麺 means “noodles”

めん · men

Also: wheat flour

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

むぎこ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

メン, ベン

Taught in secondary school · 16 strokes

The story

Wheat transformed into long strands of comfort: ramen is Japan's soul food, simple yet profound.

The key to ramen (ラーメン), udon (うどん), and soba (蕎麦)

Its parts

• 麦 Wheat · Left side
• 面 Face/surface · Right side

Wheat (麦) rolled flat (面): noodles

More from Food & Dining

• 油 oil
• 酢 vinegar
• 酒 alcohol
• 辛 spicy
• 料 cooking
• 米 rice
• 食 eat
• 魚 fish
• 肉 meat
• 汁 soup
• 塩 salt
• 甘 sweet

Learn 麺 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.