Yilan Ox-Tongue Pastry 宜兰牛舌饼
Yilan Ox-Tongue Pastry is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Yilan Ox-Tongue Pastry (宜兰牛舌饼) is a thin baked pastry from Yilan (宜兰), made with flour, sugar and honey. Its elongated oval resembles an ox tongue. Chinese Wikipedia suggests that this shape explains the name.
How it is made
Yilan and Lukang (鹿港) in Changhua (彰化) are two well-known centres for Taiwanese ox-tongue pastries. Their ingredients and textures differ enough for Chinese Wikipedia to treat them as distinct snacks, despite their shared outline. Beijing (北京) has another pastry with the same name: a thicker, filled baked cake.
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia records an older Taiwanese custom associated with ox-tongue pastries. When an infant reached four months of age, parents pierced the cakes and hung them on the baby’s chest while hosting visiting relatives and friends. The gesture expressed a wish that the child would grow clever.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-26. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.