The Most Iconic Chinese New Year Dishes No One Skips During the Holidays

The Spring Festival is China's grandest holiday, yet it's also a time of joy mixed with slight distress—because the saying "gaining three pounds during the Spring Festival" is often no joke, as feasting leads to expanding waistlines and weight.

The New Year's Eve dinner table is never without an array of fried treats.

Across both northern and southern China, firing up the oil pot is a highlight of holiday food prep. Long before the new year begins, people start preparing. Ordinary ingredients transform into exquisitely shaped, auspiciously symbolic delicacies through the baptism of oil and fire: Henan's honey tri-cut cakes, crispy flower pastries, and kousu; Shandong's fried dough fish and zhazha; Gansu's fried oil cakes, youguozi, and sugar blossoms; Guangdong's fried oil horns, jian dui, and sugar rings; Fujian's fried dates, vegetable cakes, and taro fritters...

A staggering variety of fried goods are cooked before the new year officially starts. For the next half-month, they serve as tea-table snacks for guests, "luxury edition" holiday staples, essential offerings for ancestral worship and gift-giving, and the most portable taste of home for travelers.

Spring Festival fried foods blend deliciousness with artistry.

These sizzling treats explosively kickstart the Chinese new year.

Despite today's material abundance, fried carbs remain an indispensable culinary hallmark of the season.

The tradition traces back to ancient times when oil extraction was laborious—compared to everyday stir-frying, deep-frying carried an air of extravagance befitting celebrations. The process itself demands scale: too little wastes oil, too much causes fatigue, making family gatherings and ritual occasions the perfect time for this culinary spectacle.

The annual oil-pot ritual is typically a family affair.

Seizing this once-a-year creative opportunity, dough gets sculpted into intricate shapes that solidify in bubbling oil, becoming the holiday's ultimate mood-setter.

Oil-frying usually precedes New Year's Eve, with regional variations on timing. Northern households particularly showcase flour-based creations during this edible extravaganza.

The searing oil carries people's hopeful aspirations for the coming year.

Henan: "Oil-bathing" on the 29th, for prosperity

As China's grain powerhouse producing 130+ billion jin in 2023, Henan natives approach holiday cooking with innate flour mastery. The 29th's "oil bath" is every Henan mother's culinary Olympics.

On the last pre-holiday day, taboos forbid children near the sacred oil wok where mothers work magic. Egg-enriched dough ensures crisp-yet-tender results: twisted mahua, basic youguo, or elaborate jiao hua gan with sesame lacework.

Mahua, the superstar fried twist beloved nationwide.

Beyond staples, sugar dough gets special treatment—honey tri-cuts (triple-scored, syrup-glazed) symbolize sweetness, while spherical kousu (dust-coated) represents family unity with their crisp, non-greasy bite.

Honey tri-cuts: irresistibly addictive "sugar-oil bombs."

Northeast: "Dough on the 28th, oil-walking on the 29th"

Mirroring Henan's timing, the northeast calls its fry-fest "oil-walking."

"Zou You" also focuses on fried dough, but the oil is replaced with locally produced soybean oil, and some corn mixed-grain flour is added to balance nutrition and health. Northeastern fried dough features simple and elegant designs, such as diamond-shaped dough pieces with a small slit in the middle—flipped over, it becomes a loop; stacking two pieces and flipping them together creates a double loop.

"Generosity and openness" are reflected in every aspect of life in the Northeast.

Besides dry fried dough, "Zou You" highlights fried glutinous rice cakes with fillings and homemade fried sweet potato balls. Fried glutinous rice cakes symbolize rising success, while sweet potato balls represent reunion and completeness. Beyond these staples, other fried items depend on family preferences, such as fried pumpkin cakes made with pumpkin puree or savory or sweet fried oil balls... Once fried, they are stored in large Northeastern-style basins, lasting well past the Lantern Festival.

Freshly fried glutinous rice cakes are warm, sweet, and fragrant.

