A lover of Chinese food most often than not orders for noodles when they visit a Chinese food joint. While looking through the menu you will see that Chow Mein and noodles are written separately. Though we use both the terms collectively to mean noodles, there is quite some difference between the two. A hard-core fan of oriental cuisine might know what is the exact difference. Today let us tell the difference. There is a difference between the taste as the preparation varies of the two.

The very basic difference between noodles and Chow Mein is one is the base product and other is an output. Noodles are made up of dough and Chow Mein is what you get when these noodles are fried. So all Chow Mein is noodles, but all noodles are not Chow Mein. Are you confused? Here’s making it simpler…

Noodles as a product of dough are boiled first before making any dish out of it. But when they are stir fried they become crispier to form Chow Mein. To make you remember better, Chow = fried, Mein = noodles. The noodle dough is cut into long thick and thin strings. When you boil these strings, they become softer and are easier to digest.

For a Chow Mein preparation, these noodles are tossed and fried. A variety of sauces and some veggies are then added in to make the final dish. There are a variety of ways in which Chow Mein is cooked around the world. In India itself, the Chinese that we have is Indianised to suit our tastes. Commonly heard Chow Mein preparations are American, Chinese, Canadian Chinese, Indian Chinese and Caribbean style.

Another thing we love about Chinese food is the crispy fried noodles served along with the schezwan dip. Now those are the regular dough noodles, deep fried to become all crunchy and crispy. These plain fried noodles are such an important element in soups, or even as just a starter before your food arrives on the table.

We hope we have cleared the difference between Noodles, Chow Mein or Chow Mein Noodles! We are sure you too must be enjoying eating a lot of Chinese food, so next time you visit a place, try ordering different noodle and Chow Mein dishes and figure out the difference yourself.

 

 

 

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 09, 2018 05:03 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).