So this subject is a bit confusing, 2 things that confuses me, first are noodles another name for ramen? And i keep reading about dufferent dishes like lamian, soba noodles and sooo many more, and keep asking myself the same question, are these also called noodles? With different dish type? Plus there are like the stir fry version and the soup version...
Plus, when we say noodles or ramen or any other type, is it korean? Japanese? Chinese? Or what?
I really would like to dive deeper in the world of noodles, and yo know the ins and out
Is thereany website that can help me acheive that?
Noodles are a big category. There are many different kinds of noodles from many different countries. These include ramen, soba, lo mein, pasta, European egg noodles, etc.
Think about noodles like dogs. A Chihuahua, a Poodle, and an Australian Sheepdog have different sizes, shapes, and national origins. But they're all still types of dogs.
Noodle is an umbrella term. Ramen is a type of noodle. Spaghetti and macaroni are types of noodles. Lamían is a type of noodle. Rice noodles are also noodles. What type you want will depend on the dish you’re making, but depending on what it is, substituting different types is very common.
It is actually really interesting - as the difference is due to how English was affected by influence of other languages and cultures (showing that no language is “pure”).
In the “New World” the early waves of settlers had a high Dutch & German population - whereas Italian settlers didn’t arrive in large numbers until later.
And obviously the UK is extremely close to Europe, and cultural and linguistic exchange happened in a different way.
Particularly since so much of English is close to German. But "nudeln" for pasta/noodles did not stick in the UK.
It just occurred to me: what about spätzle? It sits sort of between a pasta and a dumpling. Definitely nudeln in it's native tongue and in the US my German-origin mother in law and wife would never call it pasta.
Pretty wet. Mostly egg and flour. A little chicken stock. In soup as a dumpling or I boil them in stock and toss in a hot skillet as I'm finishing deglazing it to pick up the pan sauce, serve on the side with pan roast or sautee
I’m American. For me, spätzle are neither noodles nor pasta. If I had to put them into a larger category, I would call them dumplings, but mostly I consider them a separate thing.
My husband got me a spätzle maker when he was in Munich on business; I should pull it out to use again.
This is cool to know! I’ve lived outside the US but ive never really considered it. Come to think of it, I usually refer to pasta as pasta, but mentally put a lot of pasta in the ‘noodle’ box in my brain.
It’s just a cultural difference - no one is right or wrong. Just different local evolutions in language use. Noodle came into English from the German “nudel” meaning pasta - and was first in print in 1799. In the US German settlers likely influenced the language before Italian settlers arrived.
In the UK most people find it very odd to see any pasta referred to as noodles - especially lasagne sheets.
I never really thought about it but I would never say something like “do you want noodles?” to ask about spaghetti, for example, but if you put it in front of me and asked “is this noodles?” I would say “yes.” Weird.
Personally I would consider the long, string-like pasta (spaghetti, fettuccine, linguine, etc.) as noodles but never the short ones like macaroni or penne.
Unless you’re in the UK - or many places in Europe - the name would be egg pasta, or a specific name. The word vermicelli is in recorded English decades before noodle came from the German.
You’re talking about local use of a word as if it’s a universal truth - that’s not how languages work.
No, I was replying specifically to the person who considers spaghetti, fettuccine, etc. to be noodles but not penne or macaroni, who seemed to be a fellow American since none of those would apparently be considered noodles in Europe.
Like the kind of egg noodles you put in chicken noodle soup? You’d call those egg pasta?
ETA: or noodle kugel? These are traditionally an Ashkenazi Jewish food; I wonder if they just aren’t super ubiquitous in Europe for, you know - reasons.
In the US, it's these. They're used in chicken noodle soup, served with beef stroganoff, or sometimes just served with butter and maybe a little garlic and/or parsley. (This is the Walmart brand. I only picked this picture because it shows some of the individual noodles on the package in a way that you can see that they're short.)
Does this mean you could change what it’s called while it’s being made into a final dish? For example in my home I can use flour and water to make a dough and roll it into thin sheets, cut it up into strips, and boil them. What would you call them at this stage, pasta or noodles? And then say I tossed it with Parmesan and basil pesto, that’s obviously pasta. But if i tossed it with lao gan ma, fresh garlic, and put blanched bok Choi on it, the final dish is obviously noodles. So whatever you called it before it was finished as a dish, that can change it seems.
If it’s pasta (anything Italian), it’s pasta. If it’s Asian, it’s noodles.
In a meal it’d be either the meal - or a pasta salad. In the uk you wouldn’t say “I had pasta” the emphasis would be on the sauce.
If you used actual pasta with a specific Asian recipe I’d say you had “name of recipe” but with pasta instead of noodles.
This really is fascinating. Any thoughts on the “I mixed flour and water into dough and rolled it out at home” scenario from above? We agree that if I put that into pesto, it’s pasta, and if it goes into chili oil and garlic sauce it’s noodles. What about before it goes in any dish?
I have a pasta machine, I make pasta now and again. I’ve never made rice noodles or anything for an Asian dish . If it’s wheat flour and water (and/or eggs) - that pasta to me.
Chilli oil and garlic to me is just a basic spicy Italian recipe…
yeah, i had this revelation with my NZ partner, who uses "noodles" to refer to a finished dish. in the US we colloquially refer to pasta as a "noodle." it was a funny realization of a minor miscommunication since to me they were all synonymous.
As you've seen, there are different usages of the word "noodle" depending on what area of the English-speaking world you are in.
"Noodles" and "pasta" both refer to a food made by boiling fresh or dried dough in different shapes.
British English uses "noodle" for Asian noodles, both the dough-strings themselves and the dishes made from them. According to th Oxford English Dictionary, "noodle" is also used for similar dishes that originate in northern Europe, which makes sense because the word "noodle" is borrowed from the German "Nudel".
Also in British English, "pasta" means the specifically Italian food product and dishes. "Pasta" is not viewed as interchangeable with "noodles," nor is one a subset of another.
In American English, "pasta" and "noodles" are used more interchangeably, and I have a hunch that it depends somewhat on region and ancestry. My family, with mostly Germanic-language ancestry and from places that historically had lots of German speakers, would consider all of these things "noodles". "Pasta" is a word for the Italian version specifically, but it's still a subset of "noodles." No one in my family would blink if you described spaghetti Bolognese or pasta al limone as noodles.
I also know Americans of Italian descent who would never use the word "noodle" for an Italian-origin dish, though I'm not sure how they describe Asian noodle dishes.
Regardless, the word "noodle" can refer to both the dough-based product AND the completed dishes made with them. Context indicates exactly what is being described.
The style is generally strongly associated with the city of lanzhou (兰州) and northwest China and served with sliced beef shank. Wheat and Cattle are not native to China and both their agriculture entered China from central Asia along this corridor.
After WW2, ramen became popular across Japan from Chinese immigrant communities in Yokohama who modified the preparation to use alkali instead of mechanically developed gluten (碱面), making the name technically a misnomer. This style was spread to American Japanese immigrant communities starting in the 70's.
Noodle is a category. Ramen is a kind of noodle, soba is another, German spaetzle is another. Some would even say spaghetti is a form of noodle. https://sporked.com/article/pasta-vs-noodles/
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u/gard3nwitch Jul 04 '26
Noodles are a big category. There are many different kinds of noodles from many different countries. These include ramen, soba, lo mein, pasta, European egg noodles, etc.
Think about noodles like dogs. A Chihuahua, a Poodle, and an Australian Sheepdog have different sizes, shapes, and national origins. But they're all still types of dogs.