Ms Zeng Yu-Mei lives in Mucha since birth with her residence located exactly in the area congested with string noodles workshops. In her memory, string noodles drying in the sun used to be a common scene here and the noodles sunning sites were ideal playgrounds for the kids and became precious memory of her childhood.

1. Could you tell us what the scene of serried string noodles workshops looked like?
When I was a kid, there were many string noodles workshops, and when the noodles were hung up for sunning, they looked gorgeous like drapes of white silks or curtains. At that time, we often went to watch the masters making noodles, and we saw some white string noodles draped over long poles propped up outsides in the sun and some red string noodles sunning in a sieves.

2. Do you remember any special tools for making string noodles?
There are some string noodles racks, wherein there are a number of holes in which the iron rods together with noodles freshly pulled may be set for sunning. Some sieves are used for airing the red string noodles.

3. Were there any interesting things at that time?
I remember that the string noodles workshops were amusement parks for us kids, and we used to have much fun moving through the noodles hung up for sunning as if through the caves, but the bosses were kind of annoyed by our recreation, maybe for fear that we would dirty the noodles by doing this, so we usually did it by stealth, trying not to wake a sleeping wolf. We also gleaned the string noodles that fell to ground of the sunning site as our snack, but some poor kids were said to collect these crumbs for their sustenance. Unlike these kids, we did it for fun and ate the noodles raw with pleasure. Sometimes, it was really a waste to pull and snap the noodles wildly (don’t tell the bosses about it), but it was too interesting to be given up.

4. Now the string noodles business has declined. What do you think of it?
Certainly it is regrettable. After all, that is our childhood memory. Now that there are still some handmade string noodles workshops, you should take advantage of the opportunity to visit them, or you might never have another chance to do so.