Tasting Tianjin with its signature foods

[Photo/VCG]

4. Erduoyan fried rice cake

Zhagao, or fried rice cake, is glutinous rice dough made into dumplings filled with sweet bean paste. It is then deep-fried until the skin is crisp but the insides remain cottony soft.

Erduoyan fried cake is the most popular. It was first made on a little handcart but eventually developed into one of the most famous foods in Tianjin.

The street snack was first consumed during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when Liu Wanchun pushed a wheelbarrow and peddled the food from street to street. He later rented a room in the Erduoyan hutong, a narrow alley. It's thus widely known as the Erduoyan fried cake.