Small restaurants serving Lanzhou-style lamian are very common in eastern Chinese cities. They tend to serve a variety of cheap meals, with a choice of lamian, 'daoxiaomian' (knife-sliced noodles) and perhaps Xi'an-style 'paomo' (steamed bread). Noodles may be served with beef or mutton, either in soup or stir-fried. The majority of these lamian restaurants are owned by Hui ethnicity families from Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang, and serve only halal food (thus no pork dishes).
The Japanese term ramen uses the same characters for its kanji form, and the original meaning was approximately the same as the Chinese. However, in English, the term 'ramen' usually refers to store-bought dried instant noodles, while 'lamian' refers to the freshly-made hand-stretched noodles.
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