Noodle

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For other uses, see Noodle (disambiguation).

Image:Making noodles.jpg A noodle is a thin strip of pasta, usually cut or extruded from some kind of dough. It is the basic unit in dishes like spaghetti, linguine, soba, and udon. The term often refers to moist, cooked pasta, since it has connotations of curviness and slipperiness, but also to dried noodles that must be reconstituted by boiling or soaking in water. The word noodle derives from Latin nodus (knot), via German Nudel (noodle, pasta).

The Chinese, Arab and Italian peoples all claimed to have been the first to create this string-like food, though the first written account of noodles is from the East Han Dynasty between 25 and 220 CE. In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were found at the Lajia site (Qijia culture) along the Yellow River in Qinghai, China. The 4000-year-old noodles were made from millet. <ref>Oldest noodles unearthed in China, BBC News, 12 October 2005</ref>