Shuangbaotai () is a sweet
fried dough food of
Hokchew origin commonly found as a
Taiwanese street food. It is a chewy fried dough containing large air pockets on the inside and a crisp crust on the outside. It is made by twisting two small pieces of dough together and frying them, causing them to separate slightly while remaining connected.
Names
The
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
name of this food, ''shuāngbāotāi'' () meaning "
twins
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...
", is derived from the fact that the dish is two pastries twisted slightly together as if
conjoined twins
Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined '' in utero''. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 50,000 births to one in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in south ...
. The
Taiwanese Hokkien
Taiwanese Hokkien ( , ), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taigi ( zh, c=臺語, tl=Tâi-gí), Taiwanese Southern Min ( zh, c=臺灣閩南語, tl=Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively ...
name is 馬花糋 (''bé-hoe-chìⁿ''), which roughly means "
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
-
hoof
The hoof (: hooves) is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, which is covered and strengthened with a thick and horny keratin covering. Artiodactyls are even-toed ungulates, species whose feet have an even number of digits; the ruminants with ...
cake", also in reference to its shape. Another Hokkien name is 雙生仔 (''siang-siⁿ-á'') meaning twins.
Regional
In
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, shuangbaotai are a type of snack (''
xiaochi
''Xiaochi'' () is an important category of Chinese street food, commonly found in Chinese populated communities around the world. ''Xiaochi'' are substantial snacks, which can be eaten together or with more substantial dishes like the Spanish t ...
'') typically sold by
hawkers at street stalls or in
night markets
Night markets or night bazaars ( zh, 夜市) are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. The culture of night markets originates from C ...
, but not in regular restaurants or bakeries.
File:Taiwanesefriedfood1.jpg, Shuangbaotai sold as ''xiaochi
''Xiaochi'' () is an important category of Chinese street food, commonly found in Chinese populated communities around the world. ''Xiaochi'' are substantial snacks, which can be eaten together or with more substantial dishes like the Spanish t ...
'' street food
See also
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Taiwanese cuisine
Taiwanese cuisine ( or ) is a popular style of food with several variations, including Chinese cuisine, Chinese and that of Taiwanese indigenous peoples, with the earliest cuisines known of being the indigenous ones. With over a hundred years of ...
*
Fuzhou cuisine
*
Fujian cuisine
Fujian cuisine or Fujianese cuisine, also known as Min cuisine, is one of the native Chinese cuisines derived from the cooking style of China's Fujian Province, most notably from the provincial capital, Fuzhou. "Fujian cuisine" in this articl ...
*
List of desserts
A dessert is typically the sweet Course (food), course that, after the entrée and main course, concludes a meal in the culture of many countries, particularly western world, Western culture. The course usually consists of sweet foods, but may ...
*
List of doughnut varieties
Doughnuts are a type of List of fried dough foods, fried dough food. The following is a list of doughnut and fried dough pastry varieties.
Variations and specialties by region
The terms below constitute either names for different doughnut type ...
*
List of fried dough varieties
This is a list of fried dough foods. Many cultures have dishes that are prepared by deep frying dough in many various forms. Doughnuts are a type of fried dough food that are covered separately in the Wikipedia article List of doughnut varieties.
...
*
Other Chinese fried dough dishes
*
Ham chim peng
*
Ox-tongue pastry
Ox-tongue pastry () or horse-ear pastry (), is a Chinese pastry that is popular in south China in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. It is a fried dough food that is elliptical in shape and resembles an ox tongue or a horse ear. The pastry ...
*
Youtiao
''Youtiao'' (), known in Southern China as yu char kway, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of wheat flour dough of Chinese cuisine, Chinese origin and (by a variety of other names) also popular in other East Asia, East and Southeast Asia ...
References
External links
YTower— A famous maker of shuangbaotai
Shuangbaotai at
Chiayi
Chiayi (,), officially known as Chiayi City, is a Provincial city (Taiwan), city located in Chianan Plain in Regions of Taiwan, southwestern Taiwan, surrounded by Chiayi County with a population of 263,188 inhabitants as of January 2023.
The H ...
Tourism Bureau website — includes photos of shuangabotai
Singaporean cuisine
Taiwanese cuisine
Doughnuts
Taiwanese breads
Street food in Taiwan
{{Taiwan-cuisine-stub