Thumbs up to traditional deep fried dough sticks
2010-07-21



Dough sticks normally come in pairs to represent the evil Qin Hui and his wife being fried and eaten by people for causing the death of national hero Yue Fei. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily

Implications of dough sticks

880 years ago, the famous hero of China, Yue Fei was framed by the evil minister Qin Hui and was sentenced to death. Since then, the people of China began to hate Qin and eat the fried dough sticks as if they were the embodiment of Qin Hui.

Deep fried dough sticks normally come in pairs to represent Qin and his wife.

This story shows that deep fried dough sticks have been in existence in China for at least 880 years.

Deep fried dough sticks have become one of the favourite snacks among the Chinese and can be seen wherever Chinese people are.

There are many ways of enjoying deep fried dough sticks. The Chinese like to dip them into soy milk or almond tea for breakfast as they are cheap and tasty. Besides, they can also be dipped into porridge, bakuteh or coffee and the crispy dough sticks will be softened after absorbing the water from the porridge, bakuteh or coffee.

The third generation owner of Zhou’s deep fried dough stick, Zhou Zi Yi told Sin Chew Daily some of his customers prefered to dip the snack into curry noodle or Hokkien mee. While the snack is enjoyable, we should also watch out for the high cholesterol and fat levels in it.


Some of the dough has fermented and expanded while some is taking a longer time to do so. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily


The dough can be stretched for proper control of fermentation. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily

The best dough sticks around

Zhou’s deep fried dough sticks are popular among the customers for their crispy texture.

Zhou said a good dough stick must be crispy but not too hard. it also shouldn't become too soft after being left in the air for a long time.


The long dough is cut into smaller rectangular pieces, and then two pieces of the dough will be stuck together before going into the frying pan. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily

Secret recipe

Zhou pointed out that dough sticks must be fried thoroughly in order to get rid of the water inside the dough.

Temperature control has to be right and the fermentation of flour has to be properly controlled within 15 minutes to one hour in order for it to expand more in the oil. This kind of dough stick would have a lot of air bubbles, making the crust thinner and the texture crispier.

Zhou added that there were different types, qualities and functions of flour. The fine flour used to make dough sticks must have gluten in it to make the dough ferment and expand.

The older generation liked to use self-made yeast to promote the fermentation of flour and such yeast could last for about a week. However, it did not meet hygienic requirements and had therefore been banned by health ministry since 1970’s. Only ammonia is allowed to be used to promote fermentation as it would not affect human health.

According to Zhou, there were many people out there who knew how to make deep fried dough sticks, but not many of them could use the same method as him.

He was using his own hands to stretch the dough instead of a glass jar or wooden stick.

Zhou said this was done to control the extent of fermentation, based on the secret recipe handed down to him by his ancestors.

He said many Chinese people from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were amazed by the deep fried dough sticks in Malaysia and had asked for the recipe but were declined.

He insisted that only the traditional ways of making deep fried dough sticks were the best and would therefore not bother to improve on the techniques. (Translated by LIM LIY EE/Sin Chew Daily)


Placing the dough into a frying pan. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily


The dough is slowly turning into a beautiful golden colour inside the frying pan. Photo courtesy: Sin Chew Daily