La Mian (pulled noodles)

This is our friend Mi Yang Lu, an ethnic Hui from Qinghai Province. He makes hand-pulled noodles, or 'La Mian' at a diner that serves Halal food. The art of making noodles is an age-old tradition in China. It has long been debated whether the Arabs, the Italians, or the Chinese invented noodles. Recent archaeological findings have put an end to the debate. At the Lajia site on the Yellow River a bowl of 4,ooo year old noodles were found buried under 3 meters of silt. Tests have shown that the noodles were made of millet. Wheat has its origins in the Middle East and made its way to China along the Silk Road. The Chinese initially considered wheat an inferior grain and continued to use millet until the introduction of the Grindstone, which also came to China from the West. The ability to grind wheat into flour made it more convenient to cook with and wheat replaced millet as the staple grain. Some have suggested that Marco Polo learned the art of making noodles while serving in the court of Kublai Khan (13th Century) and took the knowledge back with him to Venice. However, the Arab geographer Idrisi left accounts of a thread-like food called 'triyah' which he saw in Sicily in 1138. Still, spaghetti did not become largely popular in Italy until the 18th Century when machines for mass producing noodles were created in Napoli. Tracing the history of noodles gives us an idea of how goods, ideas, and techniques were exchanged along a trade network that connected Rome to Chang'an.