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= 18th Street Fried Dough Twists = 18th Street Fried Dough Twist is a kind of traditional Tianjin snacks and one of the three unique delicacies of Tianjin that the other two are “Go Believe” (simplified Chinese: 狗不理; traditional Chinese: 狗不理; pinyin: gǒu bù lǐ) and “Ear-hole fried cake”（simplified Chinese: 耳朵眼炸糕; traditional Chinese: 耳朵眼炸糕; pinyin: ěr duǒ yǎn zhá gāo）. These fried dough twists are made by frying bars of dough in peanut oil and stuffed with a variety of fillings. 18th Street Fried Dough Twists are made by Guifaxiang（桂發祥）Fried Dough Twist General Shop at South Dagu Road (大沽南路) which is 200 meters away from the original 18th Street. They are prepared with well-selected ingredients containing various nutrient substances and consummate skill that the dough twists made at this shop are aromatic, sweet, crunchy and crisp. In addition, 18th Street Fried Dough Twists will not become soft over a long period of time.

History
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was an alley called Eighth Street on the west of Municipality of Tianjin and the south of bustling Xiaobailou (小白樓）. A man, Liu laoba, opened a small twist shop named “Guifaxiang” in this alley. This person had a unique technique of fried dough and his twists were made from fresh foodstuff, such as selection of fine white flour and edible vegetable oil. This shop was always full of customers and did a booming business, so it had a tendency to grow and Liu laoba were even capable to establish a store-front.

At first, the guests just flooded in, but over time, more and more people were tired of eating twists, and the business gradually was not as good as before. Later, a shopkeeper played out and got hungry when he came back. He wanted to eat snacks, however, only some residue left. Because there was nothing else to eat, the shopkeeper had a brainwave - making the snack residue and the dough together to be fried. The fried dough twists were not as the same as before, but they were crisp and their sweet smell greeted the nose.

According to this method, Liu laoba devoted himself to study and added assorted crisp stuffing between the white and the hemp strips (白條和麻條) of twists. As for the ingredients, he decided to add osmanthus fragrans, walnut, peanut, sesame, and rock candy. In order to make their own twists out of the ordinary, Liu had to enhance the nice mouth feel and sweet taste, delay the store time and select the finer food materials.

After experimenting many times, Liu finally created assorted stuffed dried dough twists with shiny golden look, delicious taste, and staying fresh for a long time. Henceforth, "Guifaxiang Twists" or called “18th Street Fried Dough Twists” possessed high reputation and became a China Time-honored Brand. Nowadays, the "Guifaxiang" signboard was written by a calligrapher called Zhao Banzhi (趙半知).

Cooking
The traditional methods to prepare the twists are as follows. In the day before twists fried in oil, chefs mix 500 grams of fermented flour with 3.5 kg common flour, evenly stir them with 4 liters of warm water, and wait for fermenting for the next day use.

The next day, chefs dissolve 3.5 kilograms of sugar, 135 grams of dietary alkali and 5 grams of saccharin in two liters of water. 3.5 kilograms of flour is heated up in 550~650 grams of hot oil. Then, 750 grams of cannabis are boiled in water and later kept proper humidity for twisting. Next, chefs add 3.25 kilograms of white sugar, 275 grams of osmanthus, 175 grams of ginger and 25 grams of dietary alkali with crisp flour into 1750 milliliters of cold water and slowly stir them.

The function of flour machine(和面機) is to evenly mix flour and water. Chefs put 16 kilograms of dried flour, fermented flour, sugar water, and cold water into flour machine. Then dough is taken out and chopped into thick strips and chefs put them into a machine which can press thick strips into thin strips. The following step is to pick out 35 centimeters of a thin strip which one part is smooth and another part with cannabis is rough. The fiddly step for chefs is to twist smooth strip, rough strip and crisp strip together like a rope. At this time, the pot comes in handy. Chefs pour the oil into it and fry the raw twists in the pot for 20 minutes. The last step is the icing on the cake. Chefs take out the red straight twists and add some species to season, such as crystal sugar residue.