Two hands stretch dough into long strands that hang into a pot boiling over the fire, coiled dough ropes lie on the floured table, and a plate on the right holds thick pulled noodles topped with stir-fried meat and green peppers.
Stretched by hand
Introduction
Noodles made by stretching a dough by hand, often folding it and stretching it again many times, into strands thick or fine.
Hand-pulled noodles are made by stretching a mixed dough by hand into strands; many methods fold the dough and stretch it again, many times over, until it is fine. They are also called lamian, chenmian or shoulamian, and a thicker kind is called latiaozi in Xinjiang and Central Asia. The craft of making dragon-whisker pulled noodles is on the national list of intangible cultural heritage together with knife-shaved noodles. This class covers the pulling method; noodles cut or shaved with a knife, or rolled out and then cut, are classed elsewhere.