Cold Wheat Noodle Sheets 面皮

Cold Wheat Noodle Sheets (面皮) are thin, chewy sheets served cut and dressed with vegetables and sauces in Huaibei (淮北), Anhui. People's Daily Online reports that in Xiangshan District (相山区), many young women would pick Cold Wheat Noodle Sheets if asked to name one snack that tastes of home. One local version, Zhou family mianpi (周氏面皮), has its making technique on Huaibei's list of intangible cultural heritage.

How it is eaten

A Huaibei Daily feature republished by the Xiangshan district government describes the sheet at one Xiangshan noodle shop as thin but springy, served with shredded cucumber, bean sprouts and wheat gluten (面筋), then dressed with chilli oil, vinegar and sesame paste and tossed until evenly coated. At Minhang's sixth Jiangnan food festival in Shanghai in 2025, Jiefang Daily found the owner at a Huaibei stall cutting and dressing Zhou family mianpi and handing it out bowl by bowl, and called the brand an Anhui time-honoured name.

Where it comes from

The Zhou family mianpi making technique (周氏面皮制作技艺) was one of 19 items on Huaibei's fourth municipal list of intangible cultural heritage, announced in 2020. People's Daily Online names the business as Zhou family A-Lei Brothers (阿磊兄弟) mianpi and reports that it was rated one of the province's 100 key dishes, and a list of 200 featured dishes printed in Anhui Daily in January 2022 includes Huaibei Zhou family mianpi. In 2023 the Huaibei culture bureau took the technique to Anhui's provincial touring heritage exhibition, whose main event opened in Wuhu (芜湖). The Xiangshan district government lists, among its 2024 heritage work, the approval of Zhou family mianpi as the district's first provincial intangible-heritage workshop.