🍽️ Qinghai Liangpi

Chewy cold skin noodles with chili-garlic water.

Qinghai Liangpi is a common cold-skin-noodle snack of Xining, Qinghai, part of the northwest wheat family. Dough is washed to separate gluten; the remaining starch batter is steamed into firm, yellow sheets, cut wide and served with chunks of steamed gluten, dressed with chili oil, garlic water, vinegar and a touch of mustard, topped with shredded cucumber. The skin is springy and slippery, the holey gluten soaks up the sauce, and each bite is hot, sour, aromatic and faintly pungent. Xining locals eat it as a cold dish or snack, refreshing in summer and easily warmed in winter. Along Xining's food streets such as Mo Jia Jie, liangpi is a must-order, and with hand-grabbed mutton and sweet fermented barley it rounds out a full Qinghai table.