Lamian

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Lamian

Lamian being stretched in a Lanzhou-style restaurant in Dongchong

Traditional Chinese:

拉麵

Simplified Chinese:

拉面

Literal meaning:

pulled noodle

Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin:	lāmiàn

Lamian is the name of hand-made or hand-pulled Chinese noodle. It is also the name of the dishes that use these noodles.

1 Etymology and preparation
2 Regional
3 Gallery
4 See also

[edit] Etymology and preparation

Dishes using lamian are usually served in a beef or mutton-flavored soup (湯麵; pinyin: tāngmiàn), but sometimes stir-fried (炒麵; pinyin: chǎomiàn) and served with a tomato-based sauce. Literally, 拉 (lā) means to pull or stretch, while 麵 (miàn) means noodle. The hand-making process involves taking a lump of dough and repeatedly stretching it to produce a single very long noodle.

[edit] Regional

Part of a of articles on Islam in China Chinese Islamic cuisine
Cuisine
Lamian • Chuanr • Yunnan cheese • Beef noodle soup • Suan cai

[edit] China

Small restaurants serving Lanzhou-style lamian are very common in eastern Chinese cities. They tend to serve a variety of low cost meals, with a choice of lamian, 'daoxiaomian' (刀削麵, knife-sliced noodles) and perhaps Xi'an-style 'paomo' (泡饃, steamed bread). Noodles may be served with beef or mutton, either in soup or stir-fried. Many of these lamian restaurants are owned by Hui ethnicity families from Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang^{[citation needed]}, and serve only halal food (thus no pork dishes).

Another typical variety of lamian is Shandong lamian (山东拉面), from the eastern province of Shandong.

[edit] Japan

Lamian was introduced in Japan (Chinatowns of Kobe or Yokohama) during the Meiji era. Ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters lamian (拉麵).