A man near my apartment sells a table full of fried, crispy snack-like things, which I would liken to American "chips", albeit unsalted. I haven't tasted everything, but among my favorites are these fried dough twists. I bought a half jin of the black sesame ones. Finding them to be wonderfully thick and crunchy, I devoured my whole stash.
The following I bought a full jin of what I thought were the same ones, but the specimens turned out to be mildly sweet. Not being a fan of sweet snacks, I put them out at my birthday party, where my supply promptly doubled, as one of my guests had thoughtfully provided us with more of them. They're still in my cabinet.
When a man with a truck full of these bread-loaf sized items appeared on the compound last week, I was intrigued by his wares. Upon closer inspection I determined that the items resembled the crispy twists, though much larger. My fellow teacher purchased one, and after lunch, we set about sawing it up.
When you slice the loaf open, you can see that it is indeed made of thick coils
of dough. The oily crunch betrays that the dough was fried, and then quickly
doused in a simple sugar syrup and rolled in sesame seeds.
The taste? Chewy, but surprisingly crunchy given the size of the beast. The syrup was predictably sweet and unbelievably sticky. The coating of sesame seeds definitely made it a "Chinese dessert". I enjoyed the flavor, but warned my friend that I could not be counted on to finish half of it. I imagine that it would take a family a good week to finish this off.
Anyone seen this before?
Posted by Astrid at January 11, 2005 09:38 AM