Flat rice noodles

Flat rice noodles are made by steaming rice batter into a thin sheet and cutting it into ribbons. In Vietnam they are bánh phở, in Thailand sen lek, sen yai and kuaitiao. The word kuaitiao comes from the Teochew dialect: Chinese immigrants brought noodles to Siam.

The Thai description given by the Royal Society of Thailand runs like this. Non-glutinous rice with high amylose, 27–33 %, and old rice that has been stored at least eight months, is the best raw material. It is soaked, ground and strained, the thin batter is steamed into a clear sheet that is peeled off, aired, oiled so it does not stick, and cut. Fresh sen yai is about 1 mm thick and 6–10 mm wide, fresh sen lek 1–1.5 mm thick and 3–4 mm wide. Sen lek dried to 10–22 % moisture is called sen chan and keeps long. A Chinese study of fresh wet rice noodles reached a similar conclusion: rice with 26–28 % amylose gave the best texture.

Vietnamese bánh phở is made from non-glutinous rice and water; a thin layer of batter is steamed for about a minute on cloth over a pot, cooled, folded and cut. Restaurants in Vietnam almost always use fresh bánh phở, while dried is for home kitchens and export. Widths run from 2 to 10 mm. Phở emerged in northern Vietnam in the early twentieth century, and in 2024 Hanoi phở was added to the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

In Thailand kuaitiao is a dish defined by method: boiled and dressed is called dry, with broth 'water', and stir-fried is fried. Classic pad thai is made with rice noodles; in the eastern coastal version, pad thai sen chan, thin sen chan noodles are used.

Why it matters to you. Fresh noodles hold a lot of water and spoil fast, so do not keep them warm. A 2026 study in the Journal of Food Protection links food poisoning from wet rice noodles to the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli pv. cocovenenans, whose growth and toxin production depend on temperature and time.