I sometimes buy rice noodles from an Asian grocery, especially since certain sizes (like sheets) are hard to find in dried form, and the finished texture is different. However, I generally find that unless the rice noodles are very fresh (as in made within 24 hours) the tend to stick together as if glued, and tear instead of separating.
I've tried soaking them both in warm water and in cold water to help separate them, but inevitably end up with a bunch of torn noodle bits instead of the nice spongy rice noodles I wanted. Given that selling week-old fresh rice noodles is common across Asian groceries, there must be some way to separate them. What is it?
Update: I'm talking about noodles like this:
Best Answer
I have been hacking at this for a while and when buying the whole un-ribboned sheets I have found the following process to work well:
I place the entire batch of rice noodles on a microwavable plate and cover with plastic wrap. Place in microwave and cook on defrost (power level 3 for my microwave) I do this 2-3 times before flipping the first time, and then alternate as needed. I am touching the edges with my fingers to check for softness. I like 1 inch+ wide noodles as the become soft I cut them, lay them on their edges and separate. This is about 140F degrees. At 147F degrees I found them too plastic and the tor while separating.