Thickness to soak time and texture - dried rice noodles vary wildly in required soaking time, and under-soaked noodles break during stir-fry.
Pick thickness, form (dry/fresh/frozen), water temp, and cooking method. The card shows soak time and method.
Rice noodle brands vary 3x in soak requirement. A 1 mm mei fun soaks in 20 min; a 10 mm shahe fen needs 40 minutes cold. Recipes usually say soak until soft without calibrating.
Anyone whose rice noodles broke during stir-fry. Cooks confused by conflicting soak times on the package vs in recipes. Pho lovers trying to nail the texture.
Soak time scales linearly with thickness and inversely with water temperature. Cold water: 4 hours per mm of thickness. Hot water: 3 min per mm. Test by biting - if there's a hard core, soak longer; if it breaks cleanly with no white core, you're done.
Old dried noodles take longer than fresh dried noodles. Check for white core. The "spring roll wrapper" use case requires fully drained, dry noodles - oversoaked ones won't roll tight.
Why brittle? Brand too thin or under-soaked.
Why mushy? Over-soaked or cooked too long.
Can I use boiling water? Yes for 3 mm and thinner; risky for thicker noodles.