Minquan Tribute Fried Dough Twists 民权贡麻花

Flavour and texture

For Shangqiu twists as a group, the Henan provincial government portal lists sweet, salty, plain, five-spice and numbing-hot (麻辣) flavours, and says most are shaped like a hinge, some like a chicken's claw. They are pale yellow, lightly fragrant and crisp, and a five-part saying sums up the texture: firm in the wind, soft in water, brittle in the cold, burning in a flame and shattering against anything hard. They are eaten as a snack, with drinks or tea, and given as presents when visiting relatives and friends.

Where it comes from

The village is named for its twists. The Dahe Daily (大河报) tells the legend that the Qianlong Emperor, travelling south, was drawn by the smell of frying twists; the Zhang family offered him theirs, the twists became tribute, and the emperor named the village Mahuazhuang. Zhang Guodong (张国栋), ninth-generation inheritor of the Minquan tribute-twist craft, says that once the twists became tribute, demand outran supply and every household began making them.

In 1990 the twist was shortened from 30 cm to 12 cm, which made it easier to pack and less likely to break in transport. From 2017 a village collective company merged the six existing twist factories under one brand, price and standard; its best-known label is named after Zhang Guodong's father, Zhang Peiren (张培仁), also an inheritor of the craft. The village folk-culture hall displays a hand-made twist 5.16 metres long and weighing 56 jin, made by a team he led.

The Dahe Daily reports that the village twists have been rated a Henan time-honoured food brand (河南老字号) and a provincial intangible cultural heritage item, and that in January 2022 the Henan agriculture department named Mahuazhuang one of the province's first model villages for a single local product.

The provincial portal, relaying the Henan culture and tourism department, lists Shangqiu dough-twist making (商丘麻花制作技艺) as a provincial intangible cultural heritage item and names Minquan's tribute twists first among its representatives, ahead of the Jing family twists of Yucheng (虞城) and the Zhou family chicken-claw twists of Zhecheng (柘城).