Sesame Cake

Sesame Cake

　　Sesame Cake, which also has the vivid nickname “straw sandal sole.” In the late 1960s, several educated youths from Xi'an were strolling one day along Xinji Riverside Street when they spotted a stall selling cakes. Curious, they bought a few pieces, tried them, and found them very tasty, so they purchased a whole shoulder bag full to take back to their village. Due to poor storage at night, one of the cakes was dragged outside by a mouse. The cake happened to end up lying next to an old farmer’s pair of straw sandals, where it was noticed by one of the youths. He then compared the cake to the sandals. Poetically exclaiming to the others, “Straw sandal sole. So that’s what we’ve been eating!” From then on, “straw sandal sole” replaced the original name of the cake, and the term spread all over the streets and alleys of Xinji.

　　The way this sesame cake is made is by adding an appropriate amount of water to wheat flour, slowly stirring it into a soft dough, allowing it to ferment until the dough forms a honeycomb-like texture. Then, a piece of the dough is cut off, mixed with dry flour, and kneaded into a ball. The ball is flattened with the palm of the hand into a thin oval shape, resembling a shoe sole. Next, some sesame seeds soaked in cooking oil are applied to the surface of the dough. Finally, it is placed in a pan (now mostly baked in an oven) and heated until cooked through.