Chongqing's most recognizable street snack, the Chen family's hand-twisted fried dough from Ciqikou Ancient Town blends wheat and glutinous rice flours with sesame, egg, and rock sugar, then deep-fries each rope in rapeseed oil at 180°C until the sesame-crusted surface shatters. The signature variety is the guaiwei ("strange-flavor") twist: immediately after frying, hot twists are tossed in a dry mix of Sichuan peppercorn powder, chili, and powdered sugar — layering numbing, spicy, sweet, and salty in a single bite. A dozen flavors rotate daily at the original Zheng Jie shop, from plain rock-sugar to honey to pepper-salt, all sold by weight off the fryer.
Ciqikou Ancient Town occupies the southern bank of the Jialing River in Chongqing's Shapingba District. Originally called Dragon-Hidden Town after a hillside monastery built in the Ming dynasty, it took its present name — literally "Porcelain Mouth" — during the Qing dynasty as its ceramics trade grew and glazed goods flowed downriver by boat. Rice merchants, teahouses, and wine shops crowded the main street, and the constant traffic of river porters created steady demand for cheap, filling street snacks. The Chen family's fried-twist shop is traditionally said to date back to the Qing dynasty; the precise founding year is no longer reliably documented, and accounts vary. During the Anti-Japanese War (1937–1945), Ciqikou sheltered many prominent intellectuals — among them the writer Guo Moruo and the painter Xu Beihong — swelling the town's population and spreading the snack's name to a wider audience. The shop continues to operate at its original address on Zheng Jie, frying twists by hand in batches throughout the day.
Freshly fried, each twist is deep gold all over, stippled with sesame seeds, and startlingly light in the hand — it snaps cleanly rather than bending. The guaiwei version opens with caramel sweetness, then Sichuan peppercorn sends its electric tingle across the sides of the tongue; chili warmth follows a beat behind. The four flavors — sweet, salty, numbing, spicy — arrive in sequence and then overlap, none dominating, which is the precise intent of the guaiwei balance. Let them cool and they become even crisper, the sesame note deepening as the fat sets.
The dough's elasticity — which allows ropes to twist without snapping — comes from blending glutinous rice flour with the wheat base. The starch network from glutinous rice is stickier and more extensible than wheat starch alone, letting the thin ropes stretch long and hold their twist without tearing. At 180°C, the surface sets almost instantly; the fine air gaps trapped between the twisted strands expand and escape, leaving a porous interior that stays light rather than dense. Below 170°C the twist absorbs oil and turns greasy; above 190°C the surface browns before the core cooks through. The guaiwei spice dust — ground Sichuan peppercorn, chili powder, powdered sugar, sesame — is cast over the twists while the oil-soaked surface is still hot and porous; the powder lodges in the microscopic cavities and bonds without any binder as the fat cools.
Variations
The plain rock-sugar twist is the foundation: sweet and cleanly crunchy, with no added spice. Pepper-salt leans savory, a better match for tea. Honey adds a deeper, lingering sweetness. Guaiwei ("strange-flavor") is the shop's signature, applying the classical Sichuan flavor type — simultaneously sweet, salty, numbing, and spicy — to a fried snack. A newer hot-pot-butter variant folds Sichuan hotpot tallow seasoning into the dough or finishing dust; it reportedly reached 8,000 units sold in a single day. Over a dozen flavors rotate through the counter daily, all fried to order.
On the Palate
Where Ciqikou Chen Mahua sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min active + 15 min waiting
- 13 min
Sift wheat flour and glutinous rice flour into a bowl; add a pinch of baking powder and stir to combine.
- 25 min
In a second bowl, whisk the eggs with sesame oil and finely ground rock sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is glossy.
- 320 min
Pour the egg mixture into the flour; stir with chopsticks until shaggy, then knead by hand for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 15 minutes.
Watch outKnead until the dough is smooth and stretches without snapping — that pull is what lets the ropes twist tight without tearing.
- 45 min
Divide the dough into 30 g portions; roll each piece into a rope roughly 30 cm long and a finger's width thin.
- 55 min
Pair two ropes and twist them firmly together from one end, forming a tight spiral; pinch both ends to seal. Repeat for all portions.
- 62 min
Lightly press sesame seeds onto each twist so they adhere to the surface.
- 74 min
Heat rapeseed oil to 180°C in a wok or deep pan (a small pellet of dough dropped in should rise to the surface within 2 seconds). Slide the twists in in small batches; turn constantly with chopsticks and fry 3–4 minutes until deep gold all over and the sesame is toasted.
Watch outHold the oil around 180°C — a dough pellet should surface in about two seconds; cooler and the twists drink oil and go greasy, hotter and they brown before the core cooks.
- 81 min
Lift the twists out and drain on a wire rack for 1–2 minutes. For the guaiwei version: while still hot, immediately toss with a spice mix of ground Sichuan peppercorn, chili powder, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt until evenly coated; the hot porous surface will lock the powder in place as it cools.
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