Kanji Up Close: 麺
Here’s a useful kanji you don’t see in the classroom character lists:
麺 （めん）
Meaning: noodles, particularly those made from wheat flour, including udon, soba, and spaghetti.
Where Seen: Find it on menus at restaurants and cafés everywhere across Japan.
Details: The character is one of the few that uses the mugi (麦) radical, which acts as an enclosure. Inside the enclosure, we have 面 for its phonetic value.
Compounds: Its most useful compound might be 麺棒, “rolling pin”. You can also write ラーメン with three different kanji for the ラー part: 拉麺 (拉 is used for its pronunciation), 老麺, or 柳麺. The first is the most common, but I like 柳麺 (“willow noodle”) myself.
5 months ago