JANE LYONS & WILL BOWMAN CELEBRATE THE VERSATILITY OF NOODLES ACROSS DIFFERENT CULTURES.
I have a fascination for, and healthy addiction to, noodles. In their many guises they provide endless opportunities for discovery, as well as a tasty textural vehicle for whatever ingredients the season and your location permit.
Two recent trips – one through Vietnam and the other through Italy, Greece and home via Hong Kong – provided a lot of noodle inspiration for us, but equally so did our time in Auckland. It's a city with such beautiful multi-culturalism – you could spend years exploring and learning from the massive variety of cuisines it has to offer and it's something that everyone living there should do! For us, a particular love affair flourished with the Xi'an-style hand-pulled noodles – usually topped with something spicy and umami-rich.
And the cold noodle dishes? Don't knock them until you try them. You won't find a more refreshing lunch than the ramen noodles, with their satisfyingly firm bite, sitting in a cool and flavourful broth of the season's freshest tomatoes.