Skills of a noodle master - Mucha handmade noodles

It is only 2am, and outside the sky is still dark, but in Taipei’s Mucha District, factory noodle master Liu Xie-Chang is already preparing the noodle machine, ready to mix the water, flour and other ingredients together. After mixing, the bread dough is kneaded, rolled, pulled and dried, in a process lasting all the way from 2am until 4 or 5 pm in the evening. Factory boss, Liu Qin-Xiang, began his apprenticeship at the tender age of fifteen, where in the age-old tradition he studied under a master to learn everything from scratch. He began working at the Liu Xie-Chang noodle factory in 1959, and has been working in the same factory for the last fifty years, without interruption. His wife, Zhang Yue-Zhi said her two sons are carrying on the family business, and her daughter is engaged in editing work. With a noodle factory one rarely has a day of rest, and so there has been little time to accompany the children. In recent years, the two sons have taken over the factory, but Zhang Yue-Zhi and Liu Qin-Xiang are still up early every day to continue helping out at the factory.

Fortunately, nowadays they can arrive at work a little later where they help out with the less demanding job of noodle packing. At the noodle factory there are no fixed working hours, as everything depends upon the noodles. Being able to hand pull noodles is the basic requirement before one can think about working in the noodle industry. Hand pulling noodles is not just about brute force but must be in accordance with the experience of the noodle master says Zhang Yue-Zhi. To bring the noodles to the required texture one must rely on not only strength, but also a lot of skill. A distinguishing characteristic of handmade noodles is that they won’t become soft and mushy but retain a good flexibility and texture. This method is also used to make fine noodles that could thread a needle, something only handmade noodles can achieve. The time required to produce handmade noodles depends a lot on the humidity and temperature on the day. When the temperature and humidity are high the noodles dry in a shorter time, setting fast. Comparatively, with low temperature and humidity, the noodles dry slower and set slower. Thinking back to the early years in Mucha, Zhang Yue-Zhi said there were a lot of noodle factories and consequently a lot of noodle masters.

During the Chinese New Year celebrations, noodles were an important offering to the gods and so became a very busy period for the noodle factories. Having said that, due to fact that handmade noodles cannot be mass-produced, mechanism took over, and now there are only six or so factories still doing business said the second-generation boss Mr. Zhang. Liu Qin-Xiang said that noodle masters are now old and young people do not like the working environment, so unfortunately it is likely the art and skills of handmade noodles will be lost to the next generation.

PeoPo 公民新聞 by 輔大生命力新聞

Skills of a noodle master - Mucha handmade noodles (by CJ newstory)
URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/100471

(以下為中文對照)

照片

老師傅好手藝 木柵手工麵線 ( 輔大生命力新聞 )

凌晨二時，天色仍昏暗，在台北市木柵劉協昌製麵廠內，老師傅已點亮燈，啟動和麵機，將水與麵粉等材料攪拌均勻。和麵、擀麵、拉麵、烘乾、到綑麵封裝，這樣的工作自凌晨二時，到午後四、五時不停歇。老闆劉欽賢早在十五歲時，就跟著一位師傅從頭學起，後在一九五○年代接收劉協昌製麵廠。而劉欽賢這一做，就是五十多年，從未間斷。妻子張月枝說，她有兩個兒子、一個女兒，兩個兒子如今繼承家業，女兒從事編輯工作。過去麵線工廠鮮少有休息日，也很少有時間能陪孩子，近年來兩個兒子接管工廠，但張月枝和劉欽賢仍天天早起，一同到製麵廠做麵線，不過晚些進入工廠，做點不需勞力的綑麵工作。

在麵線廠裡沒有固定工作時間，全都得看麵線。待麵線拉得動時才能工作，否則只會很吃力。拉麵不能一味地靠蠻力，張月枝說，而是靠著老師傅依照經驗，靠得是巧勁，將麵線一拉就到位，這就是麵線手感所在。提到手工麵線特色，手工麵線煮不爛、有彈性，手工的也可以做細麵，可穿針，這是手工麵線才做得到的。助理張朝旺說，麵線製作得花費時間，全看當日的濕度、溫度。當溫度高、溼度高，麵線則放在桿子上，垂到地上的時間 短、定型快，拉麵得快一些；當溫度低、濕度低，麵線垂到地上時間長、定型慢，拉麵時間可較緩。

回想起早年的木柵，張月枝說，早年木柵一帶有很多間麵線廠，也有許多麵線師傅，每逢過年、過節，廟裡拜拜的供桌上少不了麵線，那就是麵線的旺季，也是劉協昌製麵廠最忙的時候。雖如此，但二代老闆張先生說，因手工麵線無法大量生產，無法比得上機器麵線的量產，如今因只剩五、六間仍在做。劉欽賢說，手工麵線師傅年齡高，年輕人不喜歡這樣的工作環境，技藝到這一代恐怕會失傳。

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