Subject: Re: Noodles in China's history

From: [email-masked] (Paul J. Gans)
Date: 4 May 1994 16:37:41 GMT

Terry Nutter ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi.  Ginny Beatty gives some excellent information on noodles and other
: pasta dishes in China, and then adds,

: >I submit that Marco Polo and other travelers could have brought back tales and 
: >descriptions of food and eating during their journeys to the Far East. 

: I have no doubt that they did.  The question, I think, is whether those
: stories are the origin of noodles and similar dishes in Europe.  I think 
: it unlikely.  Constance Hieatt and Robin Jones published a late 13th 
: Century Anglo-Norman collection in _Speculum_ in 1986 (one of two Anglo-
: Norman collections reported in that article, the other being early 14th C).  
: The late 13th C collection has the following noddle or noddle-like recipes 
: (all boiled, not fried or baked):

[recipe deleted]

: Terry Nutter     Blacksburg, VA     [email-masked]     (703)552-1598

Much technological stuff diffused from China to Europe well before the 
period in question.  The old silk road carried more than just luxuries.
Things such as the compass, movable type, and gunpowder made the trip
(among many others) so it is not unlikely that many recipies and food
ideas did as well. 

        ---- Paul J. Gans   [[email-masked]]