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Chinese Name: 麻花
English Name: Mahua
Category: Snack小吃
Main Ingredients: Flour
Mahua麻花 is a special fried noodle snack in China. It is said that Chai Wenjin柴文进, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty东汉, invented Mahua. It is mainly produced in Xianyang, Shanxi, Jishan, Chongyang, Tianjin, and Hunan. Among them, Tianjin is famous for producing big hemp flowers, Jishan in Shanxi is famous for its salty and fragrant crisps, Suzhou and Hangzhou are famous for their original craftsmanship, Chongyang in Hubei is famous for small hemp flowers, and Tianjin is famous for big hemp flowers.
In addition, Tianjin 18th Street Mahua, Henan Ruyang County Mahua, Jiangsu Lotus Root Powder Mahua, Henan Ningping Mahua, and Hunan Xinhua Zhaoshi Mahua have their own characteristics. The method is to twist two or three strands of noodles together and fry them.
In northern China, it is an ancient custom to eat twisted flowers at the beginning of summer.
It is said that a long time ago, scorpions were rampant in the camp area. In order to curse, on February 2 of the lunar calendar every year, every family pulls the noodles into strips, twists them into scorpion tails, and eats them after frying, which is called “biting scorpion tails咬蝎尾”. Over time, this “scorpion tail蝎尾” became today’s twist.
The twist is one of the fried foods, which is shaped like a hinge, so it is also called “hinge rod铰链棒”. There are sweet and salty flavors. The sweet one has the difference between the one mixed with sugar (coated with granulated sugar powder) and the one without sugar.
Mahua has been highly praised by scholars for its simple production and convenient eating. Su Dongpo苏东坡, a great writer in the Song Dynasty宋代, once wrote a poem praising hemp flowers. The poem of cold utensils寒具诗: “The slender hands are rubbed into jade for several fathoms, and the green oil is fried into tender yellow. Sleeping at night and in spring is light, and flattens the beauty’s arms and ties them with gold纤手搓成玉数寻，碧油煎出嫩黄深，夜来春睡无轻重，压扁佳人缠臂金.”
It is said that Ma Hua was originally a palace food. When it was introduced to the people, it became the shape of two strands of noodles glued together. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong乾隆 of the Qing Dynasty清朝, a businessman in Xiwei Village, Zhaidian Town brought it back to Yuncheng, his hometown, to make and sell it. Later, the merchant constantly improved his production technology, changed the two strands of twist into three strands, and then twisted them into a golden silk pattern.
When it comes to hemp, we must mention Tianjin Guifaxiang 18th Street. It is not only the holder of the earliest Guinness record in the world of twist but also has developed a series of products, which is a widely recognized flavor. Gui Faxiang’s twist flowers are often mixed with assorted fillings, which are more suitable for the taste of southerners. Compared with Daying Mahua, Tianjin Mahua is more sweet and greasy, less crisp, and relatively expensive.
Daying大营 Mahua has formed its own style because of the characteristics of ingredients and production technology, which not only conforms to the northern people’s eating habits but also its sweet series of Mahua is loved by the southern people. At the same time, the low price also makes Daying Mahua gain a broad market space. However, for a long time, Daying Mahua has been made by hand, without large-scale operation.
In thousands of years of Chinese food culture, the small hemp flower is a traditional national food loved by the Chinese people. Miao Cuihua’s small twist is a wonderful work of twist. It not only inherits the traditional techniques of twist but also injects modern science and technology into the making of twist, making this traditional Chinese food rejuvenated again.
How to make Muahua?
Ingredients：
- 1000 grams of flour
- 12 g dry yeast
- 12g baking powder
- 300 grams of white sugar
- 100 grams of oil
- 500g water
Instruction:
- Step 1, Pour the dry flour on the chopping board, add the dry yeast and baking powder, and mix well.
- Step 2, Put water and sugar into a basin and stir in one direction. After all the sugar is dissolved, put in soybean oil, stir it evenly, quickly mix it with the mixed flour in the first step, knead it three times (knead it for 10 minutes after waking up), and finally brush the oil to avoid dry skin.
- Step 3, Wait for the face to wake up, rub the same amount of small agent into long strips, then brush oil and wake up slightly to rub the pockmark.
- Step 4, First take a small agent and rub it evenly, then press one hand on one end of the surface, and rub the surface with the other hand to a certain extent. When the two ends meet, a single twist will be formed. Press one end of the ring with one hand and rub it with one hand, and finally insert the other end into the ring to form a twist.
- Step 5, Put more oil in the big pot. When the oil is 70% hot, fry the twist in the oil pot until it boils down. Turn over and continue frying. When the twist is brown and red, it is finished.
