Nouilles de riz

Salt, funk and glutamate on a noodle that offers none of the three.

Squeezed at the table, never in the pot. Acid has to arrive raw.

Green aldehydes over hot broth: the smell hits before the spoon does.

Sliced raw, cooked by the broth in the bowl. The noodle keeps it warm.

Squeezed in at the table for the vinegar and sugar, not only for the heat.

The oil clings and the shreds catch in the folds. Cheung fun wants nothing else.

Bland starch with no acid axis at all. One squeeze per bowl, at the table.

Piled raw over noodles in broth, it wilts just enough to release its anise note.

Neutral starch is the carrier; the herb is the actual seasoning in the bowl.

Charred whole in the stockpot; anethole is what makes the broth smell of pho.

Crushed on top. It is the only crunch in an otherwise entirely soft bowl.

Raw slices float on the fat and the heat builds instead of arriving.

Torn in by the handful; menthol cuts fat broth better than acid does.

Sour fruit acid balances palm sugar and fish sauce in one wok.

Sweet shellfish next to blank starch, with the shells simmered into the stock.

Cream thickens the broth so it clings to a noodle that repels everything.

Squeezed over pho, which half of Vietnam regards as a criminal offence.

Flat rice starch takes flavour only from what coats it. The sugar is the glue.

A fingernail of it turns a bland broth savoury with nothing identifiable.

Japanese glutamate on a Vietnamese noodle: the same marine floor, cleaner.

Grated cured roe reads as fish sauce in solid form. Salt, iodine, fat.

Roe melts into hot starch water and the noodle turns to cream and tide.