### Overview Quick disclaimer: I looooooove rice noodles... but they can be quite finicky to cook! I have had consistently good results following the advice outlined below, so even if some of it seems a little nitpicky I'd encourage you to oblige. Rice noodles are traditionally served in soups and stir-frys and come in a variety of widths from thin vermicelli to flat broad noodles and even sheets. Recently there has been a number of rice-based substitutes pop up for ramen noodles and even western pasta shapes as well, however I have not found any that have been particularly exciting. For the sake of this article, I will only be referring to the traditional translucent dried kind that you can find at most asian stores. I will say as well that rice noodles can be quite finicky to cook, so ### Products I don't have much of a brand preference here, but I would generally advise against anything you see in a typical American grocery store. There may be a decent brand out there, but personally I have never had anything but disasterous results from anything purchased outside an asian market. So... go to your local asian market! they will likely have a variety of shapes and sizes of dried rice noodles and you can grab whichever ones look good. I typically go for wider ones for stir fry and thinner ones for soup (with the exception of Singapore Noodles, which I will post a recipe here for at some point). Look for products that have only "rice" or "rice and water" listed as ingredients. You will occasionally find some "fresh" refrigerated rice noodles as well. I've had mixed results here, and never anything that was noticeably better than good dried ones, so I'd advise against messing with them overall. They typically have additives for shelf-stabilization as well. ### Preparation There are generally four ways to go about cooking rice noodles. I'm listing them below from worst to best: 1. Cooking them like wheat pasta - Don't do this. It won't work. It won't even work a little bit. You will end up with a gloopy gross mess and it will make you sad. 2. Follow the instructions on the package - This is what most internet recipes will tell you to do. It works about half of the time and I secretly think it's just a cop-out so that recipe writers get to pass the buck on their readers' sub-par results. 3. Use a noodle basket - The main issue with rice noodles is that they go from uncooked to complete mush with a very thin margin for error. If you are going to go the more traditional "pot of boiling water" rout, using a noodle basket can at least help you check your doneness easily and often, and get all the noodles out together when the time comes. Essentially, just bring a big pot of water up to a boil, put your noodles in your basket, and drop them in the pot until they're finished. You can pair this with a 30- to 60-minute pre soak as well for less touchy results. In any case, pull your noodles when you think they are about 85% to 90% done, and you can arrest their cooking by running cold water over them in a strainer if needed. 4. Hot water soak - This is my preference 99% of the time. It will be MUCH more forgiving than the other methods, and though it can take a little longer for wider noodle shapes I think it tends to save time overall vs presoaking and boiling. Basically, put the noodles in the smallest container that will fit them, boil some water in a kettle, and poor them over the noodles so that they are covered. Then just let them sit, and check every 5 minutes or so. Thinner noodles like vermicelli will tend be done right around when you first check them, where as wider noodles may require 30 minutes or so. If you have a particularly wide or stubborn variety, you can dump the water if it starts to cool down and then refill (or just top-off) with new boiling water. Once again, pull them a little before they feel done, keeping in mind that they are probably going to go into hot soup or a stir-fry and cook a little bit further. ### Further Reading [[Chicken Pho (from Gá Pop-Up)]]