Baotou Naked-Oat Noodles

Baotou naked-oat noodles are made from naked-oat flour, scalded with boiling water and shaped by hand into many forms—little fish, hollow rolls, stacked coils or stirred cakes—then steamed and dipped in a lamb-and-mushroom sauce or served cold, chewy and smooth with a deep grain aroma.

Naked-oat noodles are a traditional staple of the borderland of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, spreading widely into the Hetao and Baotou regions with the westward migrants. Baotou people eat them in countless ways, choosing different shapes and sauces by season and taste, carrying the food memory of where farming and herding meet at the foot of the Yin Mountains.

The steamed oat hollows or little fish are arranged on a plate and drenched in freshly fried lamb-and-mushroom sauce, or mixed with garlic paste, sesame paste or hot-and-sour dressing and eaten hot—warm with a hot sauce in winter, or cool and dressed in summer.

The many hand-shaped forms, the toasty aroma peculiar to naked oats and the richness of the lamb-and-mushroom sauce are the most beguiling traits of Baotou naked-oat noodles.