Sōmen

Regional names
Regional names
Historical name
Chinese	索麵
Literal meaning	rope noodle
Middle Chinese
Transcriptions
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese	/sɑk̚.menH/
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	素麵
Simplified Chinese	素面
Literal meaning	white noodle
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	sùmiàn
Wade–Giles	su4-mien4
Korean name
Hangul	소면
Hanja	素麵
Revised Romanization
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	somyeon
McCune–Reischauer	somyŏn
Japanese name
Kanji	素麺
Kana	そうめん
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	sōmen

*Sōmen*
Alternative names	Somyeon; sùmiàn;
Type	Noodles
Place of origin	China
Region or state	East Asia
Main ingredients	Wheat flour
	Media: Sōmen;

Sōmen (Japanese: 素麺), somyeon (Korean: 소면; 素麵), or sùmiàn (Chinese: 素麵) is a very thin noodle made of wheat flour, less than 1.3 mm in diameter. The noodles are used extensively in East Asian cuisines. Japanese sōmen is made by stretching the dough with vegetable oil, forming thin strands that are then air dried for later use. This is distinct from a similar thin noodle, hiyamugi, which is knife-cut.

In Japan, sōmen is usually served cold with a light dipping sauce called tsuyu. South Korean somyeon may be eaten in hot or cold noodle soups. Sōmen is typically high in sodium.^[2]

Other names are nyūmen (煮麺) in Japanese, for a version served warm in soup, and the Chinese name guàmiàn (Chinese: 掛麵), which can be further classified into lóngxū (Chinese: 龍鬚; lit. 'Dragon Whiskers') for the variant with long and thin strands and fèngwei (Chinese: 鳳尾; lit. 'Phoenix Tail') for the variant with flat and broad strands.

History

The earliest record for what would later be sōmen dates back to the Tang dynasty in 618-907 China. Around that time, the Japanese Imperial Court in Nara brought in some knotted pastry from China which they called Sakubei/索餅 (most likely Chinese Mahua/麻花). Sakubei would later evolve into Somen first in modern day Sakurai, Nara's Miwa district^[3] during the Heian Period and would evolve to become high-class Japanese cuisine which would be served to emperors and nobles.^[4]

East Asian cuisines

Japan

Illustration of a tofu seller (right) and a *sōmen* seller (left) by Tosa Mitsunobu, from the *Songs of the Seventy-one Craftsmen* (七十一番職人歌合 *Shichijūichi-ban Shokunin Uta-awase*), a poetry anthology written around 1500

Sōmen are usually served cold with a light flavored dipping sauce^[5] or tsuyu. The tsuyu is usually a katsuobushi-based sauce that can be flavored with Japanese bunching onion, ginger, or myoga. In the summer, sōmen chilled with ice is a popular meal to help stay cool.

Sōmen served in hot soup is usually called nyūmen and eaten in the winter, just like soba or udon are.

Some restaurants offer nagashi-sōmen (流しそうめん flowing noodles) in the summer. The noodles are placed in a long flume of bamboo^[6] across the length of the restaurant. The flume carries clear, ice-cold water. As the sōmen pass by, diners pluck them out with their chopsticks^[6] and dip them in tsuyu. Catching the noodles requires a fair amount of dexterity, but the noodles that are not caught by the time they get to the end usually are not eaten, so diners are pressured to catch as much as they can. A few luxury establishments put their sōmen in real streams so that diners can enjoy their meal in a beautiful garden setting. Machines have been designed to simulate this experience at home.^{[citation needed]}

Sōmen (in large white bowl at upper-right) with assorted toppings
Nagashi-sōmen

South Korea

In Korean cuisine, somyeon is used in hot and cold noodles soups such as janchi-guksu (banquet noodles) and kong-guksu (noodles in cold soybean soup), as well as soupless noodle dishes such as bibim-guksu (mixed noodles). It is often served with spicy anju (food that accompanies alcoholic drink) such as golbaengi-muchim (moon snail salad).