Yantai Menzi Starch Jelly 烟台焖子
Yantai Menzi Starch Jelly is featured among the local specialties of Shandong.
Image notes
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Yantai Menzi Starch Jelly (烟台焖子) traditionally uses sweet-potato starch with garlic paste, sesame paste and fish oil. It belongs to the griddle-fried menzi family, whose steamed starch blocks are cut into pieces and browned outside while remaining tender within.
Ingredients
Yantai’s (烟台) seafood version, sanxian menzi (三鲜焖子), adds ingredients such as peeled shrimp, sea cucumber, squid and dried scallops. Chinese Wikipedia identifies this variation with Jiaodong (胶东) food culture.
Where it comes from
A local origin legend recorded in Chinese Wikipedia places the snack in a Fushan (福山) noodle workshop in 1912. Two brothers surnamed Men (门) supposedly could not dry their sweet-potato starch blocks during persistent rain, so they cut and fried them and added garlic and sesame paste.
In this story, the original name combines the family surname with the oil-cooking method, later changing into the characters used for menzi today.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-26. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.