Fushan Hand-Pulled Noodles

Fushan da mian, also called Fushan la mian or hand-pulled noodles, is a traditional noodle craft born in Yantai's Fushan District, prized for its even, repeatedly kneaded and stretched strands that come in three families — solid, hollow and dragon's-beard — with over twenty varieties that may be round, flat or three-cornered.

The craft dates back to the late Ming dynasty, more than four hundred years ago, and grew out of Fushan's banquet customs, first served as a refined noodle course after formal banquets. Fushan is the acknowledged birthplace of Shandong cuisine and the "hometown of chefs," and as Fushan cooks spread across China they carried the noodle craft with them, so that Fushan noodles came to rank alongside the pulled noodles of Lanzhou, the fried-sauce noodles of Beijing and the knife-cut noodles of Shanxi as China's "four great noodle dishes."

A bowl of Fushan noodles prizes springy strands, a fresh savoury sauce and a clear broth, often dressed with a seafood, meat-sauce or three-delicacy topping and mixed hot at the table; the dragon's-beard variety, fine as hair, often appears at banquets or in sweets, while hollow noodles may be filled with soup, each with its own way of eating.

Noodles pulled and folded more than twenty times until each strand will pass through the eye of a needle, together with the Penglai small noodles that grew from the same Fushan tradition, form the twin glories of Jiaodong noodle craft and are its clearest hallmark.