Orchid-Root Fried Rice Snacks 兰花根
Orchid-Root Fried Rice Snacks is featured among the local specialties of Chongqing.
Orchid-Root Fried Rice Snacks (兰花根) are a traditional glutinous-rice snack from Tongliang District (铜梁区) in Chongqing. The name means 'orchid root', and the snack is shaped like the root and stem of an orchid.
How it is made
A 2025 report by China National Radio's Chongqing channel sums up the making in three stages. Glutinous rice is ground into flour, the flour is kneaded into a dough and formed into pieces, and the pieces are deep-fried until they puff up.
Where it comes from
China National Radio's Chongqing channel describes the snack as part of the food memories of several generations in Tongliang, and reports that the craft was close to being lost by 1994. That year Long Zhongde (龙中德), who had spent many years working away from home, returned to Tongliang. Finding the old formula too oily and sweet, he set up a team to rework it so that it would be healthier and closer to modern tastes.
In 2015 Orchid-Root Fried Rice Snacks were entered in Tongliang's intangible cultural heritage protection list, and Long became the registered inheritor of the craft. His workshop is on Baihe Street (白合街) in Pingtan town (平滩镇).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.