Fried Pastry Pocket (Youhujiao)

Fried Pastry Pocket (Youhujiao)

　　Fried Pastry Pocket, created during the Tang Dynasty. Legend has it that a general went off to battle while his wife was pregnant. When he returned victorious, his wife used the local glutinous millet flour to make fried pastry pockets as a treat for her husband. The general loved them so much that on the very same day, his wife gave birth to a boy and a girl. Overjoyed, the general ordered the army cooks to prepare Fried Pastry Pockets to celebrate with his troops. Interestingly, the pockets were stuffed with either red bean paste or carrot paste — red bean signifying the birth of a boy, and carrot symbolizing the birth of a girl.

　　 Since then, people have made Fried Pastry Pockets as a symbol of good fortune for the birth of children in honor of this general.