Vermicelli that is made of wheat instead of rice - 面线 (Hokkien: mee sua, Cantonese: min seen, Chinese: mian xian). While appearing similar to bee hoon (rice vermicelli), this has a very different texture, and for different culinary uses as well. If it's made of wheat, isn't it considered a kind of pasta ?
On the package, it was written buckwheat and mee sua! So...something like thin soba ?
Looks like whole wheat angel hair pasta when cooked.
However, I believe the moisture content in the making(kneading) of pasta, vermicelli and buckwheat noodles (soba) varies PLUS we tend to look for al denta in pasta but not in rice vermicelli unless you overcook the pasta to be as soft as rice vermicelli's texture. Beachlover's Kitchen also talks about somen and mee sua here.
You can substitute mee sua with angel hair pasta by slightly overcooking the latter! :D
Back home, mee sua soup is commonly seen once a year - during birthdays. A bowl of simmering mee sua soup with minced pork balls and one hard-boiled egg. Rice vermicelli (mee sua) and as the Chinese characters literally mean Noodle 面 Threads 线...threads tend to be long, so signifies longevity in birthday celebrations.
Herbal Chicken Vermicelli Soup
Ingredients:
Chicken, chopped to pieces; 1 Chinese herbal pack; some vegetables(bok choy) blanched; mee sua (vermicelli) cooked according to instructions.
Directions:
1. Boil the chicken with herbal pack according to herbal pack instructions.
2. When ready, ladle the soup over the cooked mee sua, serve immediately
It is easy to think of what you can with Chinese herbal packs. This is a one-dish meal I'm serving other than boiling the chicken with the herbs to make Herbal Chicken Soup, and steaming the chicken with the herbs to make Steamed Herbal Chicken, also known as Emperor Chicken. I hope this is fit for an emperor or empress in Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by Kitchenetta of Got No Milk.
Tag: noodles, vermicelli , mee sua
Buckwheat MiSua? It's the first time I've seen this. Our Misua is white, almost hair-like thin, disintegrates when added to soup.
ReplyDeleteEh, I did a double-take and had to check the title. It DOES look like soba.
ReplyDeleteI love Mi Sua.. your Mi Sua looks delicious !!
ReplyDeleteI love to eat mee sua. And in Taiwan. it's oyster mee sua everyday!!
ReplyDeleteI love mi sua too...Once, I remember when I was in the hospital back home, the nurse offered me mi sua soup instead of rice porridge for my breakfast. I was so happy to have it, since I had to stay eating smooth food at that time, which I almost got rice porridge every single day.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I see wheat mee sua, I didn't even know now they have wheat mee sua. Got to open my eyes wider next time. I love my mee sua in herbal soup too!
ReplyDeleteI love the way you set up the dish. =) Herbal chicken soup is GOOD...I'm going to have to try it at home! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't I think of cooking herbal soup and just add mee sua? Thanks for sharing. I can cook this the night before, and have it as lunch the next day!
ReplyDeleteThis looks wonderful. I liked your trick of overcooking angel hair in a pinch.
ReplyDeleteOh ya, it does resemble soba in a way ... this looks divinely good ... you are really good at food styling! :D
ReplyDeleteThis looks splendid. Thanks for your submission to this week's Presto Pasta Nights #77!
ReplyDeleteJust to drop by again to let you know I ended up having mi sua with herbal chicken soup for dinner last nite! :D
ReplyDeleteI think your blog affects my eating habits more than anyone else's. Maybe cos our tastes are similar. Comfort food rocks! :D
I didn't know there is wheat mee sue,maybe they do but in differebnt packaging.I know these dasy they try to make the packaging look cool like soba!!your mee sua look good eh?
ReplyDeletei always have difficulty buying mee sua here, but once in a while there's some. and they're brownish in color, not unlike the white color mee sua i found in indonesia.
ReplyDeletei gave you an award if you want to take a peek in my blog :)
I thought it was soba at first too. How was the texture tigerfish?
ReplyDeleteI love the way u present this dish. Nice plate..and the gooseberries must hv added a sweetness to the soup!
i'm a sucker for noodle soups. that just looks soooo good! come to think of it, i haven't really made "real" restaurant-type of soup here at home. thanks for the burst of inspiration...yet again! ;)
ReplyDeleteI love how you did the noodle balls! They're beautiful! Buckwheat mee sua? Intriguing most definitely.
ReplyDeletemmmm noodle soups. My mum makes chinese herbal soups all the time, but never with noodles. I will have to try this at some point.
ReplyDeleteoh yes, have not had this dish for a long time.
ReplyDeletethat's a unique mee suah with buckwheat. where did u get it?
Yup looks like soba alright. hehe. I love the pretty presentation. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the way that soup is displayed and nice combination to PPN! That really looks like a feel better kind of soup. Yum.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a gorgeous photo. Yum!
ReplyDeleteYou should submit it to the Pasta Fridays event, BTW!
ReplyDeleteI like using buck wheat noodles. That soup looks good. Nice presentation!
ReplyDeleteLooks alot like soba. Soba is darn expensive in Canada...!
ReplyDeleteHey..Nice post....will definitely try to it.
ReplyDeletemee sua must put red wine(local made)!!
ReplyDeleteI was interested read this post.
ReplyDelete