HONG KONG — In China, there is a type of noodle so thin that it can pierce the eye of a needle.

They’re called gold thread noodles, or jinsimian, and they’re a speciality of Sichuan province in southwestern China, where the dish is reserved for special occasions.

Why are they called gold thread noodles? “Because after kneading the dough, the colour is gold and when you roll it out, it looks like gold foil,” explains Mr Yang Yongfu, who has been making the noodles for over 24 years.

Only a handful of chefs have mastered the art of making gold thread noodles. The challenge is cutting the dough into fine, delicate strands, a process that is extremely time-consuming and can take up to two hours for a batch.

“The noodles should be thin as paper, delicate, and fine as hair,” Mr Yang says.

To achieve that effect, chefs carefully run a heavy knife back and forth across the dough, cutting thin strands along the way. The best chefs spend their entire careers perfecting this technique.

“You have to be really accurate to get the results you want,” Mr Yang says.

That’s easier said than done. The “very heavy” knife starts to really strain the wrist after three to five minutes, Mr Yang says. “You need wrist strength.”

He estimates he can cut 9,000 to 12,000 noodle strands from one 400-gram piece of dough.

The dough’s golden colour comes from a combination of egg yolk and flour. In Sichuan, duck eggs are preferred because they impart a brighter hue.

Unlike most Sichuan noodle dishes, which pack a lot of spice, gold thread noodles are served in a broth made from capons, or castrated chickens.

Also practised in Spain and France, chicken castration involves removing the testes of a rooster at a young age. The idea is that the lack of sex hormones makes the poultry more tender and juicy.

“The soup made from it is much more concentrated,” Mr Yang says.

The broth is clear to bring out the colour of the noodles. The result is a simple dish, refined by the skill and technique that goes into making delicately thin, chewy noodles.

“These gold thread noodles are such an important part of Chinese and Sichuanese culture,” Mr Yang says. “They’re a cultural relic.” SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST