First there are conventional pastas so you need a pasta maker (also handy for doing cake decorating 🙂 Quick look on Amazon shows that the Marcato Atlas seems to be the high rated and best seller too
Making noodles isn’t hard (In theory!) and there are plenty of Internet videos, in particular making Chinese pulled noodles (la mian) or shaved noodles (dao xiao mian). See Luke for a recipe
The Chinese have a long history of making noodles using several techniques. One of them is to dip a chopstick into a batter of flour and water. The batter has to be thick enough to adhere to the chopstick, but light enough to come off when the chopstick is flicked unto a pot of boiling water. The noodles formed by this technique are not uniform in size or shape. Similarly, knife-shaved noodles (dao xiao mian ???), also known as hand-sliced noodles, are made by shaping a two-kilogram piece of dough into a log, and shaving off strips of dough using quick slicing motions with a sharp cleaver into a pot of boiling water.
The Chinese also make hand-pulled noodles (la mian ??) using a flexible dough that can be stretched easily. This is done by increasing the amount of water in the dough (approximately 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of flour). Cover the dough with plastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for at least 60 minutes to relax the gluten. The dough is stretched until it looks like a long, thick rope. The rope is folded in half, twisted, and stretched back to its original length approximately ten times. The twisting is done by holding one end of the rope in each hand while the center hangs down under the force of gravity and flinging one side against the other in a circular motion. The rope is twisted first to the right, stretched, folded in half, and then twisted to the left, stretched, and folded in half again. This process creates a structure of dough fibers oriented along the length of the dough rope that is necessary for being able to pull the noodles. Next, the rope of dough is placed on a countertop covered with plenty of flour, and the noodles are made by pulling the dough, resting it briefly on the floured countertop, grabbing the two ends with one hand, while holding the middle with the other hand. This process is repeated until the noodles are of the appropriate thickness. Each time, the noodles are rolled on the countertop covered with flour to keep them from sticking, and the number of noodles doubles.
