Xiangcheng White Sesame Crisp Bread 项城白芝麻焦馍

Xiangcheng White Sesame Crisp Bread (项城白芝麻焦馍) is a crisp bread topped with white sesame from Xiangcheng (项城), a county-level city of Zhoukou (周口), Henan. Xinhua describes sesame jiaomo as a local snack of Zhoukou whose main ingredients are flour and sesame, and Xiangcheng is known as the "home of white sesame".

Flavour and texture

The pieces are round and crunchy, and they keep for a long time. In a Zhoukou city government report, a local people's congress deputy tasting it at a village display describes the top as covered entirely in sesame, fragrant and crisp at the first bite and more flavourful the longer it is chewed.

Ingredients

The Zhoukou government credits the bread's quality mainly to the local white sesame. Xiangcheng has grown white sesame for more than 400 years, and Ming- and Qing-era records note that the black soil south of the city suited the crop especially well. The seeds are described as white and glossy, plump and high in oil, with a clean fragrance. Lizhai town (李寨镇) in the southwest of the city grows more than 20,000 mu of it each year, and the white-sesame culture hall in its Dongxue village (东薛村) displays jiaomo topped with the town's own white sesame. Xiangcheng white sesame received a national agricultural geographical indication from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2018.

A local trade

Xinhua reported in January 2025 on a sesame jiaomo contest in Xiangcheng that drew more than 30 local companies, which put over 30 varieties before the judges. In 2024 the city's market regulator said it planned to apply for a "Xiangcheng Jiaomo" (项城焦馍) geographical-indication trademark.