BEIJING, March 19 (Xinhua) -- During the just-concluded Chinese New Year, people immersed themselves in the festive atmosphere by enjoying traditional food and local snacks in Lianzi Town, Junan County of Linyi City in east China's Shandong Province.
One of the most well-known traditional snacks in the town is fried dough stick, also known as "fried fruit", which is usually made with glutinous rice flour, and sometimes with sorghum flour or millet flour.
The flour is mixed with water and steamed before being made into smooth dough and rolled out into thin pieces. Then local people shaped them into various shapes such as leaves, phoenixes, butterflies, money pots, lotus flowers, and wheat ears, to express their good wishes for a new year.
A lady is putting dough pieces on a board to dry them under sunshine.
The shaped dough pieces are then dried until they are firm, and then they are ready to be deep-fried with high-temperature oil. The "fried fruit" is in golden color and tastes crispy and sweet.
Lots of pink "fried fruit" are shown in the picture.
The cooking of "fried fruit" has been developed with time. Now people add different fruit and vegetable juice to the flour and make them into various new shapes, bringing more vivid and colorful products to local market.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)
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