On a stone slab two hands roll thin pressed sheets of oat dough into little rolls, a few finished ones lie beside them, rows of upright rolls steam in a steamer, a bowl of dipping broth sits beside it, and oat ears lie in front.
Buckwheat, oats and other grains
Introduction
Noodles and similar foods whose main material is a coarse grain such as buckwheat, oat or maize.
Coarse-grain noodles are noodles and similar foods made mainly from a grain other than wheat or rice, such as buckwheat, oat, sorghum or maize. Youmian is food made from flour milled from naked oats. Oat noodles are fairly common in central and western Inner Mongolia, northern Shanxi, western Hebei, northern Shaanxi and Yanqing in Beijing, with forms such as kaolaolao. The class is set by material: it holds a noodle only when the grain itself is what defines it; coarse-grain noodles shaped by pressing are classed as extruded noodles in this scheme.