Shanxi might not be home to one of China’s most famous cuisines, but noodle lovers around the country will attest to the region’s mian supremacy. Local joint, Zhuque Men, serves up the city’s most slurpable bowls at the hands of Mr Li. The affable, chain-smoking owner of the restaurant makes every strand in-house, from the liangpi to rice vermicelli, and the second-to-none sour plum juice and fragrant osmanthus wine are also homemade.

‘Xi’an Hamburger,’ the region’s most famous export, is also available, and the designated roujiamo waiter chops fatty pork on a wooden block already well-worn from high demand at the restaurant’s entrance. The full recipe is a closely-guarded secret, but Mr Li did let slip that the pork is marinated in a broth of more than 40 ingredients and comes from a stock created 20 years ago.

Most nights there’s not a ‘hamburger’-less plate in the house, but it’s the noodles that draw customers in, sometimes more than once a day. He’s got some standards on the menu like the northeastern staple zhajiang mian, but the youpo mian are Mr Li’s pride and joy. The ‘oil-sprinkled’ noodles are a force to be reckoned with, putting up a fight with the hot sauce, garlic and bok choy that pack into the bowl. The saozi mian, a spicy-sour bowl of soup noodles, demands famous vinegar from a Shanxi mountaintop to recreate the authentic flavour, and the miles prove to be well worth it.

Mr Li also whips up a mean bowl of minestrone that wouldn’t look out of place in an Italian grandma’s kitchen, what with the cat ear noodles that look and taste like miniature gnocchi anchoring the bowl of tomato and vegetable soup. An authentic taste of the Shanxi heartland in Shanghai, Zhuque Men is a must-try for any noodle lover in town.

Zhuque Men. 101 Zhenping Lu. Tel: 5291 2385