Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles

Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles

　　Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles are a famous specialty of Shiqiao Town, Jianyang City, Ziyang, Sichuan Province. Made with premium and carefully selected ingredients, the noodles are as fine as silk with a hollow center. They do not turn the soup cloudy when cooked, remain firm without breaking, and have a smooth texture. Even when reheated the next day, the cooked noodles taste just as fresh as newly made ones.

　　Shiqiao Ancient Town in Jianyang was once a major stop along Sichuan’s principal thoroughfare, the “East Grand Road,” as well as a bustling land-and-water port thanks to its access to the Tuojiang River. With convenient transportation, it became a prosperous commercial hub early on and was renowned as one of the “Four Great Towns of Sichuan.” It naturally boasts many famous local foods and specialties, but the townspeople have a particular fondness for “noodles.” As the folk rhyme goes, “Jianzhou buns and Shiqiao noodles.” URU

　　“Shiqiao noodles” specifically refer to “Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles,” also known as “high-hanging hand-pulled noodles.” There is a catchy rhyme that goes: Ever since “parting from her husband,” she “dresses up and puts on oil” every morning; befriends two “bachelors,” showing off her “charms” all over; thought it would last “forever and always,” only to be “cut in two by the knife” in the end. URU

　　This folk rhyme, full of humor and exaggeration, likens the strenuous labor involved in making the noodles to a widow’s romantic escapades. In just a few short lines, it vividly depicts the entire process of turning wheat — the raw ingredient — into the finished hand-pulled noodles: URU

　　“Parting from her husband” — the wheat is ground into flour, separated from the bran; “dresses up and puts on oil” — during the dough mixing process, the dough is kneaded and worked on the board, requiring occasional brushing with cooking oil; “bachelors” — after the noodles are shaped, each end is hung on a small stick, and they are placed on a high rack to air-dry, dehydrate, and continue stretching; “showing off her charms” — one stick is inserted into the high rack while the other hangs down below, and the noodles sway gracefully in the wind; “forever and always” — the noodles on the rack stretch from high up toward the sky to down near the ground; “cut in two by the knife” — after a few days of drying, the ends attached to the sticks are cut off, and the noodles are packaged into bundles as finished products. These “common folk” certainly have their own sense of romance, turning the tedious labor into an “ode to noodle-making.” Truly, “artistic works stem from life”! URU

　　Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles are made with premium and carefully selected ingredients, so the noodles are as fine as silk with a hollow center. They do not turn the soup cloudy when cooked, remain firm without breaking, and have a smooth texture. Even when reheated the next day, the cooked noodles taste just as fresh as newly made ones. It is said that in 1959, Marshal Chen Yi, while passing through Jianyang, tasted the Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles and spoke highly of them. URU

　　Historical records indicate that Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles were created during the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Yuan Dynasty. They are handmade, and their ingredients, production methods, and water usage are part of a closely guarded “family secret recipe” passed down only within the family, resulting in very limited production. Because they were rare, they were once tribute items for the imperial court, and in modern times, they were even gifted at the “Great Hall of the People” in the capital. In the 1960s, the Beijing restaurant “Sichuan Hotel” alone received 200 kilograms of them per season. Today, the techniques for making Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles have been made public, with many improvements in both production and packaging. Coupled with refined flour as the raw material, the quality and quantity of Stone Bridge Hand-Pulled Noodles are truly incomparable to those of the past. URU