Kai kou xiao () is a fried sesame egg cake found in Chinese cuisine. Also called "smiling sesame cookies" or "laughing balls", they are a popular dish during Lunar New Year for their resemblance to a smiling mouth.

Preparation

The traditional culinary method of this dish begins with the preparation of

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

peanut oil Peanut oil, also known as groundnut oil or arachis oil, is a vegetable oil derived from peanuts. The oil usually has a mild or neutral flavor but, if made with roasted peanuts, has a stronger peanut flavor and aroma. It is often used in American ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

malt sugar } Maltose ( or ), also known as maltobiose or malt sugar, is a disaccharide formed from two units of glucose joined with an α(1→4) bond. In the isomer isomaltose, the two glucose molecules are joined with an α(1→6) bond. Maltose is the two- ...

, sesame seeds and baking soda. With the exception of the sesame seeds, everything else is mixed together, and the resulting dough is cut into pieces. The sesame seeds are boiled in water and each small piece of dough is rolled in the sesame seeds. The end result is then fried on a

skillet A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab ha ...

. The chef must lift the frying pan off the stove and put it back on depending on the situation. The resulting opening crack is where the literal name in Chinese comes from, as it resembles a happy smiling mouth.

References

Beijing cuisine Chinese desserts {{China-cuisine-stub