything labeled “pho” and you go home crestfallen.

First of all, pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, not the name of the noodle that goes into it. It’s rice noodles that you want, not pho noodles.

Most Asian noodles are made with starch and water. The starch can come from wheat, buckwheat, rice, potato, sweet potato and even mung beans.

Rice noodles from Thailand and Vietnam will have different regional names but are essentially the same. Yes, you can make kickass pho using rice noodles made in Thailand. In the same manner, you can cook pad Thai with rice noodles imported from Vietnam.

When shopping for Asian noodles, the trick is to check the ingredients list on the label (except in rare cases, there is an English translation for the ingredients). See what kind of starch was used. Even if you can’t pronounce the regional name of the noodle, if you know what starch was used to make it, you’re in a better position to judge if it’s a good choice for the dish you want to cook.

Why the right noodle matters

In practical terms, you can use most (but definitely not all) Asian noodles interchangeably because they are versatile enough to be cooked into a wide array of dishes especially stir fries and soups. But, if you’re aiming for a bit of authenticity, getting the right noodle matters a lot.

The texture, appearance and mouth feel of the noodle depends on the kind of starch used.

Rice noodles

Home cooked beef pho recipe

Rice noodles are white and opaque. Even after cooking, they remain white and opaque. They are sold flat or round. When round, they are sold thick or thin. When flat, they come in different widths and thicknesses. Kway teow, chow fun (or ho fun) and pho noodles are all made with rice starch.

Wheat and buckwheat noodles

Japanese somen and chuka men (the noodles used in ramen), Chinese lamian and mee pok… these are all wheat noodles.

Most egg noodles are wheat noodles but with egg added to the noodle dough. Be careful about judging egg noodles by their color. Just because they’re yellow doesn’t always mean they’re egg noodles. In some cases, the yellow hue is just food coloring.

Soba with edamame
Soba with edamame

Buckwheat noodles are made from the starchy edosperm of the grain-like seed of buckwheat, a plant that isn’t related to wheat at all. The Japanese noodle soba translates to buckwheat, its main ingredient.

Cellophane (glass) noodles

This class of noodles gets its name from a common visual characteristic. They are transparent and they stay transparent even after cooking. Made with potato, sweet potato, mung bean or tapioca starch, they may be thin or thick, clear or brownish as in the case of Korean dangmyeon.

A bowl of japchae, Korean stor fried glass noodles
Dangmyeon is used in cooking japchae, a Korean stir fried noodle dish

Cellophane or glass noodles are often marketed as vermicelli. They are not the same as “rice vermicelli” which is white and opaque because it is made with rice starch. Rice vermicelli is bi hun in Hokkien and it spread around Asia with mostly similar-sounding names. For example, it is bee hon in Singapore, bihon in the Philippines, bihun in Malaysia and bun in Vietnam.

More noodle adventures

  • A Guide To Ramen Broth: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu
  • Demystifying Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
  • Cheese and Kimchi Ramen
  • Crispy Chow Mein
  • Sukiyaki for Home Cooking
Published: May 15, 2020 • Last modified: May 18, 2020 ♥ Kitchen Tales Pantry Staples, Noodles
Further Reading
Chinese-style fried rice in white ramekin

How To Cook Chinese-style Fried Rice

Fried and skewered quail eggs. Tamsui Old Street, Taiwan

Quail Eggs in Asian Cuisines

Mandarin oranges

Symbolic Food for the Lunar New Year

Sidebar

Experience Asia

Thai Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Saap) Garnished with Chili

Thai Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Saap)

Thai cucumber salad garnished with peanuts and cilantro

Thai Cucumber Salad with Sweet and Tangy Chili Dressing

Japanese sakura rice bowls

Two Reasons to Go Back to Japan

Sam Veneracion making pottery. Bat Trang Village, Vietnam.

The Authentic Bat Trang Ceramic Village Tour and Pottery Class

Thai meatballs in curry sauce

Thai-style Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

  • About
  • Privacy
  • Archive

Inspiration

“A full belly conquers all.”

From the film Saving Face
Popular Posts
  • A Guide To Ramen Broth: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu
  • 3 Soy Sauce Braised Pork Belly
  • Steamed Pompano With Ginger Sauce
  • Tofu in Oyster Sauce
  • Slow Cooker Chinese-style Beef Tendon
Not So Fine Print

Devour Asia does NOT work with “brands”.

Devour Asia does NOT accept guest posts.

Devour Asia does NOT outsource recipe development, writing, photography and videography.

Except for the occasional stock photo and blockquote, everything © Devour Asia. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.