That is an oddly exclusive definition for noodle. I don’t have time to find the context now, but the Wikipedia definitionisn’t bad save for the rolling flat requirement. I don’t know for sure if there are noodles that don’t start with a flattened dough, but it seems possible. I guess there can be some dispute about the difference between dumplings and noodles that would make that a little more complicated to resolve.
That’s why you get weird labeling on some Asian products that call it “alimentary paste.” I had thought the FDA relaxed their rules on this, but that’s what I found on their website, so who knows?
Yeah, while I’ve heard lasagna sheets referred to as noodles, I don’t think I’ve heard ravioli referred to as such. That said, I have heard of “stuffed noodles,” although that is a very rare usage, in my experience.
Well, I’d never say “I bought some ravioli noodles” but if someone presented me with a “bag of noodles” and it contained tortellini, I wouldn’t consider that a violation of the label.
I would, certainly. I sure as heck wouldn’t refer to ravioli as “asian noodles”, which is what is implied when someone says "pasta:asian noodles :: apples:fruit.
The FSM does not discriminate on the basis of nation of origin, grain, or egg content. All are equal under the beneficent touch of His Noodly Appendage.
Heh. I was going to bring them up earlier, but wasn’t sure how well-known they are. I’m happy to lop them in the noodle or small dumpling category. But they also come in noodle-y and dumpling-like shapes, so there’s that. I make the more teardrop, pea-sized ones, but I’m happy to classify them as either. I’d probably describe mine as miniature dumplings to somebody who was unfamiliar with the concept.
In Asia, they would be considered dumplings, which in essence they are.
And like Noodles, there are tons of varieties of dumplings, so let’s not go there.
Then I guess we get into the whole noodle/pasta dough that’s grated into little gravel-like shapes. Or stuff like orzo. I want to use the word “noodle” to cover all these things, but I guess I wouldn’t necessarily call those noodles. Maybe pasta (whether Italian or not, with egg or not.) So confusing.
So in your book Rice Stick Noodle and Chinese Wheet Noodles come from the same tree, whereas pasta would be on a tree of its own.
If we were to take the above three; the Chinese Wheet Noodles and Pasta are more closly related than the Rice Stick Noodles.
How about thinking of them in an evolutionary manner, as alluded above, as a family tree?
The birthplace of noodle dishes was Asia. Out of Asia one founding population came with Marco Polo and from that founding population pasta and a variety of variations and other species have descended. Meanwhile from that broader population of past noodle dishes today’s Asian noodle dishes have evolved. Ravoli can be considered analogous to whales which came from land animals but they are not land animals, which are mammals that are not land animals and who instead have convergently evolved into fish-like forms, their lineage is noodles but they are a pasta that has convergently evolved into dumpling form.
That is a myth that has been long discounted. I was taught that noodles were mentioned in Italian writings before Marco Polo was even born and that a type of pasta-making device was found in the ruins of Pompeii.
