Mishan Grilled Noodle Sheets 密山烤冷面

Mishan Grilled Noodle Sheets (密山烤冷面) are sheets of cold noodles grilled over charcoal in Mishan (密山), Jixi (鸡西), Heilongjiang, which the Mishan city government presents as the place where grilled cold noodles (烤冷面) began.

How it is made

Mishan keeps the original charcoal method. The noodle sheet is clamped into an iron grate (铁帘), set over the coals and brushed with oil and seasoning, and the Mishan city government says the result is softer than the Harbin version.

The version now sold across China is the griddle method worked out in Harbin. Oil goes on a hot plate, the sheet is laid on it and a raw egg is cracked over it; the sheet is turned, sauce is brushed on the side without egg, and coriander, onion and other toppings go on, with ham sausage as an option. White sugar and mature vinegar (陈醋) go on last, and the sheet is cut up with a spatula and served in a bowl.

Where it comes from

Grilled cold noodles were on sale in Mishan by about 1996, while Harbin night-market regulars remember first eating them there no earlier than 2007. A charcoal stall near Mishan No. 2 Middle School (密山市第二中学) is generally accepted as the earliest.

Local accounts credit a lamb-skewer seller outside that school. On his way to his stall each day he passed a cold-noodle factory, took a piece of noodle sheet, threaded it on a skewer, brushed it with his skewer seasoning and grilled it over the charcoal as a snack to go with his drink. A neighbour's child tasted it and took some to school, and the next day several students came to his stall asking for it by name, so he began selling it that same day. Within about ten days it was sold outside several middle schools in Mishan, and within a month the whole city was eating it.