This team of kitchen ladies (they are the stereotype of what we called 煮飯婆 in Cantonese, rice-cooking woman in English) were making 揪片, a pasta specialty of Shanxi. The closest translation I can come up with for this is "pinching pasta," or "nipping noodles" in that each piece of pasta is nipped out from the chubby dough with thumb and index finger. Look at their speed!
The outlook of this pasta reminds me of Italian's orecchiette. But since it is not rolled, pinching pasta is not as round and domed on top as orecchiette do. Plus, orecchiette are usually rested for couple hours before cook whereas pinching pasta are simply chucked right in the wok, as you can see from the video.
You can serve this pasta plain in the fashion of steamed rice or you can top it up with sauce and make it a pasta dish. The locals told me that one of the most popular toppings is fried tomatoes and eggs. Another way to cook is boiling in soups such as beef stock or mutton broth.
Beholding these five kitchen ladies cooking one pasta with one wok at the same time brought one thing to my mind: Jee, China IS the world's most populous country. Ah, no, wait a second, here is another: the secret of a happy and chirpy marriage is as simple as a bowl of plain noodles..."
