A group of chefs from west China's Xining city attended the ongoing 3rd International Noodle Festival held in Taiyuan city, trying to introduce the city culture through dough sheet (mian pian) and oil fried wheaten food (san zi).

The international noodle festival, held in Taiyuan between September 8 and 17, invited first-class chefs from home and abroad and provided 300 exhibition rooms. Scholars will attend a forum on Noodles and City and participants will display traditional noodle food and compete with each other to win the award.

Noodles play a vital part in Qinghai people's food eating habits, which urged people in the region to promote city image through its food. At the festival, chefs will make some of the most distinctive local food, such as dough sheet (mian pian) and oil fried wheaten food (san zi).

An working staff from Xining tourism bureau said in 2000, at the first gourmand festival held in Hangzhou, Xining won the most number of gold prices for its local-flavored dish, also known as the plateau-flavored dish. Chefs in Qinghai are said to be good at making a kind of cake with yolk and egg white and the egg-coated beef.   

(Chinanews.cn September 13, 2005)