Gansu: On the 28th day, knead the dough, make cakes, steam buns, and decorate with paper cuttings.

When New Year's fried carbs meet the Northwest, Gansu—where oil cakes are a year-round hospitality staple—takes the lead.

Whether it's dough crafting or frying skills, Gansu people excel. First, they fry indispensable oil cakes for hosting and gifting—plain dough cakes slit twice before frying, emerging golden and slightly puffed. They serve as meal staples or tea-time snacks enjoyed around a heated kang with "Guanguan tea."

Oil cakes are a must-have gift for visiting relatives and friends in Gansu.

Next are the diverse fried dough twists. In times of scarcity, New Year enthusiasm was channeled into craftsmanship—even one piece of dough could yield multiple designs. The most unique is "Tang Huahua" (sugar flowers), typically in twisted or floral shapes, equally intricate and beautiful.

Making Tang Huahua requires both leavened and sugar dough. The sugar dough is sandwiched between two layers of leavened dough, cut into pieces, hand-rolled into flowers, and fried to set. For extra flair, brown sugar dough creates more vibrant results. Crispy outside and soft inside, these treats are worth the effort only during the New Year.

The beautifully shaped Tang Huahua is a highlight of Gansu's New Year table.

Xinjiang: Sanzi, Youxiang, and Baursak

Xinjiang's diverse culinary culture, influenced by ethnic traditions, transforms fried carbs into entirely new forms.

Take sanzi, widely found across China. Xinjiang sanzi is made with peppercorn water, onion water, eggs, and dough, fried until crispy and golden. Skilled Uyghur mothers use just chopsticks to create evenly sized sanzi, neatly coiled on large platters. The more festive the occasion, the taller the sanzi stacks, testing the maker's skill.

In Bayingolin, Xinjiang, people celebrate festivals by

specially crafting "rainbow sanzi."

Hui-style Youxiang and Kazakh Baursak are also Lunar New Year staples in Xinjiang. Resembling oil cakes, Youxiang carries a unique aroma from cumin and peppercorn powder, while added shortening enhances its richness. Baursak, a sweet fried staple in Kazakh breakfasts, resembles fried dough twists but includes butter and honey for a distinct flavor.

Bite-sized Baursak is also a perfect tea-time snack.

Beyond these, there are Shandong's fried dough fish, Zhahu, and Fanye; Beijing's glutinous rice sticks, sugar ears, and fried Gezha boxes; and Shaanxi's rice squares—regional fried specialties. In the North, visiting relatives always involves bringing a bag of fried dough, and those who truly care will remind you: "Don’t leave without some fried dough!"

Which Northern child’s childhood...

In southern China, the variety of fried carbohydrates during Spring Festival is also quite abundant.

How important are fried foods during the Spring Festival in the south?

Simply put, it’s the unique phenomenon that makes people in Guangdong and Guangxi, who usually avoid fried foods for being "heaty" (causing internal heat), suddenly say, "Golden sesame balls rolling, wealth filling the house." In the south, the charm of fried carbs during the Spring Festival lies not only in their deliciousness but also in the endless auspicious sayings and blessings. Every fried dish on the New Year’s table carries its own festive mission of bringing good luck.

Lingnan: Golden sesame balls rolling, wealth filling the house.

In Guangdong, sesame balls are widely used for celebration and blessings.

Sugar rings made with molds have a more uniform shape.

Making puffed rice candy requires great patience.

Southern Fujian: A paradise for fried foods.

Fujian people have always had a deep love for taro.

With the addition of vegetables, fried foods become "refreshing."

Jiangnan: It’s just not the New Year without frying something.

Because spring roll wrappers are thin, frying requires special attention to heat.

Street-side sesame-coated sugar-oil dumplings are the embodiment of "New Year flavor."

Fried carbohydrates carry the nostalgic taste of home.

Golden-brown fried foods add a bright touch to winter.