 Wheat wasn't widely cultivated until the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE).American food writer and author of "On the Noodle Road" Jen Lin-Liu notes that documentation of what can be clearly described noodles came about much later on the western side of the world than in China, although she stresses she doesn't exclude the possibility of two independent inventions.The earliest documentation describes small bits of bread dough thrown into a wok of boiling water, eaten even today as mian pian.