Hand-Pulled Noodles Back in Chinatown

Liu Chang Ming back in action at Sing’s

Walking out of Ming Hin a few weeks ago in the Chinatown Square mall, I caught sight of him. I hadn’t seen Liu Chang Ming in over a year, when he was smiling broadly for passersby at Hing Kee, just a few doors away. There, he could reliably be seen most days, right up front next to a large window and adjacent to a wok filled with boiling water, hand-stretching, pulling and shaping extra long noodles, destined for bowls of soup or platters of ground pork and chilies. And then, just like that, he was gone. Had he moved back to China? Been lured, perhaps, to a strip mall in Naperville? Apparently, he had been waiting for Sing’s Noodle to open up just across the way from Lao Sze Chuan.

Ming has been pulling, forming and hand-cutting noodles for roughly 30 years. He learned his trade in Kaifeng City in the Hunan Province, and for the past few weeks, has been spending his days (and nights) behind a large, glass window in Sing’s, just outside of the kitchen, going through the motions of a procedure that is, by now, fully etched into his muscle memory.

He begins with a simple dough, made from flour and water, and a bit of salt. He kneads it, promoting the gluten that binds the molecules together, through a ritual of pulling, twisting and braiding. A small piece of the dough is cut off, rolled into a tube the length of a kebab skewer and the thickness of a golf ball. Then, in a mind-bending, eye-rubbing, “how does he do that?” flash, he methodically pulls, twists and multiplies the strands, dusting them with flour to keep them separated. Once they get to the proper length and thickness – all done by sight, mind you – Ming cuts them off directly into the water, in one long continuous strand. After they cook for just a couple of minutes, they’re strained and dumped into any number of rich broths with your choice of proteins, like the excellent barbecued duck or braised beef.

He’ll also use his dough scraper to shave off jagged noodles, directly from the mound of dough into the boiling water. Customers certainly appreciate the extra effort, and the fact the noodles here are made-to-order, but be careful trying to split the noodles to share among several bowls. These hand-pulled beauties are extra long, which make them extra difficult to cut with a weak pair of chopsticks.

Sing’s Noodle

2171 S. China Pl.

312-225-2882