Talk:Lamian

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It is not mentioned in this article that creating a single long pasta noodle from a lump of dough is a VERY difficult thing to do, and that the kneading process for doing this is largely secret. This is why you cant find authentic la mian anywhere except large metro areas, and there are many immitations.

Learning how to make la mian is an extremely refined and very difficult process. The most similar thing in western culture is throwing pizza dough - and that can take a lifetime to master. Making la mian is even harder. If you are trying to make a pizza crust, anyone can eventually get something circular and flat, even if the dough doesnt have the right consistency. But getting a lump of dough into a long thin strand of noodle which doesnt stick to itself requires far more training, and gives a unique texture to the noodle itself. The dough is well known to achieve a distinct molecular structure which is not achieved otherwise, giving it the strength to be stretched to such long lengths without breaking and getting stuck to itself again.

This fact is completely overlooked by the current article, especially with respect to the difficulty of achieving la mian - People who know how to make it are no simple pasta throwers.