Biang biang noodles

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Biang biang noodles

Biáng biáng noodles (Chinese: 麵) are a type of noodle popular in China's Shaanxi province. The noodle is called biáng biáng miàn in Mandarin. The noodles, touted as one of the "ten strange wonders of Shaanxi" (陝西十大怪), are described as being like a belt, due to their thickness and length. The "Noodle King" chain in Beijing (梆梆麵北京連鎖店) serves biáng biáng noodles.

1 About the noodle
2 The Chinese character biáng
3 External links

[edit] About the noodle

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

[edit] The Chinese character biáng

The character for biáng in calligraphic regular script

[edit] Phonetic substitution

Made up of 57 strokes, the Chinese character "biáng" is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage, although the character is not found in modern dictionaries or even in the Kangxi dictionary. Due to the fact that the Chinese character for "biáng" cannot be entered into computers, phonetic substitutes like 棒棒麵 bàng bàng miàn or 梆梆麵 bāng bāng miàn are often used.

[edit] Mnemonics for how the character is written

There are a number of ditties familiar to Shaanxi residents used as mnemonics to aid recall of how the character is written.

One version runs as follows:

一點上了天		A dot rises up to heaven,
黃河兩道彎		and the yellow river has two bends.
八字大張口		The character "eight" [八] opens its mouth,
言字往進走		and the character "speak" [言] walks in.
你一扭我一扭		You make a twist, I make a twist,
你一長我一長		you grow, I grow,
當中加個馬大王		and we add a horse king in between.
心字底		The character "heart" [心] forms the base,
月字旁		the character "moon" [月] stands at the side,
留个钓搭挂麻糖		a hook at the right to hang sesame candies,
坐着車車逛咸陽		and we ride a carriage to tour the streets of Xianyang.

In simplified characters:

一点上了天，黄河两道弯，八字大张口，言字往进走，你一扭我一扭，你一长我一长，当中加个马大王，心字底月字旁，留个钓搭挂麻糖，坐着车车逛咸阳。

[edit] Origin of the character

Restaurant specializing in Biang Biang noodles

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

The origins of the biang biang noodles and the character biáng are unclear. In one version of the story, the character biáng was invented by the Qin Dynasty Premier Li Si. However, since the character is not found in the Kangxi dictionary, it may have been created much later than the time of Li Si.

In the 2007 season of the TVB show The Web (一網打盡), the show's producers tried to find the origin of the character by contacting university professors, but they could not verify the Li Si story or the origin of the character. It was concluded that the character was invented by the noodle store.