Pretty Cool Noodles

陳延亮

中國的面條中最有代表性的當數山西面條了。吃過山西面條的人也會有“余味繞梁，三日不絕”之感。山西面條種類之多，口味之多，花樣之多，令人難忘。下面就說說山西的“酷”面吧。

Chinese noodles have a long history. They are served to celebrate holidays and birthdays. You can boil them， stir-fry them， or fry them. Shanxi produces different kinds of noodles， such as lamian， daoxiao noodles， tijian noodles， and yigen noodles， all of which are Shanxi specialities. Just look how well the chef handles the dough. Pretty cool， right？ But the skill is not as easy as it looks.

The important thing about lamian is to use equal force， and the two hands must work together smoothly. The left hand makes a twirl， and then the right hand makes a twirl in a smooth movement. This is the last step to make the force， and a lot of patience in order to stretch the noodles out long and thin.

Yigen noodles is one of the traditional Shanxi noodle styles， one of the essential dishes for holidays and birthdays. It not only tastes delicious， but also has a lot of lucky meanings. In the bowl is just one long noodle， and even the noodles in the cooking pot are made up of just one long noodle. Yigen noodles is the king of Shanxi noodles.

中國的面條有著悠久的歷史，你可以在過節和過生日的時候吃，你可以煮著吃，炒著吃，煎著吃。山西的面條更是博采眾長，刀削面、剔尖面、一根面都是山西最有代表性的面條，你看廚師手中的面，不停地變換著花樣。夠酷的吧？這可都是真功夫，可沒有看起來那么簡單。

拉面的重點不光要用力均勻，還要雙手巧妙地配合，左轉一圈，再右轉一圈，這樣面才能拉得好。這最后一步就更加關鍵了，不但要用力均勻，還要有耐心，這樣才能拉出又細又長的面來。

“一根面”是山西的經典面食之一，是節日里和生日宴上必不可少的主食。味道香美，而且還包含著美好的祝愿，不僅碗里是一根面，而且一大鍋面條也可以只是一根。這可是山西面條之王。