crossing the bridge
and just because I just had a little rant about noodles, here's a little ramble I wrote a few days, maybe a week ago on my gemlog:
I've got a variety of bridge crossing memories, but this one doesn't directly involve bridges. It was sparked by a moment in our local Chinese supermarket, though.
The Wife and I were making our way through our local Chinese supermarket today. A row of packets of noodles grabbed my eye. And my mind. On the packets were the words: 过桥米线 - "crossing the bridge rice noodles".
In the here-and-now I was thinking, "guo4qiao2 mi3xian4 in a packet makes no sense at all. How could this possible work?"
In the old-man-lost-in-memory I was remembering a warm mid-winter afternoon in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, and outdoor restaurant, a tray holding a piping hot bowl of noodles in soup and several small saucers of raw ingredients. I emptied the saucers into the soup - herbs, veges, raw meat diced up into very small pieces - and let it sit for a few minutes to cook. And then, of course, I ate it.
I don't think that was the first bowl of "crossing the bridge noodles" I had in Yunnan, but for whatever reason, that particular bowl of noodles is the one I remember. I think it was the setting that made it. Jinghong that week was warm, dry, sunny and the people relaxed, friendly, and welcoming. I had decided to try a restaurant away from the small tourist-oriented end of town, and the people at this restaurant were very cool, no fuss, no bother, brought me my noodles, and the noodles were good.
To be honest, I was a bit nervous about trying "crossing the bridge noodles".It's the raw meat, you see, and the fact that it is only cooked by being dunked in a bowl of soup. Said bowl of soup is not sitting on any flame or heating element. It is only the heat stored in the water that cooks the meat.
So the story is that some time back in the Qing Dynasty in Mengzi, Yunnan Province, a scholar was studying for the imperial exams. He would study on some island out in the lake, and his wife would cook him his lunch and bring it across the bridge to the island for him to eat. Trouble is, by the time she got to the island, the noodles were soggy and the soup was cold and it was all just a big bowl of sadness. So she came up with a plan - but the soup in a clay bowl with a layer of oil on top, and carry the ingredients separately. The oil would act as an insulator, keeping the soup piping hot. On arrival on the island, tip the ingredients into the soup and let them cook in all that stored up heat. Hence the name, "crossing the bridge noodles". And so the solution one woman in a small town in the southeast of Yunnan Province to her husband's culinary problem has become a symbol of the whole province.
And fair enough, because those are some good noodles. Well worth a trip to Yunnan.
But I still can't see how a pre-packaged "instant" version of these noodles could possible work. I think I'm just going to have to go back to Yunnan.