FUJIAN FRIED RICE NOODLES or 福(Fú)建(Jiàn)炒(Chǎo)米(Mǐ)粉(Fěn) **

MAIN INGREDIENTS: rice noodles, shrimp, Chinese celery, shiitake mushrooms, pork, onions, cabbage, carrots, fish sauce.

HISTORY: this dish is one of the must-haves in Shaxian Snacks or 沙(Shā)县(Xiàn)小( Xiǎo)吃(Chī). Back during the Northern Song Dynasty (1068 - 1077), Li Wei, a general in the Xinghua army, dispatched some friends to bring cooking supplies from their home in Guangdong. Li wanted to make a rice noodle dish for his ailing mother — the dish that would lead to Fujian Fried Rice Noodles. Later, villagers in Yangwei Village began to learn the method for processing dough and producing rice noodles for a dish known as Xinghua Rice Noodles. During the Tongzhi Emperor’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1862–1874), Yangwei Village was looted amidst widespread fighting in rural parts of the area. Members of the Li family fled to Qingpu to escape the ongoing warfare, and eventually resumed using their newfound technique for producing rice noodles as a way to make a living in Huangshi. The technique that sprung up from the general’s heartfelt noodle dish would lead to new methods of noodle production based on technique that would be refined over the course of generations.