Published 1976
Meal: Almost in Advance, Fried — Dinner: Menu
Around the corner from our first house in Taipei there was a tiny open-air restaurant, really no more than a covered shed with a few rough tables. In front of the restaurant stood a teen-aged boy who did nothing but make Oily Scallion Cakes all day long. He worked up the dough, kneaded it, sprinkled it with scallions and oil, twisted it into snail-shaped rolls, flattened them, and then fried each individual cake on a primitive iron grill. The sureness and economy of his motions marked him as a true virtuoso. The only thing better than his performance was his cakes — crisp, salty, and delicious.
Mrs.
Since Oily Scallion Cakes were originally a street food, they have no special place in a Szechwanese meal. We serve them either as the final, devastating course of a larger meal or else separately with drinks. They aren’t hard to make, and require no special Oriental ingredients. Leftover scallion cakes tend to become soggy; luckily, a few minutes in a moderate oven is all that is needed to resuscitate them.