When you order a plate of pasta or a portion of noodles at your favourite neighbourhood restaurant, you’re most likely to get it right out of a packet. No, we’re not saying they give you Maggi (although some do have that on the menu, too). But, the fact remains that most restaurants use store-bought pasta, noodles, ketchup and other condiments. There are merely a handful of eateries in the city that serve you a dish made from scratch.

Hand-pulled noodles, a rarity even in their native China, are available at ITC Maratha’s Pan Asian. Ask for a plate of Chef Wang’s stir-fried noodles and you’re in for a treat. For the specialty chef doesn’t just make the noodles on demand, he promises to entertain. You must watch him whirl the extremely elastic dough (maida and water) at the restaurant’s open kitchen. He doesn’t need a machine or a knife to create near-perfect strands of the noodles of your choice, just the measured movements of his arms and the perfect twist and loop of the dough. It is five minutes of pure magic.