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Lanzhou La Mian

Hand-pulled satisfaction in the French Concession - By Michael, Oct 08, 08

I first saw hand-pulled noodles on my first trip to China, ten years ago. I'd never seen anything like it -- a man pulling a ball of dough as wide as his arms, and then twirling it, folding it, and stretching it again, repeating the process rapidly until... boom! Noodles appeared between his fingers. It was magic.

Unfortunately, we were being rushed around by our tour guide, and couldn't stop to try the noodles. I was obsessed with wanting to try la mian for years until I returned to China in 2003. Now I can eat all I want.

But there's been a lack of la mian in the expat haven French Concession, and I've always had to trek out beyond the tree-lined streets of the area to get my hand-pulled fix.

Then, a few weeks ago a new place opened just a two-minute walk around the corner from The Shelter and the JZ Club. It's called Lanzhou La Mian -- the owners are from Qinghai, but who's counting, and the name is pretty generic (that's just the name of the dish) -- but this is really exciting because we needed a good late-night fast munchie option in the neighborhood, and they have a fairly lax closing hour.

Bowls of la mian -- hand-pulled wheat noodles in soup -- cost you 5rmb to 7rmb. Our favorite is with cuts of beef. The noodles, freshly made to order, have a delightfully chewy, elastic bite, from all the pulling. The warm, spicy broth -- you get a small bowl of this on the side if you order non-soup noodles -- has a refreshing spicy-sweet aftertaste, and so you won't mind kissing that date that you just picked up at The Shelter afterwards.

If you're in the need for something more substantial, there's about 20 rice plate options, but we'd recommend sticking to the noodle dishes. Cabbage and beef fried noodles give you a well-balanced meal (10rmb) or go for the green chili and beef noodles (12rmb) if you need to sweat from the spice. Noodles with green onions (10rmb) are delicious, but no kissing after that!

We've been to a lot of la mian places and this one is as good as we've found so far. It's fast, cheap, yummy, and probably healthier than other street- or fast-food options.

Remember that this is a "Hui" Muslim restaurant, and you'll need to respect the no alcohol policy.

Which is fine, ‘cause maybe you need to sober up anyway.

Lanzhou La Main: 249 Wuyuan Lu, between Yongfu Lu and Wulumuqi Lu.

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