Watching someone create hand-pulled noodles is like witnessing magic. First, there’s just a block of dough, and moments later, you’ve got yards of thin, stretchy strings. Fresh, chewy la mian is the work of just 10 talented fingers, and it sure makes boxed pasta look stiff and stale.

If you’ve never had the experience of seeing Chinese hand-pulled noodles pulled in person, then you should check out this Hong Kong chef dexterously whip the food into form. In the first stretch of the video (pun intended), he is simply getting the dough in shape. But make sure to catch what happens at 2:04. Shapeless wads of dough swiftly and miraculously transform into delectable-looking la mian that seem to stretch for miles.

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