Pingshan Fried Dough Fritters 平山油鬼

Pingshan Fried Dough Fritters (平山油鬼) are a deep-fried dough snack from Pingshan County (平山县), which a Shijiazhuang News (石家庄新闻网) article on the Shijiazhuang (石家庄) city government website calls the county's most distinctive local snack.

How it is made

A yougui (油鬼) looks much like an ordinary youtiao (油条), the long fried dough stick, but its middle is folded before frying, so the finished piece resembles a small kneeling figure. The same article notes that the flour has to be of particularly high quality and that the proportions of water, alkali and salt used to mix the dough are very strict.

Flavour and texture

Pingshan Fried Dough Fritters are golden and come out of the oil glistening and crisp. Fresh from the pan they have a crunchy, strongly fragrant bite with a lingering aftertaste.

Where it comes from

The name is said to come from youzha hui (油炸桧), "deep-fried Hui". In the Song dynasty, people who hated the chancellor Qin Hui (秦桧) for betraying the country stretched two pieces of dough to stand for him and his wife, twisted them together as if bound and fried them. According to the story, a Pingshan cook then went further and folded the dough in the middle, so that the fried piece kneels, a sign of how much the traitor was hated.