Eble gourmet: Ramen, Noodle, mee...

Ramen, La Mian or "Elongated Noodle" in Mandarin (拉面)

It is an art indeed to see a skillful chef prepare the noodle out of a big lump of dough. It has many styles of cooking and can be very different from Northern, Western or Southern parts of China.

Yunan Mi Xian (云南米线)

Originated from the Yunan Highland of Southern China, it implies the thread spawn out from rice. The noodle soup is characterized by a thin layer of oil to maintain its heat as the Creator of this famous food need to send it to her scholar husband studying distance away from home. The ingredients varied from mushrooms, meat slices, meat balls, vegetables, celery etc.

Dried La Mian (干捞拉面)
Another way of presenting the La Mian with seasoned sauce, chili, beef or mutton slices, spring onion, fried small onions etc.

Lan Zhou La Mian (兰州拉面)

This is a 'Halal' food for Muslim, many restaurants in the cities all over the mainland China are run by Muslim minorities from western China. I love to eat noodle. When I feel the need for a hot bowl of soup and noodle, Lan Zhou restaurant is where I will head to. Take one bite of the noodles and you will see how different they are from what you are used too (machine-made). This freshly hand made La Mian is prepared by the chef instantly, usually at one of the corner in the restaurant, the 'Gong Fu' (skills) of making the dough to divinely soft and pleasing light noodle lace guaranteed you to enjoy a tasty mouthful treat.

Who can resist the temptation of smell and steaming noodles?

Fried La Mian (干炒拉面)
It is a bit spicy to suit westerner taste bud, but most Asian love spicy food, especially Malaysian and Thai people. Apart from the noodle, I ordered beef fried rice and fried vegetable at this Muslim Lan Zhou restaurant.

Photo taken by Eble Lai, June 2006, China, Hang Zhou. A man selling Chinese pancake.