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Comment by tronje | Hacker News Reader

Do you think Su Filindeu tastes much different from any other pasta prepared with sheep broth and pecorino? It seems like it should, given the huge amount of work going into it, but since the ingredients are so simple, it also seems like it shouldn't make a huge difference...

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Absolutely.

I'm not in Italy but in China. 'Lamian' or literally 'pulled noodles' are a staple dish for my own and colleagues lunches on most days. Staples in North China are largely wheat or corn based.

Dough is usually pre-kneaded to the consistency the chef prefers. 'Cut' is then done by pulling, doubling-up, re-pulling, etc, until reaching the right thickness that the stand desires.

The article mentions su filindeu as being thin and stretched, with drying into a web-like layered structure. This is certainly going to be interesting and a bit different.

But this process of pulling and cutting varies chef-by-chef. Arguments break out a lunch between colleagues who prefer 'thin' noodles vs 'regular' vs 'think'. Going to a single place and ordering a preference just doesn't work. 'thin' where a chef makes the dough thick may be thin in diameter, but not in mouth texture. 'thick' (or wide and thick) in a restaurant that provides regular or thinly kneaded dough just doesn't feel satisfyingly chewy in a restaurant that doesn't routinely serve a thicker dough - not enough chew.

And then there's the flour used.

The difference that technique brings is huge. Liken it to bread: flour with a consistent level of ¬14-15g of protein (similar to flour used for pasta, though usually different type) per 100g can result in remarkably different breads depending on kneading, resting, forming, and remarkably more techniques.

Out of curiosity, are you using ¬ to represent "approximately" in place of the ~ (tilde) symbol? The only place I've ever encountered the ¬ symbol is in formal logic, where it represents [not].

Typo.

US keyboard in UK mode, pressing the key marked ~ resulted in ¬.

I love lamian. It's hard to find in the US (especially here in Minnesota) but there's one Szechuan place near that does a really nice dish with that type of noodles in chili vinegar sauce with crushed peanuts.

Where, please. Really good Chinese in MN is hard to find.

There are a few good places in the Twin Cities area. The ones my wife (from Taiwan) and I really like are Little Szechuan, The Tea House Restaurant, Evergreen (but don't order the American Chinese food, obviously), Grand Szechuan (great veg dumplings made in house), and the cafe in United Noodles.

I love Evergreen's three cup tofu and eggplant enough that I figured out how to make it at home now that I don't live three blocks away :-P

I'm in MN too. What is the restaurant called?

I'd guess Little Szechuan[1]. Note that the original University Ave location in St Paul is now hot pot only.

1: http://littleszechuan.com

Actually, the Tea House nearby. I _think_ it's lamian. At least it has that super chewy texture. I have no idea if they're fresh made or not, though. Still, about as good as you're going to get in the area, I think.

I was curious and went to look up lamian on Wikipedia. Found a link on the page for chow mein, which I followed out of curiosity. It was fascinating to see the way Minnesota chow mein was singled out as particularly bad. Unfortunately in my experience it's absolutely true. That was my introduction to Chinese food as a kid, so sometimes I'll have a little for nostalgia, but in the end it disappoints. I think if I had some that was well prepared I would be in heaven, as in the movie Ratatouille.

You can see here how difficult it is to make.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaeyFyQemDw

Basically, Ramsay (not really a slouch at cooking) is trying to make lamain and he's getting a huge bitching out by the existing chef who tell him it's going to take him ten years to get good at it.

I think this video is a good counterpoint to when Ramsay is outclassed, knows it, and is respectful.

You're forgetting another way to process the noodles. Knife cut (刀削). That gives a completely different mouth feel and form factor.

That's my favorite kind of noodle, and it's hard to find in the states in general, as it takes a long time to get good at it and you generally don't batch make the noodles.

I didn't taste it yet, but texture and preparation affect a lot the taste of pasta, in general.

Also, this is made with semolina flour, which is different (and much better IMHO) from the flour used to make pasta usually (in Italy and in the rest of the world).

Durum wheat is used to make both pasta and semolina.

I wouldn't call semolina unusual at all. De Cecco [1], probably the best of the bigger Italian brands, makes all their pasta products with 100% semolina (pasta di semola di grano duro). Bigger, cheaper brands such as Barilla use either the lower-grade durum flour or a mix of semolina and flour.

(For those confused with the terminology: Both come from durum wheat, but semolina is milled more coarsely from the bran, whereas durum flour is everything else, milled to a finer flour.

[1] http://www.dececco.it/us_us/

You're very right, and thanks for the detailed clarification!

I got confused with the terminology, apparently my brain doesn't work well when trying to speak three languages at the same time :)

Based on the description of preparation, the texture would be the defining difference, not the taste.

Texture defines taste.

https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/20...

That's awesome thanks. Its always been intuitive for me that texture would affect how air mixes with food in the mouth and would also affect flavour distribution of sauces in the mouth but its good to see someone put actual study into it

According to your citation, texture and taste and aroma are separate characteristics with some overlap that combine to define flavor. The defining component difference in Su Filindeu would be texture, enhancing the flavor.

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