Wudu Cold Rice Noodle Strips 武都米皮

Wudu Cold Rice Noodle Strips (武都米皮) are sheets of steamed rice batter cut into strips and dressed, a street snack of Wudu (武都) in Longnan (陇南), Gansu. The Wudu district government lists mipi among the town's famous local snacks and describes it as a meeting of the southern habit of eating rice and the northern habit of eating noodles.

How it is made

Rice is soaked and ground into a batter. The cook ladles a measure of batter onto the cloth of a steamer basket, spreads it evenly and builds the steamer up layer on layer, nine layers in all. After only two or three minutes the hot sheets are turned out onto the chopping board, cut into thin strips with a few strokes of the knife and put straight into the bowl.

Flavour and texture

Gansu Daily's New Gansu (新甘肃) describes the warm strips as soft yet springy, with a clear smell of rice.

How it is eaten

The Wudu district government places mipi among the breakfast foods of Wudu and says that in spring, summer, autumn and winter alike it is always on local menus, with mipi stalls in streets and lanes all over town. The newspaper Wenhui Bao (文汇报) notes that in Wudu mipi is often lumped together with mianpi (wheat sheets), potato jiaotuan (洋芋搅团) and youmiancha (油面茶) under the single name liangfen (凉粉), so that the question 'have you had your liangfen?' (凉粉吃了没) makes Wudu people smile.

Where it comes from

Mipi is also made in Shaanxi, Henan and other parts of Gansu. Chinese Wikipedia names Wudu mipi, together with the mipi of Qinzhen (秦镇), Hanzhong (汉中) and Wen County (文县), as the best-known versions.