Shibajie Fried Dough Twist

The braided twist is a Guifaxiang specialty that took shape in Tianjin in the early decades of the 20th century. Accounts of its exact founding differ — variously placed in the 1920s and 1930s, and tied to a shop run by the Fan brothers, Fan Guicai and Fan Guilin, near the lane that gave the twist its "Eighteenth Street" name. What is consistent is the innovation that made its reputation: laying a sweet, crisp filling-strand of osmanthus, candied ginger, walnut and candied peel through the braid, which set it apart from every plain fried twist around it. It is one of Tianjin's "Three Wonders."

Heavy and solid in the hand, a thick rope of braided strands the color of deep amber. It does not yield — it snaps, breaking into hard, sweet shards. The plain and sesame strands are crunchy and toasty; the filling-strand running through the braid is the sweet heart, fragrant with osmanthus and dotted with walnut, candied ginger and citrus peel. Crisp clean through, with no soft center.

The defining trick is the filling-strand braided in among the dough strands — a separate short-textured strand cut with sugar and fat and studded with the candied bits, so the twist carries a sweet, crumbly seam through its core instead of being uniform dough. Getting it crisp all the way through is the hard part: the twist is thick, so it is fried long and slow at a moderate heat, driving moisture out of the dense braid completely. Fry too fast and the surface hardens while the inside stays soft; done right, it sets hard enough to keep for weeks.