Gezhihe

Gezhihe is a famous old Beijing snack and this deep-fried crispy flour snack was a favorable dessert for lunar Chinese New Year in old days. “Gezhi” is a mimetic word. Put this snack into the mouth and have a gentle bite, you will hear the sound “Gezhi”, so people name it according to the sound.
As a traditional Beijing snack, Gezhihe is favored by people of different age. The ingredients of this snack is various including wheat, rice, bean, corn, grain and so on. Grind ingredients into powder, add water to mix them into flour, bake the flour into thin pancakes, season pancakes with pepper and salt, finally, cut them into appropriate size and deep-fry them until golden.
It is said that Gezhihe at the beginning was a kind of snack at wharf. During the construction of the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou, there were plenty of workers coming from Shangdong Province. They brought their local snack, Shandong pancake, as working lunch. However, because of humid weather, pancakes which were supposed to be crispy became soft. Creative people tried to cut pancakes into small size and fried them in boiling oil, making the food taste crispy again and can be preserved for longer time. Later, this new snack received a great popularity among wharf workers.
As a local snack, Beijingers has created various ways of eating it. In the past, especially in Tongzhou district of Beijing, making good Gezhihe was a criteria of choosing a fine wife.