Rice noodles (“mi fen” or rice stick) are a deviation of Asian (oriental) wheat-based noodles in that rice is the basic structural component.
In addition, traditional procedures for the production of rice noodles involve the wet-milling of rice to remove the soluble constituents in the rice kernel, and the gelatinization of the rice starch.This process is tedious, and involves the problem of liquid waste proposal, even though it is not high in biological oxygen demand.
A modified procedure is to use rice flour directly instead of the wet-milled rice flour, thus avoiding the liquid waste proposal problem.
It should be noted that dry milled rice flour is not the same as the wet milled rice flour, and the quality of the final product is not expected to be the same.
It is generally believed that wet milled rice flour has a smoother texture after gelatinization.
Consumers should be aware that that in the recent years, some manufacturers have begun to use corn starch or other starched partially or completely instead of rice flour to make similar products, and still call them “rice stick.” They have similar properties, but are not as good as the original noodles (rice stick).
Rice Based Dry Asian (Oriental) Noodles
