Hand-pulled and stretched Chinese wheat noodles (SFBA/Norcal)

And the dinner soup noodles too.

A companion thread is at Hand cut, knife-shaved, and other Chinese wheat noodles (SFBA/Norcal) --The discussion there is about
fresh wheat noodles formed with the help of rolling pins, knives, scissors, extruding devices, and other people powered specialized tools.

The current Bourdain piece on Okinawa reminded me of this think-piece, “Research on
the History and Production of Lye-kneaded Wheat Noodle as Part of Okinawan Traditional Food Culture.”

“Lye kneading” refers to burning certain types of plants and mixing their ashes with flour, and was the original method of producing alkaline noodles. The has been found in only three places in the world, Lanzhou (China), Chiang Mai (Thailand) and Okinawa. It apparently originated in Lanzhou and was exported by Hakka Chinese.

Great pic from right now of a woman making laghman in Kashgar, by my Shanghai correspondent Fiona Reilly.

Imperial Tea Court in the Ferry Building has wide “hand stretched noodles.” They were out or them today.

Sichuan fusion in El Cerrito/Richmond has seven varieties of noodles and you have a choice of chow mein or knife shaved noodles. It’s been years since I’ve been there – – how are the noodles these days?

The toppings are beef, chicken, combination, Pork, seafood, shrimp, and a variety of not seeing on a menu before, tomato beef.

There are positive reports of their food in general Best bites 2015 [SF Bay Area] , so please start another thread if you have Intel on this place. One dish they list on their menu that I’ve not seen elsewhere is Sichuan yacai chicken, which lists pickled mustard stems and rice powder as ingredients

Tomato beef chow mein used to be a staple in Chinese-American restaurants. I think Sam Wo still has it.

yes, tomato beef chow mein was invented in SF iirc. the version with knife shaved noodles is what I was referring to as unique

My point is that a combination of tomato and beef is not unusual in Chinese cuisine. It’s widespread in Taiwanese beef noodle soups, and in Shanghai’s “Russian” soup (albeit with potatoes, not noodles).

My understanding from your post was that is was a DIY option in a matrix of mix-and-match possibilities. Once you’ve done it it’s no longer unique :smile:

[quote=“Souperman, post:17, topic:758”] My point is that a combination of tomato and beef is not unusual in Chinese cuisine. It’s widespread in Taiwanese beef noodle soups, and in Shanghai’s “Russian” soup (albeit with potatoes, not noodles).

My understanding from your post was that is was a DIY option in a matrix of mix-and-match possibilities. Once you’ve done it it’s no longer unique :smile: [/quote]

Oh, gotcha! On that note, let’s not forget that there’s at least one other tomato and beef dry-style noodle dish out there— Uyghur laghman with tomatoes and beef! (I’m guessing that one doesn’t use ketchup like in tomato beef chow mein)

L & L Seafood on San Pablo in El Cerrito has crispy noodles (Hong Kong style?) with tomato and beef.

I haven’i tried Sam Wo’s, but the TBCM I was fond of in the 60s (I think is was at Sun Tai Sam Yuen on Jackson St.) was stir-fried with big chunks of tomato. I don’t recall ketchup in it at all.

At China Village now they updated the menu to include a variety of dishes made with hand cut noodles. One of them, hand cut noodles with spicy fish, was one we have been enjoying for a while but wasn’t on the dinner menu (I believe it was on the lunch menu) but we would special order it. It’s really a satisfying dish. The list also includes hand cut noodles with spicy ribs which I am anxious to try.

Try them with the beer-braised duck sometime. That blew me away.

Despite the server telling me before I ordered them but they were hand pulled, Cafe Tibet’s Then Thuk are no longer hand pulled. They’re cut into rhombus shapes.

The server said that customers weren’t so happy with the inconsistent shapes, and it is more laborious to hand pull than slice them. That’s a shame-- the rustic inconsistency carries the sauce better. If the kitchen isn’t too busy, he said they’ll pull them by hand but you’ll have to be insistent.

Try Tashi Delek in El Cerrito. The Thain Thuk there were obviously hand torn when I had them.

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Is anyone else rather disappointed with China Village since the revival after the fire?

I’ve only been two or three times, but my local sources have been grumbling as well.

I thought they were amazing when they first reopened, but then went downhill – lunches are really poor. However, I went back a week ago for dinner and they seem to be trying again and the quality was fairly good…

It’s interesting how difficult consistency seems to be. When King Tsin opened with China Village defectors it was amazing for a few weeks and then just spiraled down and now seems to be out of business.

King Tsin, now Sichuan Styles, is still open. I had an excellent cumin lamb dish for lunch, and there were lots of other people there. A chonquin chicken dish at the next table looked fantastic.

I’ll have to check it out. Any reason why they changed the name? Was there a change of management too?