Noodle flakes is a name I gave to a noodle dish called 麵疙瘩mìan gē dā or麵猴粉mìan hóu fěn. This dish is a dish that I have never seen on a restaurant menu before. However, when I was researching on the internet, I found some restaurants in Taiwan and Mainland China that serve this dish. Noodle Flakes in Soup 麵疙瘩/ 麵猴粉 is a very sentimental dish for me. It was my comfort food since I was a little kid. Now, I make it for my son.
This dish has recorded history dating back to the Sung Dynasty. Villagers donated flour to hungry soldiers as they were fighting off the Jin empire invasion. The soldiers made a dough with the flour and started ripping pieces of the dough into simmering soup. A famous general during the Sung Dynasty, 岳飛 yùe fēi, tasted the concoction and loved it. It's not clear if the soldier created this dish or if he was simply executing a known dish so the history could date back even before the Sung Dynasty.
Some people make this dish with little droplets of dough, like spaetzle. Others make flat pieces of dough that are approximately one inch in diameter. Since they are just pulled off pieces of dough, they are all irregular shaped. The broth and other ingredients vary from region to region. My mom’s recipe is probably the most basic but since I grew up on it, I like her version the best and that’s the one I’ll be sharing. Some other versions will add tomatoes, egg, seafood, preserved vegetables, cabbage, spinach, Chinese cucumbers, black fungus, fish balls, sliced pork, ground pork and/or various mushrooms.
My Noodle Flakes in Soup 麵疙瘩/ 麵猴粉 recipe is super simple…besides the dough, we will only be adding pork, Chinese mushrooms, napa cabbage and broth. The whole family can help rip little pieces of dough into simmering broth. I remember enjoying making this dish with my mom when I was little. This is still one of my family’s comfort foods, hope it’ll be one of your family’s too!
Noodle Flakes in Soup 麵疙瘩/ 麵猴粉
Ingredients
- 400 g All-purpose flour
- 200 ml Warm water
- 4 g Salt (for dough)
- 1 tsp Oil (for dough)
- 350 g Pork , cut into small 1cm cubes
- 350 g Napa cabbage , shredded or course slices
- 8 Shiitake mushrooms , dried or fresh
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Corn starch
- 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 liter Broth
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce , optional for broth
- 1 tsp Salt , optional for broth
Instructions
- Add 4g salt to 400g all-purpose flour and add 200ml of warm water to it. Add another 10-20ml of water if needed. Knead for 1-2 minutes until it is a rough ball shape. Cover for 10 minutes.
Dough should be fairly easy to knead but not too soft 
- Continue kneading the dough for a few minutes until smooth and roll into a ball again and cover for 30 minutes
- Marinade the pork with 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp cornstarch and 1 tsp cooking wine. Marinade for 10 minutes
- Wash and cut napa cabbage and shitake mushrooms and set aside
- Add 1 tbsp oil to a pan or pot and brown the pork on medium-high heat until cooked. Remove from heat and set aside
- Pour the 1 liter of broth into pot and turn heat to high. When the broth boils, add napa cabbage and shitake and cook until broth boils again. Turn the heat down to medium, the broth should be simmering or have little bubbles. You may choose to remove some or all the vegetables from the broth so that you have more room to cook the noodle flakes.
Removing the vegetables will also prevent the vegetables from becoming too soft from overcooking. However, some people like very soft napa cabbage too - Add 1 tsp of oil to the dough ball and rub over the outside of the dough.
This will help improve the texture of the noodle flake as well as preventing it from sticking to your fingers when pulling off the pieces - Pull off a chunk of the dough and keep the remaining covered
- Pull off a piece of the dough, flatten it with your fingers and drop it into the simmering broth. The noodle flakes should be approx. 2.5 cm or 1” in size but they can be any shape, any size but try to flatten them to prevent from having any uncooked pieces. Repeat this process until all the dough is used
- Once all the noodle flakes have been put into the pot, pour the meat and vegetables back into the pot and stir well
- Turn heat to medium-high or high and cover the pot with a lid and wait for it to boil
- Once it boils again, it will be ready to serve
- Taste the broth, add salt and/or soy sauce to achieve desired saltiness
Since some broth come salted and some unsalted, you can determine how much salt you want to add
Notes
- Tomato and egg
- Preserved vegetable and pork
- Black fungus, pork, egg and spiced vinegar
- Seafood and vegetable
- Vegetarian (tofu and vegetables)
- Add to hot pot
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