Sāndàoguǎi shàng, shǒugōng yī piàn; bā yuán yī wǎn, lǎochéng yī miàn. — Up on the Three Turns, one hand-made slice; eight yuan a bowl, one face of the old town.
Dada noodles (搭搭面, Dādā Miàn) are the county’s noodle dish and its old-town breakfast: handmade dough slapped and torn into irregular sheets — 搭搭 is the sound of the dough hitting the board — cooked soft and served in a light soup or dressed dry, at about 8 yuan a bowl from the old shops on the Three Turns (三道拐), the old town’s stepped lane. It is the plainest of the county’s famous foods, and the one the county actually eats on an ordinary morning.
The sheet is the point. Machine-cut noodles are uniform; 搭搭面’s sheets are torn by hand, so they are irregular — thin where the dough pulled, thick where it held — and the irregularities cook at different rates, giving the bowl a range of textures rather than one. The dough is simple, the soup is plain, and the dish lives or dies on the hand: too thick and the sheets are doughy, too thin and they dissolve.
The old shops on the Three Turns are the address, and the trade is the morning one — the sheets are made daily and the bowls go fast. Order it dressed dry with the local chilli oil if you want the flavour register; the soup version is the mild one. Locals pair a bowl with the county’s steamed buns or a geger basket for the full old-town breakfast.
flowcloud would say that the county’s poem city has a noodle named after a sound — and that the best bowl is up the lane where the dough is still slapping.
Where to find it: the old shops on the Three Turns, the old town’s stepped lane — morning trade at about 8 yuan a bowl, and the bowls go fast. All checked October 2026.
Words and Names
搭搭面 dādā miàn — “dada noodles”, named for the slapping sound of the dough · 手工面片 shǒugōng miànpiàn — handmade noodle sheets · 三道拐 Sāndàoguǎi — the Three Turns, the old town’s stepped lane · 老城 lǎochéng — the old town, the dish’s address