A classic Hangzhou street snack, also written cong-bao-hui. A length of cold youtiao (fried dough stick) and a few scallions are rolled inside a thin wheat spring-pancake, then the whole roll is pressed flat on a griddle and ironed until both wrapper and dough turn crisp and golden. Brushed with fermented sweet bean sauce and, to taste, a slick of mild Jiangnan chili paste, it is eaten hot off the iron — crackling outside, with the soft scallion fragrance and the sweet-savory sauce inside. The name carries a piece of Hangzhou's historical memory: folk lore reads the 'wrapped-Hui' in its name as symbolically frying the hated traitor Qin Hui.
Youtiao and its Hangzhou descendant 葱包桧 both grow out of one folk tale. In 1141 the Southern Song chancellor Qin Hui and his wife Lady Wang engineered the death of the general Yue Fei on the trumped-up charge of 莫须有 ("perhaps there is"), and the people of Lin'an (today's Hangzhou) loathed the couple. Legend has it that a snack vendor named Wang Er, to vent his hatred, kneaded two human-shaped pieces of dough as Qin Hui and his wife, pressed them back to back and deep-fried them in oil, hawking them as "oil-fried Hui" (油炸桧) — the supposed ancestor of today's youtiao. Later, so the story goes, leftover cold youtiao went limp, and a vendor reheated it by rolling it with scallions inside a spring-pancake and ironing it crisp on a griddle, calling it 葱包桧 — "scallion-wrapped Hui." The history behind the legend (Yue Fei, Qin Hui, 莫须有) is real; the vendor and the exact birth of the snack are folk tradition, and 桧 is also written 烩 in the homophone 葱包烩.
Hot off the iron, the spring-pancake shatters at the first bite, the youtiao inside re-crisped to a brittle, airy crunch. Then come the scallions — lightly charred, fragrant, just softened — and the sauces: fermented sweet bean paste leading sweet-savory, the chili paste salty and only gently hot in the Jiangnan way. It eats dry and crackling, no oil sheen on the lips; the pleasure is all in the contrast of crisp shell against soft, oniony, sauce-slicked center.
Three crisping effects stack up. The cold youtiao, fried once already, is re-griddled: residual moisture flashes off and its honeycomb of gluten and starch sets hard, restoring the airy crunch a limp stick had lost. The thin wheat wrapper, pressed against hot iron, dehydrates and browns through the Maillard reaction, going from pliable to glassy. The scallions singe just enough to release their pungent sulfur aromatics without turning bitter. Finally the sweet bean sauce — itself a fermented paste rich in amino acids and sugars — paints on the savory-sweet base, while the chili paste adds salt and a restrained heat that frames rather than dominates.
Variations
Hangzhou stalls differ mainly in the sauce: most lay down sweet bean paste first, then brush chili paste, and the chili-to-sweet ratio is a matter of taste and stall. Some vendors slick the iron with a little oil for a richer crust; purists keep it dry. The wrapper may be a true thin spring-pancake or a slightly thicker griddle cake; the youtiao is sometimes day-old (the original intent) and sometimes fresh. Old Hangzhou eats it as a between-meals snack from a street cart, paired with a bowl of soy-milk or wonton soup.
On the Palate
Where Scallion-Wrapped Fried Dough sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2How it's made
7 steps · 10 min
- 12 min
Cut youtiao into lengths that fit the spring-pancake; have scallions trimmed and ready.
- 21 min
Lay the youtiao and a few whole scallions on a thin spring-pancake and roll it up snugly.
- 31 min
Heat a flat griddle or pan over medium heat, no oil (or the barest film).
- 41 min
Lay the roll seam-side down and press it flat with a spatula.
Watch outLay the roll seam-down and press it flat so it holds together and every surface hits the iron for an even crisp.
- 53 min
Griddle, turning, until both sides of the wrapper and the youtiao are crisp and golden and the scallions have softened and charred at the edges.
Watch outGriddle until wrapper and youtiao are crisp-golden and the scallions have just charred at the edges — scallions singed, not burnt black.
- 61 min
Brush the surface generously with fermented sweet bean sauce.
- 71 min
Brush on chili paste to taste, then fold or cut and serve at once, hot.
