There is a shortage of vegetables in Northwest China due to climatic reasons. Therefore, the local people have been good at making various kinds of steamed buns and noodles, and they all have good and unique taste. Three kinds of cooked wheaten food are famous in Northwest China, namely, noodle slice, Paozhang and hand-pulled noodle. Among them, noodle slice is one of the favorite and most popular cooked wheaten food in Northwest China. People there usually have it for dinner as staple food. There are two ways to make noodle slices: one is pressing dough into thin layers with rolling pins and then slice them up and put them into a pot. The other is pinching and stretching the dough into flat and long bars, and then slice them into patches as small as finger nails and put them into the pot. According to the shape of the dough slices, the noodle slices with the size of finger nails are called "finger nail noodle slice" and those with bigger size are called "mouth-blocking noodle slices". After they are fully cooked, scoop them out of the pot and put them into a bowl, then pour mutton soup on it and add diced mutton, tomatoes and green radish slices. Finally, the "Tomato and Mutton Noodle" is made. If you eat it together with beef or mutton slices, tofu, vermicelli and vegetables, it becomes "braised noodle". If you cook it together with beef or mutton, vermicelli and vegetables, it becomes "fried noodle slice". There are many varieties of noodle slices and they have different tastes.