Qinshui Pressed Noodles 沁水饸饹

Qinshui Pressed Noodles (沁水饸饹) are hele (饸饹), noodles pressed from dough, as cooked in Qinshui (沁水) in the Jincheng (晋城) area of Shanxi. The Jincheng city government presents two Qinshui versions: dry-fried hele (沁水干炒饸饹) and hele in quick-boiled soup (沁水汆汤饸饹), both made from local wheat flour.

How it is made

The Chengqu district government (城区) of Jincheng describes hele making in general: the dough is pushed through a hele press (饸饹床) straight into the pot and simmered for five minutes. For the soup version, the Jincheng city government lists slices of pork belly, Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, tofu and stock among the ingredients cooked with the noodles.

Flavour and texture

In the city government's description, dry-fried hele has long, thin, smooth noodles, golden in colour, with a chewy bite and a fresh, clean taste. The soup version is also described as chewy and fresh-tasting.

Where it comes from

The Jincheng city government calls both dishes Qinshui specialities. In the 2024 Jincheng catering awards, which named 50 Jincheng dishes, Qinshui dry-fried hele and Qinshui quick-boiled soup hele were both among the 30 listed as traditional famous snacks (传统名吃).