Which are still most commonly served in a soup though. You know I'm right!

Long before paper, gunpowder and the compass, the Chinese had invented yet another staple of human civilization. A coil of dry noodles, preserved for 4,000 years, sat beneath an overturned earthenware bowl at an archaeological site in northeastern China. In 2005, archaeologists discovered the spaghettilike tangle, effectively settling the score about whether the Chinese, Italians or Arabs began producing pasta first [source: BBC].

Instead of being made from ground wheat, as most pasta is, those ancient noodles were prepared from another cereal grass called millet. Although not native to their country, the Chinese later began growing wheat in the northern regions along the Yellow River by 3000 B.C. The first written records of a mixture called bing appeared between the fourth and second century B.C. [s­ource: Serventi, Sabban and Shugaar]. Bing referred to all products made from wheat dough, including breads and pastas. Around 300 B.­C., the Chinese scholar Shu Xi wrote an ode dedicated to the culinary cornerstone, describing the "fine and thin" bing stuffed with pork and mutton [source: Serventi, Sabban and Shugaar].

­By the time Marco Polo arrived in China in 1274, the Chinese had well established their pasta cuisine. The medieval Chinese didn't cook pasta from dried strands, like the kind we buy from the grocery store. Instead, theirs always was made from fresh dough. They also isolated gluten, the compound in wheat that provides elasticity for kneading and stretching, and created pastas from different starches, such as rice and soybeans.

In the 17 years that Marco Polo ­spent in China, dining with the likes of Kublai Khan, he certainly sampled the various forms of Asian pasta. According to one edition of Marco Polo's "Description of the World," which the Venetian merchant wrote after returning home from the East, he ate dishes similar to macaroni during his stint. From that brief mention, a legend arose that the famed explorer must've introduced pasta to Italy. What else could explain the gastronomical bridge between two distant countries?

But as any gourmand worth an ounce of orzo will quickly tell you, there isn't a grain of truth to Polo as the pasta pioneer.

Marco Polo was 17 years in China.

Article by: Cristen Conger

I do believe wonton are served in soup, if memory serves me correct. Jiaozi as you can said can be served boiled, or fried, as in the case of cooking japanese style.

Chinese fried dumplings are called 'guotie' (first tone and neutral) but there may be other fried varieties that i don't know about. We should ask our resident Mandarin-fluent posters-SB, Turnoi, O'Shei, what they(if exist) are called hahaha. Wot famous poster said this? "Just cos I grope your knee and leer don't mean you don't have to pay for your own guotie" -Well said, San Migs.

I do believe wonton are served in soup, if memory serves me correct. Jiaozi as you can said can be served boiled, or fried, as in the case of cooking japanese style.

MSG or msg may refer to: Monosodium glutamate, a common food additive.

Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton.

One is boiled and the other is steamed but they are both dumplings- what's all the fuss about?

Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton.

Expensive: a big mac is about $2,00 US dollars. Only rich chinese can afford to eat there often.

Fast-food brands, such as McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Yonghe King, Malan Noodles, Kungfu and Yoshinoya, are doing well with many stores and franchised stores, located in virtually every commercial and leisure area in Beijing. These fast-food brands have become the natural choice for office workers, shoppers and urbanites. The store’s convenience and close location helped them become food brands of choice. But many customers naturally feel fed up by the same food, the same brand and the same store every day. They expect new brands and new stores to open in their area, or new varieties of food. If none are available, they are forced to return to their old restaurants again and again. In the fiercely competitive food market, any fast-food brand could be chosen or ignored by diners, depending on food and service quality. For fast-food brands, innovation is key to business expansion, particularly innovation in operations and food variety.

Written by Zhang Yiwen

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Picture: Kungfu Fast Food in China