Fried Glutinous Rice Cake (Yougao)

Oil cake is a traditional Shanxi pastry: millet flour is steamed into a dough that is shaped around a red-date paste or sweet bean filling, pressed into an oval and fried golden in oil—the skin crisps and turns fragrant while the interior stays chewy and sweet.

Oil cakes have a long history in Shanxi; the word 'gao' (cake) sounds like 'high/rising,' making them indispensable at New Year, birthday banquets and weddings as a carrier of the people's wishes for rising fortune.

Best eaten hot when the skin is crispest and the filling warmest; for festivals like Spring New Year, Taiyuan households make them at home—an integral part of Shanxi's holiday food customs.

Defined by the millet-flour shell fried crisp outside and chewy within, the red-date filling and its auspicious symbolism—a hallmark of Shanxi's festival food culture.