Biang biang noodles

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The character for biáng in calligraphic regular script

The character for biáng in songti script

Biang biang noodles

Biáng biáng noodles are a 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

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[edit] The Chinese character biáng

[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

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

One version is as follows:

A stroke rises up to heaven (一點上了天),

and the yellow river has two bends (黃河兩道灣).

The character "eight" (八) opens its mouth (八字大張口),

and the character "speak (言)" walks in (言字往進走).

You make a twist (你一扭), and I make a twist (我一扭),

you grow (你一長), I grow (我一長),

and we add a horse (馬) king in between (當中加個馬大王).

The heart character forms the base (心字底),

the moon (月) character stands at the side(月字旁),

and we ride a carriage to tour the streets of Xianyang (坐着車車逛咸陽)

Complete phrase:

Traditional 一點上了天，黃河兩道灣，八字大張口，言字往進走，你一扭我一扭，你一長我一長，當中加個馬大王，心字底月字旁，掛個丁丁叫馬杠，坐着車車逛咸陽。

Simplified 一点上了天，黄河两道湾，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，挂个丁丁叫马杠，坐着车车逛咸阳。

[edit] Origin of the character

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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.