🍽️ Qingyang Hele Noodle

Loess-plateau pressed noodles.

Qingyang Hele Noodle is a time-honored pressed-noodle dish of the loesy highland around Qingyang, eastern Gansu. A dough of wheat flour, sometimes blended with bean or buckwheat flour, is placed in a wooden or metal press fitted with round holes; a lever forces the dough straight into a pot of boiling water, cutting it into even, springy strands. Toppings range from meaty minced lamb or pork with daylily and wood ear mushroom, to vegetarian sauces of mixed vegetables and tofu. The noodles are hearty and chewy in a wide bowl of warm broth. Qingyang people eat it for breakfast and as a filling main meal, and it carries the unmistakable farming character of the loess plateau as one of the most grounded local flavors of eastern Gansu.