Ingredients & How to Make Mi Quang Noodles

A bowl of Mi Quang noodles contains rice noodles, meat (chicken, pork, shrimp, or fish), quail eggs, raw vegetables, fresh herbs, savoury soup, grilled rice crackers, and roasted peanuts.

The most important ingredient of Mi Quang noodles is fresh ‘quang noodle sticks’. Owners of local restaurants in Da Nang/Hoi An buy these noodle sticks at local markets. Previously, in the early morning, local artisans woke up and made them. They have to buy good-quality rice (should come from rural areas of Quang Nam province, like Cam Kim Island), washed carefully by tap water, and soaked in fresh water for about 4 hours (the water should be from Ba Le Well, a 1000-years-old well in the Hoi An Ancient Town). Next, they use a machine to grind the soaked rice to have the rice milk (in the past, they used a stone grinder). The rice milk is mixed with fresh water, with a moderate proportion, based on the experiences of each person. To have yellow noodles (for more colors), turmeric powder is added into the rice milk. For that reason, Mi Quang noodles are called ‘turmeric noodles’.

Like making rice papers, local artisans will use a pot of hot water and cover its mouth with a thin white piece of fabric. After that, they use a ladle to take the rice milk, pour over the fabric, and then spread it around (to shape one rice paper of a thin layer). To steam it, a lid is placed above, covering fully the rice paper. After 1 minute, local people take off the lid and use a bamboo stick to remove the rice paper, and then place it on a large dish. If just aim to make fresh rice paper (banh cuon or banh uot), no further work is needed. Because Quang noodle sticks require a thicker layer, people will steam one more rice paper and use it to top the last one. When the double-layer rice paper gets cooler, they cut it into strips of noodle with a knife or machine.

Popular meats to make Mi Quang noodles are pork, chicken, shrimp, and fish. Pork and shrimp are combined together most. The pork should be half-fat half-lean (pork belly) and be sliced into small pieces. The shrimp must be fresh, peeled or not peeled depending on the food maker. The chicken and fish (most popularly snakehead fish) must be fresh, and are chopped into small pieces.

Quail eggs (‘mini eggs’) are bought at local fresh markets, and then boiled. After peeling their shells, local people put them into a small pot with pork (other meats) and shrimp. ‘Instant’ boiled quail eggs are also easy to buy in the markets. In restaurants in other parts of Vietnam or abroad, duck or chicken eggs are used instead (because they are easier to find). However, in Da Nang and Hoi An, the eggs are always from the quail bird.

The next step is marinating meats. Local people use minced purple shallot, sliced lemongrass, chilli powder, turmeric powder (for more colors), sugar, fish sauce, black pepper, and seasoning powder. Thus, local foods in Da Nang and Hoi An are rich in flavours. After the marination (for about 1 hour), the meat is stir fried, then people add fresh water into the pot, and boil. This soup may be more salty than the one for Hoi An style beef noodle soup.

While boiling the soup, local people can remove grass or wilted leaves from raw vegetables and herbs (altogether called by locals: rau song). These vegetables are washed by tap water, and then kept drained in a basket for a while. Popular herbs are heart leaf or fish leaf (rau diep ca), knotgrass or bitter grass (rau dang), lemon basil (rau hung chanh), baby mustards (rau cai con), fresh bean sprouts, coriander leaf (la ngo), and especially, sliced banana flower (hoa chuoi) or young banana tree.

The rice cracker must be grilled. All kinds of rice crackers are all fine for Mi Quang noodles. Grilled sesame rice crackers are the favourite of many local people.