Two hands press the long lever of a wooden noodle press, round buckwheat noodles drop through its holes into a boiling pot, a ball of buckwheat dough rests on a board, and a bowl beside it holds noodles in broth with scallion and shiitake.
Pressed through holes
Introduction
Noodles made by pressing a dough through the holes of a press so that strands come out of them.
Extruded noodles are made by putting a dough into a press with holes and forcing it through, so that strands come out of the holes; hele noodles are made this way. The traditional press is a wooden hele bed with many round holes, and the strands it gives are short and round. Hele dough is often made from oat, buckwheat, sorghum or maize meal. In this class the method comes before the grain, so noodles pressed from these grains belong here; rice noodles and starch noodles may also be pressed or dripped through holes, but their material fixes their method, so they go to rice noodles and starch noodles.