Fried Scallion Rice Rings 葱油粑粑
Fried Scallion Rice Rings is featured among the local specialties of Hunan.
Fried Scallion Rice Rings (葱油粑粑) are a Changsha (长沙) street snack of fermented rice batter with salt and chopped scallion, fried in an iron ring mould so that each cake comes out with a hole in the middle.
How it is made
According to the Hunan provincial government, the base is non-glutinous rice (粳米) with a little leftover cooked rice mixed in; it is dry-ground into flour, stirred with water into a batter and left to ferment. Salt and chopped scallion go in after fermentation. The mould is iron, round, with a handle and a short iron rod standing in the centre. The batter is filled into it, scraped level and lowered into boiling oil; when the golden cake comes loose from the mould and floats up, it is lifted out.
The provincial government names judging the fermentation as the hard part. Under-fermented batter fries hard as stone instead of crisp; over-fermented batter lets too much oil in, so the cake drips grease when bitten.
Flavour and texture
A good one is flaky and crisp outside and soft inside, with the smell of scallion. The skin is the best part and should be both flaky and crisp; the inner crumb should be soft and the scallion in it still green. If either fails, the provincial government counts the cake as not up to standard.
Where it comes from
The Hunan provincial government retells a story that the snack reached Changsha from Jinggang (靖港). A Jinggang vendor set up his frying gear at Changsha's South Gate (南门口), the smell drew customers from morning to night, and imitators spread through the city. The well-known snack restaurant Huogongdian (火宫殿) then brought the Jinggang cook in to teach the craft, and the rings became its second signature snack after stinky tofu.
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Tangyou baba 糖油粑粑 →
Another fried Hunan baba sold as a street snack; the scallion rings are savoury, made from fermented non-glutinous rice batter and shaped in a ring mould.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.