Lanzhou Niangpi (Steamed Wheat Sheets)

Niangpi is a cold snack of thick steamed sheets made from wheat starch washed free of gluten, cut into wide strips and dressed with wheat gluten, sesame paste, garlic, mustard, chilli oil and vinegar; the Lanzhou style has thick, slippery sheets under a forceful dressing.

Niangpi is eaten across the northwest of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai; in Lanzhou the mingling of Hui and Han foodways produced a sharp, mustard- and sesame-heavy dressing, and it became one of the commonest summer street and night-market snacks, said to have been popular on Lanzhou streets already in the late Qing and early Republic.

Cut and dressed to order, the wide strips and wheat gluten share a bowl, the seasoning stirred through for a chewy bite in which heat, sourness and mustard arrive together, most often a cooling afternoon snack or late-night bite, often paired with a cup of sanpaotai covered-bowl tea.

The thick, chewy sheets, the forceful mustard-and-sesame dressing, and the seasoning born of Hui-Han exchange are what set Lanzhou niangpi apart from versions elsewhere.