Coiled Thread Pastry 盘丝饼

Coiled Thread Pastry (盘丝饼) is a sweet Jinan (济南) pastry made from hand-pulled dough stretched into threads as fine as silver wire and coiled into a round cake. Its full name is "clear-oil coiled thread pastry" (清油盘丝饼): "clear oil" means it is cooked in peanut oil rather than animal fat. Dazhong News dates it back more than 200 years and gives its popular name as "one nest of threads" (一窝丝).

How it is made

The pastry grew out of the hand-pulled noodle technique. The Shandong civil affairs department describes the dough being pulled until it is as fine as silver thread, more than a thousand strands, then coiled into a round cake and cooked in oil, half pan-fried and half griddled. Dazhong News, previewing a demonstration at the second China International Cultural Tourism Expo in September 2021, puts the count at 1,024 threads from a single piece of dough, each fine enough to pass through the eye of a needle, wound round the fingers into shape.

How it is served

Once cooked, the cake is lifted by the middle and pulled apart so that the golden threads fall loose on the plate, then scattered with red and green candied shreds and white sugar. The Shandong civil affairs department calls it a fine banquet pastry.

Flavour and texture

The outside is crisp and the inside tender, with even golden strands and a sweet, clean taste. Dazhong News reports the story that the opera masters Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳), Shang Xiaoyun (尚小云) and Xi Xiaobo (奚啸伯) were so fond of it that they ate it after performing in Jinan.

Heritage status

In 2025 the Shandong Department of Culture and Tourism named Jinan's coiled thread pastry, in the noodle and flour-food class, among the 99 dishes on its list of a hundred Shandong intangible-heritage foods.