By Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
Staying at home all day has many of us reaching for quick treats to tide us over. Some of the Chinese students at Mount Holyoke shared how these snacks might look for them.
Many of these snacks seem to be on the sweeter side. Yonglin Huang ’24 said that her favorite snack is a walnut shortcake. According to Huang, “It is a Chinese traditional snack made of walnuts, lard and flour. It tastes like walnut cookies but is much more crispy than normal cookies.” China Sichuan Food, a food blog dedicated to sharing “traditional authentic Chinese food,” shared that the walnut shortcake (or cookie) is a popular dessert for both kids and adults in the country.
Pictured above: Walnut Shortcake
Lisa Sun ’24 also shared a favorite quarantine snack: pineapple cake. “It has pineapple filling and a cookie-ish shell. It is originally from the south part of China,” Sun said.
Yuxi Zhu ’22, however, tends to like savoury snacks which are on the spicier side. She described one such snack - broad beans. “They are salted, crispy and have an umami flavour. They are my favorite because most of the Chinese snacks are sweet, such as cookies and chocolate, and the salty flavor makes them stand out.”
“I also love Latiao which stands out because it combines the spicy and sweet flavours, and is chewy”. Latiao are spicy sticks made of gluten, according to the Global Times, an English language Chinese newspaper. Zhu went on to explain: “Since I am at home in quarantine, I can drink lots of water if they are too spicy for me.”
