Lamian

Key takeaways

Lamian belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lamian to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lamian from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lamian (traditional Chinese: 拉麵; simplified Chinese: 拉面; pinyin: Lāmiàn; "pulled noodles") is a type of soft wheat flour handmade Chinese noodle that is particularly common in northern China. Lamian is made by twisting, stretching and folding the dough into strands, using the weight of the dough. The length and thickness of the strands depends on the number of times the dough is folded.

History The unique method of making lamian noodles originated in China. The earliest description of making lamian noodles with the pulling technique is found in the Songshi Yangsheng Bu (宋氏養生部), a dietary manual written in 1504 by Song Xu (宋詡), an agriculturalist and gastronomer of the Ming dynasty. Though the Japanese Chinese dish ramen (ラーメン, rāmen) does not derive from lamian, the name is known to be a borrowing; it remains unclear how ramen ended up with that name. The Korean variety of instant noodles, ramyeon (라면), derives its name from the Japanese, and therefore also has its roots in the name lāmiàn.

Description

The hand-making process involves taking a lump of dough and repeatedly stretching it to produce many strands of thin, long noodle. Literally, lā, (拉) means to pull or stretch, while miàn (traditional Chinese: 麵; simplified Chinese: 面) means noodle. There are several styles of twisting the dough but they all employ the same concept: a piece of soft wheat dough is repeatedly stretched and folded onto itself in order to align the glutens and warm up the dough for stretching. Then it is rolled out to a workable thickness and cut into workable portions. The end pieces of the starting dough are never used because the glutens are not as aligned as the middle pieces. This dough is then pulled to about an arm span's length. The puller then makes a loop with the dough, joining the two ends into one clump of dough and inserts his fingers into the loop to keep the strand from sticking to itself. Doing this, the pull has doubled the length of the dough while fractioning its thickness. This process is repeated several times until the desired thickness and quantity is achieved. Some pullers dip the strands into flour between stretching phases to keep them separated. When flour is used, there generally is a final slap of noodles against the prep board to remove excess flour. In the Lanzhou style, the dough is worked aggressively. It is pulled in straight, quick, tugs with no twisting or waving. Some pullers regularly slam the noodle against their prep boards to ensure even stretching and uniform thickness. Flour is sometimes used to dust the strands and prevent sticking. In the Beijing style of preparation, the dough is twisted, stretched delicately by waving the arms and body, untwisted, looped to double the strands and then repeated. When stretching, they coordinate waving their torso and arms to increase the potential length of the noodle beyond that of the puller's arm span. Flour dusting is more liberally employed in this style than in the Lanzhou style of preparation. There is also another style, in which the noodle maker stretches one thick, flat strand of dough between two hands. This is usually done for show and involves the puller twirling and spinning much like Chinese ribbon dancing.

Usage Dishes using lamian are usually served in a beef-flavored soup called tangmian (Chinese: 湯麵; pinyin: Tāngmiàn, literally 'soup noodles'). However, they are sometimes stir-fried and served with a sauce as a dish called chaomian (Chinese: 炒麵; pinyin: Chǎomiàn, literally 'stir-fried noodles'). This word is etymologically related to chow mein though the dish itself is different.

Region

China

Small restaurants serving Lanzhou-style lamian are very common throughout Western China where they have formed a staple diet for centuries, as well as Eastern Chinese cities. They tend to serve a variety of low cost meals, with a choice of lamian, knife-cut noodles and perhaps Xi'an-style paomo (steamed bread dipped in soup). Noodles may be served with beef or mutton, either in soup or stir-fried. Lamian can also be served cold with salad ingredients such as shredded cucumber and tomato to make a refreshing summer dish. Most of the lamian restaurants in China are owned by Hui ethnic families from Northwestern China and serve only halal food (thus no pork dishes). Lamian restaurants are the most common halal restaurants in Eastern China. Another typical variety of lamian is Shandong lamian, produced in Yantai, Shandong Province.

United States In New York's Manhattan and Sunset Park Chinatowns, lamian restaurants are a common sight. Most are run by Fuzhounese, some featuring knife-cut noodles, but most featuring only the hand-pulled versions. In Manhattan Chinatown, most are located in the Fuzhounese area of Chinatown east of Bowery, while in Sunset Park, sometimes referred to as Fuzhou Town, they are scattered along the 8th Avenue strip.

Philippines Filipino Chinatown restaurants serve lamian, which somewhat resembles the popular local pancit canton of Filipino cuisine.

Germany Munich and Frankfurt am Main have Chinese restaurants specialized in serving lamian, located near their respective main train stations.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lamian

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lamian claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lamian before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lamian ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lamian

In research: Lamian appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lamian in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lamian is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Chinese inventions, Chinese noodles, Noodle dishes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lamian outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Lamian in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lamian means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lamian out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lamian in simple terms?

Lamian (traditional Chinese: 拉麵; simplified Chinese: 拉面; pinyin: Lāmiàn; "pulled noodles") is a type of soft wheat flour handmade Chinese noodle that is particularly common in northern China. Lamian is made by twisting, stretching and folding the dough into strands, using the weight of the dough.

Why does Lamian matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lamian?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lamian.